Start A Content Conversation

We all have a lot to say. Between sales pitches and proposals and PowerPoint presentations, we’re kind of up to our eyeballs in information. But is information content? If so, what information?  

If content is king, how do you ensure he doesn’t get dethroned? The answer is to have a conversation.

BE APPROPRIATE

That doesn’t mean don’t post questionable photos on your website. (Don’t do that, though). Being appropriate means having something to say that reflects the venue in which you’re saying it. Your corporate website and a product-specific Facebook page that has a college-aged audience will have different things to say. Neither are mutually exclusive. But you likely have a different way of speaking when you’re talking to your best friend versus a corporate CEO. The content, or conversation you’re having needs to focus primarily on the audience with which you’re having it. Like any good conversation, it should be a two-way street. I’m not talking about a live chat feature. I’m talking about solid research. How your customers reach out to you tells you a lot about the conversation they’re looking to have. Traditional websites, product-specific sites, individual social media interactions, trade show interactions and even Skype chats, each attracts a unique audience that will respond to you if you are appropriate.

RELEVANT WEBSITE CONTENT

One of the primary drivers of Google’s search algorithm comes from relevant content. Google, they’re pretty smart. Not long ago you used to be able to type a bunch of keywords onto the bottom of your web page and jump to the top of Google’s search. Actual content that relates to the subject of the page, the industry associated with the site, etc., is one of the things that drives search results. More is not always better. Doing extensive research about search terms and analytics data will give you a good start in providing content that corresponds to the most relevant search terms for your site. If you tailor your content to what your audience is actually looking for, you will notice a dramatic difference in your search rankings.    

KNOW YOUR STUFF, BUT DON’T BE A KNOW-IT-ALL

Content is a conversation. It’s not a lecture. There’s a fine line between the two. Your job and the job of your business is to be the expert in your field. As such, you’re expected to know a bunch of stuff. But information is like having your in-laws come to visit. A little goes a long way. Keep in mind that what most of your customers want to know is that you know. They don’t need the complete recipe to your secret sauce. They just need to know that you know how to make it. 

BE BRIEF

A good deal of your ongoing conversations with your customers will be via social media. Social media is a drop in sort of place. It’s the virtual water cooler. Your interaction should be short, sweet and to the point. You don’t need to write the entire novel, just a short chapter. When you’re writing short content, be specific. Don’t necessarily talk about all your new products, just one at a time. Or maybe a single feature of a product. 

DON’T WASTE THEIR TIME

Your audience bores easily. Quick bursts of information that grabs their attention and allows them to get on with their lives will leave them wanting more. Respect the short attention span. You can’t win against it. Don’t even try.

BE BRAND CONSISTENT

Above all else, have a plan. Don’t sacrifice your overall brand strategy for a specific venue, but be flexible enough to remain appropriate. That takes a little effort. You may need to experiment a bit. 

There is no single way to generate awesome content. Your conversation is and should be different than your competition. What is consistent across the board is that you are having a conversation. You’re building a relationship. That’s the secret to creating killer content. Your voice should be unique. That’s what sets you apart. So now it’s time to start a conversation.

The Taylor Swift School of Marketing

We can learn a lot from young Taylor Swift. Love her music or can’t wait for her fifteen minutes to expire, she is one savvy marketer. Swift maintains control over her entire musical and public life. Her recent spat with Spotify proved that she has serious muscle when it comes to the music industry. No artist can exist in a vacuum, though. Her fans (called “Swifties”), are among the most rabid out there. So how does she do it, and what lessons can we learn from her brilliant strategies?

YOUR CUSTOMER IS EVERYTHING 

Taylor Swift regularly trolls her fan pages to get a sense of what her audience is talking about. I can only imagine how time-consuming this practice is, but she does it. Personally. She often comments directly to fans, which serves to make her more human and approachable. Taylor Swift uses social media in the way it was meant to be used. It’s a unique forum in which to engage directly with your customer base. Her interactions are not overtly directed at selling more albums. She is genuine in these engagements. Her brand is the girl next door, every girl’s best friend, every boy’s dream. She’s the cheerleader who hangs out with the goth kids.

When you’re putting together your brand, whether you’re a celebrity or a local shop, break down your identity to its essence. A lot of the basics can be developed by acting like you’re in high school. Although your customer base may be long past their senior year, there are lasting societal breakdowns that begin and are most evident in high school. Does your brand appeal to the brains, the jocks, the geeks, the freaks, the princesses? This is a great way to begin thinking about your customer—think about The Breakfast Club.

