Read about Samy and Amy Bouzaglo meltdown as they show us first hand how to destroy your business with Facebook.

1. mat t hewwoodward.co.uk
http://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-use-social-media-to-destroy-your-business-effectively/
Matthew Woodward
How To Use Social Media To Destroy Your Business Effectively
This past week Samy and Amy Bouzaglo have successf ully destroyed their business with Facebook.
If you didn’t know Amy’s Baking Company was recently f eatured on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares
Series.
Now anyone who watches that show knows how it goes down, but this time things were dif f erent. This time it
f eatured Samy & Amy Bouzaglo.
You really need to watch the f ull episode to appreciate the mindset of the couple. Here is a very small taste-
Go and watch the f ull thing – it is shocking how delusional Amy is throughout. They even take all of the tips of f
the staf f and pocket it f or themselves!
Look what happened at the end of a night af ter a staf f member asked her if she was sure about a table
number-
That girl got them crazy eyes!
It’s not all on Amy though, Samy is just as bad verbally threatening customers, making physical threats and
acting aggressively.
Then someone let them loose on social media.
How To Destroy Your Business With Facebook
I hope you are ready f or what has been described as the most epic meltdown on Facebook ever.
Even Charlie Sheen will learn something here.
Things start with a nice message showing the couples strength, was kinda cute!
But as seen in the show – she isn’t all that great at taking criticism =/

2. People gave the couple flack because they were buying things from Walmart and then reselling them
to customers as if they made them themselves.
Amy even lied to Gordon Ramsay about making the cakes herself. Which she was super proud of.
Then of course the Reddit community
got hold of the story. You can probably
guess how it goes from here.

3. Samy takes over the updates for a while and starts to threaten legal action =

4. Followed by his own series of threats…
Luckily they aren’t freaking out
about it at all.

5. If you have ever wanted to know what a meal cooked by Wonder Woman would taste like, today is
your lucky day!
Oh I forgot to mention Amy has 3 kids and by kids, I mean 3 cats that are her whole life between her
husband and her business.

6. Turns out we don’t actually know Wonder Woman’s identity after all )=
It is good to see that Amy and Samy are seeing the funny side though!

7. She is right, it’s way past my bed time!
The Best Comment Awards Goes To…
Out of all of the comments though – this one is the clear winner.
I hope you’re sitting down f or this.

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The Morning After The Night
Before
Ever woken up in a hazey blur and
thought – ahhhhh f uck.
That’s exactly what Amy and Samy did on
Tuesday morning.
OBVIOUSLY THE HACKERS THE DID IT
– DUHHH!!!

9. A Fresh Start With A New Page
Samy and Amy went onto setup a second Facebook page to try and recover f rom the damage of the ‘hackers’.
Users were met with a warm reception-
And within moments meltdown round 2
begins – ooops I mean the ‘hackers’
took over again-
Seems they never learn…
Stealing Food Photos
They also got caught out posting pictures
of f ood they had stolen f rom other
websites and claiming them as their own.
It became a race on their photo albums to
see who could reverse engineer the original
image location f or each photo f irst.
They have a great explanation f or how that
happened though-

10. That’s how the internet works by the way if
you didn’t know.
The Internet Fights Back
As you can imagine the response online
has skyrocketed.
We have had everything f rom meme’s
(more of these at the end of the post)
All the way through to a psychological
analysis.
Greg Taylor posted his f irst-hand
experience at the restaurant when the
cameras were rolling.
Even the restaurant’s previous health
violations are coming to light.
Not that the reviews on Yelp were doing
them any f avours anyway.
Then there is the f act that Amy served 14
months in jail f or committing f raud with this
document and another popping up.
Oh and let’s not f orget the government
petition to investigate them f or the illegal
stealing of tips.
But none of this is new really, it’s all been
going on since 2010.
Do You Feel Bad For Them?
To be honest the backlash they have f aced
is pretty terrible.
You can’t help but f eel sorry f or them in a
way.

