It is difficult to judge whether the source of the information was genuine or malicious and whether the restaurant acted timely and wisely. We do not have the necessary information to judge it, but surely time or COPRED will reveal it.
The media outcry caused by a tweet condemning alleged discriminatory acts at the Sonora Grill, apparently generated by former employees of the place through @TerrorRestaurantsMX, an account dedicated to evidencing abuses against establishment personnel, demonstrates the power of the social network . Those affected assure that it is a “black campaign”, which was stimulated and did not necessarily evolve organically.
Regardless of the conclusions reached, there is undoubtedly something that brands should pay attention to, consumer activism and their power to express themselves. This case shows two ingredients that caused its spread: first, a subject as sensitive as discrimination and all those diners who have felt offended by mistreatment in a restaurant.
We know that Twitter is a network with unique characteristics and, unlike other platforms, it allows consumers and brands to expand. But we must not forget that it is a minefield, where a crisis can break out at the least expected moment.
That’s where trolls live and live, someone who deliberately starts an argument by making offensive, inflammatory or upsetting comments to encourage strong emotions in others or to divert the conversation from a topic. Trolling can have devastating consequences.
Twitter has also been associated with fake profiles and fake news. Both could easily be used to scam or take advantage of users. Twitter was where the use of hashtags originated, which works just as well for authentic purposes as for improper actions. On the other hand, any social media platform is a place where cyberbullying and harassment can happen.
Boycott movements are often one of the most effective anti-consumerist tactics used against companies that engage in unethical or unwarranted practices. There are issues such as human rights and discrimination, which are the main cause of boycotts. Other common ones are business decisions and corporate failures, with commercial brands being the most common victims among consumers. These actions are usually motivated by instrumented impulses, although uninstrumented impulses show greater emotional intensity.
Want to get noticed on Twitter? You have a better chance of succeeding if you say something angry or insulting. This is the conclusion of a recent study by DePaul University, which analyzed the impact of tweets from various political tendencies. They found that for both right-wing and left-wing media, “negative news spreads more through Twitter than positive news.”
Negative news garnered more attention despite the fact that, in what may come as a surprise to many, social media content generally leans towards the positive, while news organizations tend to tweet more negative news and that is more widely shared, the researchers found.
For what is this? One possibility is “that negative information captures attention and motivates behavior to a greater extent than positive information.” This latest evidence of humanity’s bias toward the negative comes at a time when society is polarized.
New research suggests that responding publicly to customer complaints can have a significant negative effect, specifically when companies did so openly. The researchers found that these companies experienced a drop in their share price and a loss in their image. That’s because engaging with these dissatisfied customers actually draws more attention to their complaints, turning brands’ social media pages into an area of negativity that drowns out their own (more positive) content.
It is clear that public engagement with dissatisfied customers is not always the right move. Of course, it is not about ignoring complaints, the most successful companies in the sample generally responded with a public message inviting the customer to continue the conversation using a private channel, that is, a closed response strategy, in contrast to a closed response strategy. open that floods the page of a company with long exchanges with each complainant.
Overall, the results suggest that the widely accepted practice of providing timely and detailed public responses may have some adverse repercussions, particularly on social media platforms where content rating algorithms are likely to promote complaints more strongly if brands respond to them. Customers love to air their grievances on social media, but engagement on these platforms can end up over-amplifying these voices, encouraging other disgruntled customers to weigh in, lowering the value of the brand in the eyes of customers and investors.
Social networks are a hot plate, where depending on the recipe that is applied, your product can end up fried or a term to taste.