Bad Social Media

In other words, “How NOT to manage your social media”

GoGo Squeeze MoldThe children’s squeezable applesauce pouch company GoGo SqueeZ have created themselves quite the predicament. It all began with a Facebook comment in July, 2014 from an outraged mother claiming her child consumed spoiled product causing him to be sick and emitted to the ER for treatment. How did GoGo SqueeZ resolve this issue? They hit the ‘DELETE’ button, which resulted in quite the opposite of a resolution. The mother saw that her post had been discarded and the incident blew up across Facebook groups and ‘mommy blogs’ alike. The original post was posted again, again, and again calling out the company for ignoring a serious issue. By deleting this post GoGo SqueeZ not only tried to ignore the issue, but also made themselves look guilty. These posts looked like this:

A Mother ScornedThis initial post has been copy and pasted to the GoGo SqueeZ Facebook page hundreds if not thousands of times since July of 2014, along with many other complaints of rotten products.

GoGo Squeeze on FacebookGoGo SqueeZ has been backpedaling since July trying to satisfy unhappy consumers angered by them deleting the original comment that started it all. So here we are 7 months later and the negative posts keep coming and the company keeps referring back to a July statement about the incident: “During this past holiday week there has been a lot of discussion on our Facebook page regarding a report of finding mold in a container of our product, and we feel it’s important that you have the most accurate and up to date information from us:

Most of the discussion has been around a photo from July 2014, of a pouch appearing to contain mold, which was brought to our attention via Facebook. We previously provided an update to our Facebook community related to this and the steps we took to address the situation and this information can be found below. We thoroughly investigate each and every consumer complaint as soon as it is brought to our attention, and our Quality Control analyses continue to show there is absolutely no indication of a broad product quality issue….” (Full Post Here)

So, why is this worth a blog post? GoGo SqueeZ has given a prime example of bad social media practices. The benefits of social media for brands and businesses is to have direct communication with clients and consumers. Take this as a lesson on your social media practices.

  • Always, respond promptly to complaints- even if you need to research a solution – let the customer know you are seeking a resolve.
  • Like, comment, or interact with every comment or rating. Let consumers know you are a place to come with two way communication.
  • NEVER delete or defend. Always tackle an issue straight on with a level headed response. Ask yourself ” what kind of response would I want to receive?”

These are just a few tips to keep you out of trouble when managing your social media outlets. As for GoGo SqueeZ, eventually the situation will fizzle out and become a thing of the past, BUT they have allowed their brand to become publicly tarnished.

Do you have questions or are you overwhelmed by the social media realm? Give us a call and find out how to support your brand with professional management services.