13. What the couple f ail to realise is that Reddit is actually an intelligent community & most of the people that use
it are well educated people with specialist skilled jobs in technology, networks & the internet…
Certainly not the type of people good enough to lick their, or their f riends boots though…
Measuring The Viral Effect
It’s not all doom and gloom though, the couple have seen a huge boom in popularity across the web.
Check out this snap f rom Google Trends-
According to Alexa their website has also seen a 20,000% increase in traf f ic in the last month

14. They also managed to add over 70,000 organic likes to their main Facebook page.

15. Granted all of this was born out of bad publicity – but they now have the perf ect f oundation to capitalise on.

16. What Should They Do?
Now is the perf ect time to ride that PR wave to success.
First things f irst though they need to repair the damage they have done. The best way of doing so, especially
with the blogosphere is to be totally honest and upf ront with people.
A heartf elt transparent apology explaining the actions and stresses the couple were under would go down very
well right about now and allow them to begin rebuilding rapport with people.
But bef ore doing that they should get someone to rebuild the website with conversion and value in mind.
Capture user data & leverage the social media success to build vast social signals to the site.
Give the blog a quick overhaul, publish the apology and hey presto – a whole new load of viral traf f ic will arrive
to capitalise on
To really repair the relationship with bloggers they should host a bloggers only night where likeminded people
could meet and engage with each other in a relaxed atmosphere with great f ood.
For the most part bloggers are straight down the line and honest. If they have a f antastic night dining and
sharing knowledge with other bloggers – they’ll tell the world about it.
I wish somewhere local to me had a similar night every month! Hmmm.
I know they already have a relaunch planned but you have to apply to be invited via a PR f irm. That means
anything produced is going to be f ully controlled and as such biased.
They should host a night specif ically f or repairing damage with the wider internet community that will of f er a
true ref lection of the improvements they have made. In essence they are in control and responsible f or any
f eedback received, good or bad.
Lessons Learnt
Throughout all of this though there are quite a f ew important lessons f or us all to learn.
Social Media Is A 2 Way Street
A lot of businesses struggle with social media and just don’t get it. Having the ability to interact with customers
in an instant and personal way really does baf f le the business world.
Social media provides a f antastic opportunity to build engagement, trust and relationships with people who in
turn inf luence other people.
But this is a 2 way street, while it is a f antastic tool to engage your target audience directly – it is also the
perf ect weapon to destroy your business and its reputation. Especially if you’re crazy.
Criticism Is Opportunity
Amy clearly has a hard time dealing with negative f eedback to the point everyone around her protects her f rom
it.
But criticism is just an opportunity to improve. An opportunity to improve & be better at what you do today than
you were yesterday.

17. I look at f ailure in the same way. If you f ail at something, next time you are much more likely to succeed due to
the f irst hand lessons learnt.
External criticism is exactly the same – except it is other people telling you how to reach f urther success.
Ask For Criticism & Feedback
I actively ask f or criticism & f eedback f rom my readers. This f eedback has helped shape the blog in a big way.
Everything f rom the design, how things are laid out, the content I write, how I write it and the types of things I
f ocus on.
All of this is driven f rom the user f eedback & criticism I get. If I get an email with some criticism I try to explore
that with the reader to get a deeper understanding to build upon.
I send out this email as part of my auto responder series-
That one gets some very interesting responses and I have being able to improve the user experience of f the
back of it!
Readers love it when you actually listen to what they have to say & then actually act on it.
I also send out this email-

18. I’m essentially asking my audience what they want, and then I give it to them.
A lot of the tutorials posted across the last 2-3 months have come of f the back of user requests. These are
also some of the most popular tutorials.
Don’t Insult People & Lie
Remember the bit about social media been a 2 way street? If you start abusing people, typing in angry caps
locks & telling blatant lies you are asking f or it.
Some of the things that Amy and Samy have said to potential customers is disgusting. Imagine asking a
restaurant if you could have a reservation and being told ‘WE DONT LET SLUTTY BITCHES LIKE YOU HERE’.
Doing things like that in public is always going to spark a reaction.
Even if that comment wasn’t aimed at you, anyone reading that instantly has a negative association with Amy &
Samy. One that they will share with their f riends, people still actually talk in real you know!
To then go on and claim they were hacked was just kicking people when they were down. The lie was so
transparent especially when they used the same tone on the second page that wasn’t ‘hacked’.
The most stupid lie though has to be when Samy claimed the pictures they were posting was of their f ood and
they hadn’t stolen them. I’m going to post his explanation here again because it was just that stupid.
Can you believe even af ter that they are
still posting stolen images & claiming they

