Applebees Has Social Media Disaster

Applesbees has a social media meltdown.

It all started last month after a waitress at a St. Louis Appleebees lost her job for posting online a receipt showing that a pastor crossed off the default 18 percent tip and wrote a snarky note saying, "i give God 10 percent, why do you get 18."

After her firing caught wind on the internet, a mob of social media users then took the Applebees' facebook page leaving tons of comments against the restaurant's decision to fire her.

Applebees posted a status update on their Facebook page, saying they wish the situation didn't happen, but its against their policy to post personal information online about their guests, including meal checks. That did not help the situation. Thousands of people started making comments on the status update, saying how terrible Applebees is and how their food sucks and how terrible they are for firing the waitress.

But the story does not end there. Applebees started making comments on its own status update, repeatedly trying to explain themselves, and allegedly deleting negative comments and blocking people from its Facebook page. So people start getting even more furious about being censored.

At this point it is 3 in the morning.

This social media nightmare continues for a few more hours as thousands of people continue to comment on Applebees' status. They end up "hiding" their original post so no more people could comment.

Some of our Talking points:

This is a great case study for PR and social media college classes. As a social media director, what would you have done in the situation?

Was it a bad idea for the waitress to post the receipt to Reddit and should she have been fired?

How important is facebook/twitter/social media in  general for the image of not only companies, but for regular people also?

Do you think Applebees lost business because of this?