When Bad Press Goes Right

#boycottlulus was the hashtag. There it was. In all of it’s lowercase glory.

I am one of two Facebook Group Administrators for a local mom group.We have 3600 members and 8 very simple rules. One being that we do not slam local business. We removed a member for telling us we were violating “ her constitutional rights “ by not allowing her to post negatively about a local business. We are not the government, we are a moderated community. It is important to me to that we run a positive group. Empty storefronts are not good for a small community. There are so many places to be negative on the internet that we do not let it happen on the group we moderate. Short story, she started a slam group…. I knew what was coming next. In her group there are no rules, so within a very short time the #boycottlulus conversation happened.

Now maybe seeing that would strike fear in my heart and make me want to go on the defense but having had been down this road before when an ex-employee opened the same exact type of store that I own in the same exact retail center where my store existed I knew two things.

Her store died in less than a year, never once did I veer off course, if anything I got better at what I do. I became sharper, more focused, seamless in my execution. There were people who waited for me to crack, to show that I was bothered, and I never gave it to them.

We are in Wilmington, Delaware. Let me show you what happened once the hashtag popped up …..

Here are my Google Analytics from the Week of January 1 -7

Here are my analytics from January 8th — Today

For an even more impressive jump…. the very last week of 2017 Delaware was # 17.

So what happens next ? If you are a smart marketer I don’t need to tell you. My remarketing and retargeting are doing their thing….. and our local sales and interest have jumped. I am sitting back and letting my campaigns and look alike audiences do their thing.

My business is more of a lifestyle business. I have two young girls, my husband lives and works in NYC and we have a tiny, junkie little trailer at the beach that is my sanctuary. My life is good. It is full of love, travel and adventure.

We were a brick and mortar but now we are 98.9% online. Our Internet Showroom is where our team prints, packs and ships. When I am in town and there is free time I open the showroom up , I get to see my customers in person and let them know how much I value them. When I am not here, they know to buy online and my office team takes care of the rest.

In the last week we added 22 new orders all from our local area, all new customers to our company and we are thankful.

My advice to you if you get your own negative hashtag… do not change course, just sit back, watch your analytics rise and be thankful that people feel so passionately about you or your business that they are willing to give you free advertising. Karma is a beautiful thing.

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