Take the High Road: How to Positively Respond to Negative Online Comments

A few years back in the conservative community of Springfield, Missouri, a group of atheists and religious skeptics decided to have a gathering. The owners of a small gelato shop downtown briefly posted a sign in their window saying that members of the group were not welcome.

Someone snapped a picture and posted it on a couple of social media channels and the firestorm erupted from as far away as South Africa and Switzerland -- predominantly against the owners of the gelato shop.

Almost immediately, negative reviews began to appear on Yelp and Google Review, dropping the store's ratings to below two stars. A few months later, the gelato shop was out of business for reasons that may or may not have been related to the social media brouhaha.

Religious and political conversations aside -- the point of this story is that no matter how very small or remote any food establishment is, social media and review sites can have a major effect on your business.

Indy Operators are Not Immune From Online Fallout

"It's very easy for independent operators to think that they are not as big as Chipotle or Applebee's, that they are immune from damage, but that's not the case," says Bethany Bell, social media manager with the deep group, a food marketing group also based in Springfield, Missouri. "Operators must remember that social media reflects not just what you do in the virtual world but everything you and your employees do in the real world."