Social media blunders. They happen, people make mistakes, right? unfortunately the public eye is not so quick to forgive companies of their social media faux-paws. One of the most recent and most talked about social media blunder would be that of the Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy’s anti gay statements this summer. This was a huge ordeal and people went crazy to say the least. His statements even left a bad taste for some of the companies partnerships as well.
People knew about the companies stance on equality and their religious background. It is common knowledge that Chick-fil-A is closed on sundays and so forth. The thing that took them overboard was Cathy’s statement on such an intense subject. The public lashed out as well as some of their partnerships. The Jim Henson company went so far as to recall its muppet partnership with the fast food chain.
Chick-fil-A obviously has the right to voice their beliefs; everyone does. That is called the freedom of speech. But, one wold think that a company in the public eye would known better than to take on such a hot topic in the political arena and make negative comments for everyone to hear. They had to be expecting some sort of backlash, right? Well if they weren’t, they sure got a surprise. People blew up their social media pages everywhere, questioning their beliefs. As a last stitch effort to protect their name, the PR people at Chick-fil-A thought it would be a good idea to create ‘Abby Farle’ on Facebook to defend their name. Facebook users did not take this very well at all. She first surfaced in a comment to a remark made on their Facebook page about the Jim Henson company recall for their kids meals. The company tried stating that they recalled the toys because kids’ fingers were getting stuck in the puppets. A Facebook user called them out and stated that he would respect them more for telling the truth rather than trying to cover it up. This is when ‘Abby Farle’ starts commenting on the remark defending Chick-fil-A. With some digging, people found out her account was created 8 hours prior and her picture came from shutterstock.com.
'Abby Farle' comes to Chick-fil-A's defense
While trying to protect their name, Chick-fil-A made things worse for themselves in the process. Instead of hiding behind fake names, the company should have addressed issues head on. People are not afraid to speak up and let companies know what they believe. This is something all companies with social media should be aware of. In the case of Chick-fil-A , Cathy obviously should not have made anti gay statements in the first place. He did, so the companies social media sector needed to be ready to handle the backlash. This case is something for other companies to learn by. Never hide behind a fake name, people WILL know the difference. In this day in age, people can do some digging and find out whatever they want about your company. Don’t create a fake alias to help defend your blunder, take care of the issues head on and speak out for yourself.
I agree that they should have handled this situation much differently. I remember thinking when this first happened how they could have been so reckless through social media, especially when they seemingly care about their social media image by deciding to make such a move in the first place. To use such an obvious stock photo and new Facebook account like that is just mind boggling.
Gemma,
I remember when these Chic-Fil-A rumos first hit the social media sites. It was broadcasted all over Facebook and Twitter. Chic-Fil-A should have defintely handled the situation truthfully and upfront. Hiding behind fake pages could cause a really bad reputation for the company. I personally know so many people that love Chic-Fil-A and this particular situation may of caused people to not want to eat there anymore.
No one wants to be involved or associated with a company that isn’t honest.
It’s funny too that “Abby Farle” didn’t use capitalization or the best grammar, making her sound less like a public relations official. If Chik-fil-A wanted to get the right information out, they could have officially monitored these posts and calmly explained its side of these topics. If the company was too worried about backlash from interacting or a conflict blowing up and its efforts being worthless, then don’t post anything. It seems that relating something personal with something professional will make people even more critical of you as you have to work even harder to hide or not have a bias. That’s something important Chik-fil-A should have considered in this and stayed honest to avoid damaging its reputation even more. Sometimes even just admitting to mistakes can earn you some respect.