Worry about your online reputation management: Example BP on Twitter
Posted by Michael Hartzell on Wed, Jun 09, 2010
This is not about restaurant marketing and yet in every way it applies. GuestPulse is a system to help a restaurant owner or manager keep tabs of their online reputation with a few clicks of a button vs. deep search. I have used it for about 4 days now and I am sold. (Though I am currently in the free trial stage)
Take a look at a recent example of how social media is impacting a business. There are two screen captures above. The Twitter account with fewer followers is the official BP verified account. Then why is there over 145,000 followers of the BPGlobalPR and only 12,907 followers for the official BP Twitter account.
How long would it take you to know if I become a raving fan or a mean groupie online? In the old days, there would be prank phone calls and bad junk mail you could send to a business for those who wanted to act out their anger. Now the freedom of expression makes everyone a publisher.
The official BP twitter account has twice the number of tweets vs. the other fake account. How do you combat the bad PR?
I will continue my adventure as a "biggest fan" of Salty's Seafood Restaurant in Redondo Beach. No need to guard the reputation because of my activities but I hope you look around and wonder:
- What happens when an ex employee gets angry? How will you know if they are spreading dirt via the social media?
- How is the competition using the social media and opinion websites to make themselves look better than you?
- How do you know who to reach out to and make an invitation to return?
Imagine the name of your restaurant in place of BP on the Twitter account above. What would you do?
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