Saturday, June 28th, 2014

When Do Social Media Complaints Go Too Far?

Recently, Australian pop star Sia made some headlines after Tweeting about her negative experience at a New York City Dry cleaning business.


Luckily for this dry cleaning business, who may or may not have done something wrong, Yelp does not take kindly to fake reviews. They regularly monitor reviews and remove ones deemed to be erroneous; 42 of them, in fact!

BrandMe - Yelp Hidden Reviews

Coincidentally, all made on the same day that Sia Tweeted about her negative experience with them. From the comments and the reaction online, it is obvious that most people don’t like this type of behaviour. Using your own fame and social clout to destroy a small business is not a nice thing to do. Had there been more evidence presented of wrong doing, perhaps it would have not seemed so mean and heartless.

BrandMe - Yelp Rescue Review

Some actual store patrons actually posted reviews in defence of the shop and the dry cleaner’s Yelp rating on Yelp is now 5 out of 5 stars. That gives the impression that they don’t regularly mess up their customers’ clothes and maybe it was an accident.
Hopefully most celebrities won’t continue to act this way, using their social media popularity to help fight their battles. What could Sia have done better? She could have left her own negative review, but should have never asked others to do so. It is even fine to let her followers know she was upset with a business about something they did. Give the business a chance to respond to what happened. Often times, if a business doesn’t respond to your complaint in person, resorting to social media can help the right people in the company get your attention.
What are your thoughts? Should celebrities get away with this type of behaviour? Is that something that comes along with a perk of fame? Would the same thing have happened here is Australia? Way in your thoughts in the comments!


Comments are closed.