But unless you’re selling a high school product, don’t make this your final analysis. Your customer is complex. Savor their layers. Engage with them. Find out what else they do. What else do they like? All media is social media. When you engage with your audience, you develop a relationship. That has tremendous value.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO CHANGE THINGS UP 

Taylor Swift, the country music darling, make the cross-over to pop with her latest album. Some would argue that her version of country was already pop, but the media had a field day with her potential for failure. Swift proved everyone wrong and that infernal “Shake It Off” is now perpetually engrained in our gray matter. (I know you’re singing it right now).

Your business is fluid. What worked today will not work tomorrow. Sometimes paradigm shifts are caused by technology. Sometimes competition. Whatever the reason, you need to be ready to change. Taylor Swift’s transition was probably just a step to the left. But the ripples it’s caused have made it seem monumental. Give yourself the freedom to adjust. Change is good. It’s essential. Otherwise you get left behind. Sometimes change involves something minor. Other times, it’s a major brand shift. Look at McDonald’s. The mega-giant tried-and-true ubiquitous brand is being rebranded. Competition has led them to make changes. Will it save their business? Remains to be seen. Will the changes you make save your business? If you’re smart, do your research, talk with your customers, look at your competition, then you’ll at least be making an educated change.

BE GENEROUS 

The now-legendary Taylor Swift gift barrage that’s been lighting up social media is a cardinal example of how giving away can build your brand. From paying off student loans to hand-delivering Christmas presents to her fans, Swift is doing double duty. She’s connecting with her fans in a deeply personal way, and she’s doing it publicly.

True altruism is anonymous. When a business donates or does good work, their reward is prestige. It’s the reason most businesses engage in charity. Donating time, money, resources, it all has a public impact. The fact that Taylor Swift recorded each of these donations was simply a wise business decision. Give things away in unique and public ways. If your staff is donating an afternoon to a Habitat for Humanity build, have someone record the event and post it on your social media. If you’re donating product to a shelter or a Boys & Girls Club, make sure you have your logo clearly visible. Generosity by a business is often considered newsworthy by local media. TV, radio, newspaper, they eat this kind of stuff up. Making your donation or gift a public event allows your business to obtain a bundle of free publicity. The cost of the donated goods, your staff’s time, all of it is well worth the sacrifice if you go public with it.

DON’T SHY AWAY FROM THE BAD STUFF Taylor Swift has a propensity for having bad relationships. What 24-year-old doesn’t? The difference with Swift is that her relationships are very public. Her breakups top the entertainment news. Swift, of course, has had the last laugh by owning the charts and download sales of her song, “Shake It Off”, which is all about not worrying about what everyone thinks. She owns her mistakes, and the public has forgiven her for any perceived wrong.

Bad stuff happens. Brushing it under the rug or trying to put some sort of spin on it just makes your business look shady. Own your mistakes. You’re human. Your business is run by humans. We are a fallible bunch. People get that. They respond to humility. You don’t have to drag out your dirty laundry for every interaction, but be honest and solve the problem. The kind of double-speak in which many corporations engage just makes their customers frustrated. Own it. Your mistakes belong to you, and they’re how you grow.

HOLD ONTO WHAT’S IMPORTANT 

Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? When you look at Taylor Swift, you probably don’t think CEO. Sexist or not, our first impression of her is likely dismissive. Taylor Swift’s net worth is estimated at $200 million. When you compare that Michael Jackson, ($350 million) and Paul McCartney ($800 million), that’s not too shabby for a kid. The big difference between Swift and other artists is that she owns herself. She recognizes that her public persona is a commodity with tremendous value. Taylor Swift is the CEO of Taylor Swift.

As a business owner, you will face tough financial times. No matter what market you’re in, there are ups and downs. You may be tempted (or required) to bring on investors or outside financing. Remember what’s important. Don’t give away the store. Investors are savvy and will very clearly recognize what’s of most value in your company. That’s what they want. It may not be your product. It may be your process. George Lucas famously took a decrease in pay and “points” on Star Wars in exchange for merchandising rights. As anyone who was a kid in the late ‘70s on up will tell you, Star Wars merchandise is king. You may be required to make tough decisions about the future of your company. Hold onto what’s valuable. You’ll be grateful.

Don’t dismiss Taylor Swift as some bubble-headed pop star. We can all learn a few lessons from her. And since the haters gonna’ hate, hate, hate, it wouldn’t hurt to shake it off.

