Her op-ed addressed negative responses to the popular restaurant chain’s Facebook post introducing a new meatless sausage option. Among the sentiments people posted in response to their announcement: “You just lost your customer base.” “Get woke, go broke.” Seriously?
Is civil society so damaged that politicizing breakfast food choices is the new standard? Do people really feel good when they spew hateful rhetoric? In a word, yes.
To be sure, there are things happening out there generating a legitimate visceral response online. But I suspect that for every legitimate issue raised online there are ten pseudo-issues that escalate needlessly. And plenty of people ready to throw fuel on the fire.
I think we sometimes fail to understand context and proportion when deciding how to respond to the trolls. The Cracker Barrel post garnered more than 7,000 comments in three days—most of which were people bantering with a handful of troll-worthy statements. That seems like a lot of comments in a short time. But viewed in the wider lens of the millions who have dined happily at Cracker Barrel, it is insignificant.
Cracker Barrel took, in my opinion, the right approach to the cranks. They ignored them. They appear to have recognized and understood the comments for what they were: people who are not customers. They doubtless have been entertained by some of the conversation threads in the post.
Fans quickly defended the company with comments like “There’s nothing “woke” about getting with the times by offering a variety of menu items to choose from. Now I like you guys even more!”
There are a few valuable lessons here:
1. We sometimes have to suffer fools knowing they are probably not our customers. Ongoing listening and assessment of online chatter helps us to understand and measure true stakeholder sentiment.
2. Don’t feed the trolls. We need not respond to every snarky comment. We should, however, leave them there (unless they violate our community standards, e.g., if they contain racist or vulgar language).
3. Strong stakeholder relationships need care and feeding. If our stakeholders are advocates before an issue arises, they will defend us when trolls try to “stir the pot.”
4. Know the difference between actual customers and those who “like” or “follow” the company social feeds. They are not synonymous.
5. View negative online reactions from a wide lens. Even thousands of comments may have little meaning when compared to an entire population, such as the 2.5 billion Facebook users.
Adapt or die? We cannot afford to view social media as nothing more than a sandbox for Gens Y and Z. By embracing how media technology has changed the company-customer dynamic, we can begin to adapt our strategy to leverage change and build respect and resilience in the face of criticism.
