"About a year ago, if you posted a question, complaint or compliment on one of Olive Garden's social media pages," writes marketing blogger Andy Sernovitz, "the company probably would have ignored you." It's not that Olive Garden didn't care—it just had the wrong part of the company trying to do the job.
By moving responsibility for social media engagement from marketing area over to public relations, Oliver Garden turned around its online customer service strategy in just six months. It also equipped the restaurant chain to join tougher consumer conversations that have little or nothing to do with traditional promotions. Full disclosure: Olive Garden is a Dunlop Media client. Courtesy SmartBlog on Social Media.