What An Online Form Tells Your Customers

We've all seen them. The ubiquitous online contact form. On the surface, these forms seem to be a convenient way to collect and distribute initial contact data. If you've had a website with a contact feature for any length of time, you likely have one of these types of forms on your site.

From a website owner's perspective, these things are great. Deployed properly, they can help reduce spam email and triage client contact. Gathering a few important details (name, email, phone, etc.), can better prepare your team to speak with these new potential clients.

But from a customer's perspective, the view is different. Online forms can be seen as an impersonal form of contact. They get in the way. When a customer has a question or wants to contact you about the services you provide, the online form tells them the following:

1. You're too busy to talk to them. 
An online form that collects data becomes a black hole where a customer inputs their information and it disappears into the void. If your customer has a question or concern, or wants to hire your company, they want an answer. If the client is contacting you during normal business hours, the expectation is that you or someone else will be able to talk to them. If someone is sending you a contact email, they have reached the point in their purchasing decision where they're looking for specifics. Putting a form in their way stops the purchasing process in its tracks.

2. You don't trust them.
The use of CAPTCHA technology, those squiggly words and numbers that separate man from machine, are used to help limit the types of website attacks perpetrated by things called "spambots". These automated hacking tools scour the web to find open email addresses, and then inundate them with spam email. Spam email is a real threat—viruses are often embedded within them, so that when they're opened, nefarious things can happen. However, that's your problem, not your customers'. What you tell your customers when you force them to use this technology is that your comfort is more important than their ability to easily contact you.

There are a few simple ground rules for opening email. First, most commercial email hosts (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) have firewalls built in. They will detect what is likely spam and quarantine it for you. Your "junk" folder is a graveyard of these types of emails. It's important to check your junk folder often. Spam quarantine software isn't foolproof. And if your business is consumer-based, you will receive emails from people you don't know. Become email savvy. If someone tells you they want to send you $9 million from Nairobi, or wants to give you a way to meet local singles, or wants to give you free software, etc., those are bad. If an email seems like a legitimate contact, but has been quarantined, send a fresh email to the address to confirm. Or, if the contact has left a phone number, call them.

3. You're too big (or small) to help them.
This is another unintended consequence of an online contact form. Think about the last time you needed information from the IRS or the Social Security office, or a large bank. If you go through the online contact process, it's very similar to the chaos of an automated phone answering system. Press 1 for English, press 2 for Swahili... You have no idea where the form is going, when you'll be called back, or if you'll be called back. The same process works in the opposite direction. Many micro-businesses use this type of solution to help triage their incoming correspondence. There may not be anyone available to answer a direct email, or a phone call.

The general rule in website development for the past decade has been the use of these forms. Recently, however, many users are electing to abandon them. Why? Because they're not as secure as we've been led to believe, and they alienate customers.

What's the alternative? If you can't collect initial data from a client, how do you know what they need? Here are a few techniques that are so old-school that they're not even retro anymore. But they work.

1. Encourage phone contact.
Yep, the old standby. Giving your customers the clear and attractive option of calling you or your team directly, whenever they need you, sets you above your competition. We all get busy—a ringing phone can seem like a personal attack on your day. But a five minute phone conversation can not only solve a problem, it can reinforce a relationship. If a customer has a problem, solving it immediately will defuse the ticking time bomb. Forcing them to send you a form and then waiting for you to get around to answering them can bring even a tiny issue to a boiling point. Answer the phone promptly. If you can't, have a message on the phone that lets customers know how quickly you'll get back to them. And follow through. Most business phones have a flashing message light. Treat that light as if you were the bomb squad diffusing the big one. The faster the light goes out, the better the outcome.

Answering the phone and returning calls promptly (within the hour), is the basis of any successful marketing strategy. All the advertising in the world won't help you if you don't return a call. Just as a professional, friendly greeting by staff when a customer visits your store or office is the front line of your marketing plan, so too is answering calls.

Consider the value of a live operator. If your customers have to work their way through a maze of "press 1 for sales, press 2 for support", they will be discouraged. A voice on the other end, no matter how inconvenient for you, is convenient for them.

2. Provide direct email addresses.
Web development philosophy for years has been to mask or hide all open email addresses. This has been done, legitimately, for security purposes. However, the ability for your customers to contact someone directly via email outweighs any potential security or spam-related inconvenience you may face.