19. still posting stolen images & claiming they
are of their f ood.
Own Your Mistakes
Each and every time the couple have
insulted someone, received criticism or
been caught out with something they have
just ignored it or opened up a dif f erent line
of attack.
At no point have they actually stopped,
took 60 seconds to step back, think about
what has said, process it and then respond
appropriately.
Instead of owning their mistakes they just
go on the attack – it’s borderline childish
behaviour but we all make mistakes right?
Just step up to the plate and admit when
you’re wrong – you’ll get a much warmer
reception than going on the attack or trying
to cover up lies with lies.
Never Marry A Crazy!
If there is one thing we should all learn
though it is that you should never marry a
crazy, no matter how much younger and
better looking they are.
Samy f ronts the money to keep the f ailing business af loat and without him the company wouldn’t exist.
Hats of f to Samy you are a brave man – he is the real hero here!
How To Deal With Social Media Criticism
A while back I made a tutorial called how not to launch a website f eaturing UK mobile provider Everything
Everywhere.
Since they launched in the UK they have had huge amounts of f lack to the point every single one of my f riends
have had issues with them.
This has quickly led them to be dubbed as ‘Nothing Nowhere’ – check out some of the f eedback they get on
Facebook.

20. They literally get a f ew pieces of crippling
f eedback posted every hour. People
consistently claim of misselling, having no
signal, poor customer service, arrogant
management & the general unwillingness to
resolve issues.
Nothing Nowhere (Everything Everywhere) have really made a mess of their launch in the UK – but notice how
they aren’t having a meltdown over it?
Even though they know they suck and are clearly having serious companywide issues they f ocus on the root
problems and ignore everything else.
Granted its usually the same dreary bland response and f rom what I can gather customers still don’t actually
get any help but it helps to maintain order.
It’s pretty hard to troll someone that doesn’t take the bait. Amy f uelled her own f ire with how she dealt with
social media criticism and although Nothing Nowhere aren’t perf ect, they are doing a good job of managing
things online.
Extra respect to them f or not deleting the bad f eedback and keeping things honest and open!
I bet those pesky hackers are to blame f or the poor perf ormance of the network though. For sure.
They Aren’t The Only Ones
Abercrombie & Fitch have also managed to destroy their brand overnight with a single interview.

21. CEO Mike Jef f ries gave an interview to Salon Magazine way back in 2006. He was asked why they ref use to
make clothes f or larger women, his response-
“In every school there are cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. We go
after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of
friends. A lot of people don’t belong in our clothes and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary?
Absolutely.”
Now 7 years ago that was pretty of f ensive, but in today’s world of backwards political correctness it has
caused a storm.
It is only the last couple of weeks that social media and the blogosphere has gotten hold of this.
Comments f rom 7 years ago now appear to be f resh and new f rom the company which is causing them a little
bit of a headache.
Articles like this one on Business Insider and this one at Elite Daily.
Benjamin O’Keef e created a government petition against the company.
There is even going to be a f ull on protest in the streets of Chicago.
All of this is born out of comments f rom 7 years ago that the social media world have circulated the past week.
Talk about a big f at mistake!
Notice how companies that exclusively make clothes f or larger women and exclude skinny women don’t get the
same treatment though?
Strange world.
Amy To The Rescue!
There is no doubt that the meltdown of Amy Bouzaglo & her business this week might have broken the f all of
Abercrombie & Fitch.
The blogosphere, social media crowd and media in general have f irmly had their attention on Amy as the story
has developed throughout the week.
Without that girl things could have gotten a lot worse f or Abercrombie & Fitch.
You should f atten her up and put her in an advert to say thank you.