If you have multiple departments, provide a direct email to each. And then answer them, either by email or, preferably, by phone, and within a very limited time.

I appear to be brushing web security aside in this post. That's not the case. Having your email hacked is an inconvenience. Having your website hacked can be devastating. If your business relies on its website for any type of contact, you need to ensure your website hosting company is legitimate. Commercial hosting companies have server "farms" located across the globe, which can deflect web attacks by switching to a different location. Security for commercial web hosting companies is high and dependable—it has to be. The type of data stored on these servers is crucial. If you have a blog site, or if your website is inconsequential to your business, use one of the discount hosting companies. Security is important. It's also worth more than $3 per month. If you choose the right hosting company, it's not your problem.

The basics of marketing come down to this—when someone calls, answer. When someone has a problem, fix it. The basics of marketing have nothing to do with your logo or your website or your sign. It has to do with how you and your staff treat people.

The litmus test is this—would you want to do business with you?

The Pitfalls of Public Comments

Your friend on Facebook posts something about some topic. It doesn't have to be controversial. Maybe they've asked for advice on a specific product or service. You make a comment—something you'd say to your friend in private, maybe something rude or off-color. No harm no foul, right?

Let's do some math. I have a relatively small Facebook social circle—just 132 friends. I keep it small by choice, but the average Facebook user has about 500 friends. Depending on their age, they can have more—(younger skews bigger, older skews smaller).

One of my friends has 2,608 friends of his own. By making a comment on his post, my words and my thoughts have the potential to be shared with over 2,600 people, most of whom are strangers. Let's say I've made a derogatory remark about a person, a company, a product. It doesn't matter whether or not my post is factual. For many people, this one off-the-cuff post can mean the difference between using a particular service or buying a particular product. Social media is touted as being democratizing—it is, largely. But in any democracy, not only do we have rights, we have responsibilities.

Let's say that all 2,600 of this friend's friends read this post and my comment. Let's also say that four additional people, each with 500 friends of their own, commented on this post. Suddenly, my comments have reached nearly 5,000 people. That single comment that was made as either a joke or in the spirit of a private comment to a friend has exploded into a sphere of influence exponentially greater than I could ever have imagined.

As a business owner, you begin to see the impact a single negative comment can have. A majority of people, especially younger people, rely almost solely on social media for their product recommendations. As a platform for unfiltered, reliable feedback, it is unrivaled. But a single negative experience has the potential to spiral out of control. Before social media, word of mouth consisted of a small circle of people—physical influence was much smaller than virtual influence. And even if someone had a horrible experience with a company, they'd only share it with a small group over a short period of time. Social media (and the web in general) is permanent. It's the real permanent record your high school guidance counselor kept telling you about.

As a business owner who is also a member of society, your actions online can have far-reaching implications. Let's say you've made an off-color comment about some political or social issue. Using the same math, your single knee-jerk remark can define you to a huge number of people. Strangers. Customers. Potential employers. Your banker. You have no way of knowing.

The virulence of social media is akin to a pandemic. Once it begins, it's very hard to stop. Here are a few simple tips to help keep your business (and yourself) out of hot water online.

1. THINK BEFORE YOU POST. 
Use the "Rule of Mom". Would you say what you're about to say if your mother was sitting beside you? Unless your mother is known for her colorful language or off-color remarks, this litmus test will usually guide you.

2. DAMAGE CONTROL MEANS YOU'VE SCREWED UP.
If your business is in the position where it needs to do damage control, or you're getting overwhelmed by negative comments, it doesn't mean the Internet is out to get you. It means something's wrong in your organization. Do a process walk, which follows your business through every interaction to help determine where things are breaking down. Your goal is to identify customer touch points. The first place to look for the breakdown is where your customers interact with your organization. Once you've identified it, fix it.

3. IF YOU WANT TO SAY IT, SAY IT IN PERSON.
Here's a novel idea—pick up the phone. If you have virtual friends, they likely started as physical friends. A comment on a Facebook post, no matter how witty or insightful, pales next to actually picking up the phone and spending twenty minutes catching up. If you must remain digital, private message them or send an email or Skype with them.

4. BEWARE THE SHARE.
We've all seen them—the ubiquitous cartoons or witty graphics. As a business person, simply sharing something implies complicity. For instance, if you share something about drinking heavily, no matter how funny or cute, you have the potential to gain that reputation simply by association. You are what you share—it's the reason why most people share things. It defines your interests, is in tune with your sense of humor, etc. Even on your private social media pages, you never know who's watching. I have friends who are clients, and I have friends who are friends with clients. Chances are, you do, too.

5. WITH FRIENDS LIKE THAT...
Facebook has a great feature that allows you to confirm what is placed on your timeline. Sometimes the comments that damn you are not the ones you make yourself. We have different types of friends, probably from different phases of our lives. The person we are now may be very different from the person we were in college, or high school. You wouldn't bring your college drinking buddies to a client meeting. Be selective about what you let onto your timeline.

6. CLEAN HOUSE.
With all of this in mind, what do you have right now on your Facebook page? Take some time and go through your timeline. Look at your videos and photos. Is the beer pong shot from college really how you want to present yourself?

The goal with this post is not to sanitize you. Part of what makes social media as vibrant as it is, is the individuality of the pages and the posts. If the video of you doing belly shots in Vegas is something that defines you, that's great. But keep in mind that the video may be doing just that—defining you. Once you connect with other people, you have little control over what happens next. Being aware and being cautious may not make you the most interesting person on Facebook, but it will definitely help keep you in business.

The Rules of Social Media

Contrary to popular myth, even the Internet has rules. Social media is no exception. As a business operating a social media page, you have the ability to either effectively increase your market reach—or do irreparable harm. Here are the basics on the do's and don'ts of operating a business social media page.

1. KNOW YOUR MEDIA TYPE
Facebook is very different from Twitter. Pinterest and Google Plus are also unique. LinkedIn is a totally different animal. It's like talking to people from different parts of the country. There are ways of doing things and presenting information that varies between all social media venues. Twitter has a character limit - the most effective posts on Twitter are brief. Twitter users are used to brevity. They don't want you to be wordy. Facebook is more conversational. Facebook is relationship-based. Google Plus is similar. Pinterest is essentially a photo sharing showcase, so it's much more visual. LinkedIn is the professional social network—largely underutilized by businesses. There are literally thousands of social media venues. Each has its own vernacular. It's important to learn the dialect before you try to fit in.

2. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
This is not only true for social media, but for marketing in general. Unless you know who you're talking to, what they're interested in, and what will turn them off, you can't create effective posts. What is of use to your audience? What will they be interested in seeing from you? They're choosing to follow you for a particular reason. Discover that reason and tailor your posts to them.

3. YOU'RE A GUEST IN THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA FEED
Just like going to a dinner party, you are a guest in your potential audience's house. They've invited you in because they want to hear more from you. Just like going to a dinner party, you need to bring something. The proverbial bottle of wine in this case is information. You need to establish yourself as the recognized expert in whatever you do. How do you do that? It's different for each industry, and for each social media page. Don't be looking to sell, at least not all the time. Unlike traditional advertising, you don't need a constant call to action. Your social media page (if designed properly) will have all the information necessary for a follow up. Provide information your users can use. Get in, get out, and don't annoy your followers. Short, clear, insightful posts will make you sound like you know what you're talking about. Because you're the expert.

4. IT'S A SOCIAL NETWORK
The goal in using any type of social media is to increase your reach virally. This means that your user likes your post enough to share it. Once it appears on your user's social media feed, all of their connections can see what you have to say. If their friends like you, and they share something informative that you posted, you will be much more likely to be followed by your users' friends. This is the goal. Social media is about making connections in new and unique ways. While it is possible to sell products via social media (and many businesses do this), it's not the primary focus. Social media is and should be used largely as brand building. Your goal should be to remain at the top of mind of your users.

5. CHECK YOUR SPELLING, GRAMMAR AND SYNTAX
There is nothing more distracting than a business social media post that contains errors. If necessary, get someone to proofread your posts before making them public. You may not care about spelling—but your users do. This one is a simple fix at which many businesses, usually small businesses, fail.

6. CREATE A POST SCHEDULE
Unless your posts are based on events that are happening in real time (and this is a good use of social media—keeping up with things in real time), you can put together a post schedule in advance. Facebook allows you to schedule your posts in advance using their Activity Log feature. If you can make use of this, and most businesses can, do it. It keeps your social media in motion without having to dedicate resources to posting at a particular time. When creating a post schedule, look at what your users need. Is your business seasonal? Look at a calendar to see key dates when people will be most likely to be thinking about your services.

7. MORE IS NOT ALWAYS MORE
Think about the junk email you receive as a business owner. Deleting messages from the same sender multiple times a day is not only a time waster, but makes you less likely to ever consider using that vendor. The same is true with social media. You don't need to blast your message out ten times a day. A well-written, well-timed post 3 or 4 times per week can do more good for your business than a bunch of desperate messages throughout a day. In social media, it's about quality, not quantity.

8. PLAY NICE WITH THE OTHER KIDS
Never, ever insult a client on your social media feed. Never, ever complain that no one's coming in to your shop today. And if you receive any negative feedback on your social media page (which is one of the reasons why you are engaging in social media activity—you want your users to get involved), never, ever argue with them. You have the ability in a public forum to solve the problem. Recognize that you have an audience watching you. Most customers will remember the problems they had if you don't immediately make it right. It's always worth giving a little to make the customer feel they were heard. And don't take anything personally. This is business, not personal. Leave the attitude at home. And finally, no matter what, don't complain about your customers or your business on your personal social media. Once it's out in the world, you can't get it back.

Effectively managing your business social media can be a full time job. You don't have to have a presence on every single venue. Start with your customer—what do they want you to do?

Antisocial Media - A Case Study

Recently a local restaurant owner had customers in her restaurant that brought an infant child into the restaurant. The child obviously didn't want to be there, and cried and screamed the whole time. The incident itself is repeated every day all across the world. What sets this one apart is that the owner posted a lengthy complaint about these guests on her Facebook business page. In the post, the owner stated that other customers were disrupted, and that she overcharged the customers for their meal to compensate for her staff's trouble. Unfortunately, the subject of the post turned out to be a fan of the page.

If you don't think social media matters to your business, try doing something like this. Social media is a phenomenal tool - and can also be a nightmare. For businesses that want to increase word-of-mouth traffic, spreading their message across social media is worth its weight in gold. The benefit of re-posts recommendations and sharing is that your business is being introduced into the lives of your customers' friends. In essence, your customer is working for you. The downside, of course, is that one blunder can spread worldwide in a matter of moments. Social media, like the Internet itself, is perpetual. Everything you've ever done online, every mistake you've ever made, every embarrassment, is forever captured and cataloged and archived.

Let's start with the basics - never, ever, ever post a complaint about a customer anywhere. Don't even send it in an email. If you can help it, don't put it in writing. The customer may not always be right, (and quite often isn't), but they're your boss. Social media gives us the feeling of invulnerability - the same feeling we have when we're in our car. But like driving our cars, accidents happen when we're careless. And for crying out loud, don't post it on your business page. Especially if the person you're posting about is a fan of your page.

The business owner had the ability to salvage the situation at several points. First, as the owner of the business, she had a responsibility to the majority of her clientele who were being disrupted. Much like the captain of a ship, the business owner has absolute authority in a situation like this. Simply explaining privately to the parent that the child's unhappiness was disruptive to the other guests and asking the parent to quiet the child or come back another time without the child would likely have solved everything. At worst, the restauranteur would have lost one customer instead of the dozens she now has lost.

Second, the business owner should never in a million years have posted the customer complaint. Once the customer commented on the post and the comments began to fly, she should have immediately removed the post. She should then have called the customer directly and offered a full apology. Offering a free meal or two wouldn't hurt, either. Although the customer was originally at fault for the disruption by not listening to the needs of her child and having the common courtesy to leave the situation without disrupting everyone else around her, the business owner made cardinal mistakes in handling this situation. (And I know many people will argue that point, that the customer was at fault. But as a business owner, you are responsible for the satisfaction of everyone, not a single person. As a customer, you need to recognize when your behavior or the behavior of those in your party - whether they are capable of stopping the behavior or not - is disruptive. And as a parent, your responsibility is the well being of your child. If your infant child is incapable of handling a high stress social situation, it is your responsibility to remove your child from that situation. Unfortunately, your social life goes on hold in many ways when you are the parent of a small child. It doesn't last forever.)

I didn't hear about this story firsthand. A friend reposted the link. As did many others. A relatively small circle of people suddenly grew into a huge group of people with most now having a strong negative opinion of the restaurant. Social media travels fast. Impossibly fast.

The best way to avoid negative publicity is to not do something that will cause it. Never complain about customers, even on your personal social media pages. If a customer is unhappy, make them happy. No matter what. It is far easier and less expensive to give away a few meals than to have to undo catastrophic damage. If you're at fault, make it right. Make the solution exceed the problem. Make the customer remember the solution.