Social-media errors require quick action from owners

McClatchy Newspapers

FORT WORTH, Texas

Carlo Galotto has gotten a crash course on Internet etiquette, such as how never to seemingly insult customers on your company’s Facebook page.

In a now famous, real-time digital meltdown, the novice pub owner, who had been drinking, groused about “spoiled Obama kids” then freely tossed expletives until a friend drove over and got 52-year-old Galotto away from his computer. The postings were deleted, but at least one person preserved a screenshot of the freewheeling diatribe to be viewed in perpetuity.

The question now: Can the Zio Carlo Magnolia Brew Pub survive Galotto’s postings that went viral, from local websites to forbes.com?

Two public-relations professionals say the fledgling entrepreneur — Galotto is a former Lockheed engineer who never ran a business before — now is doing all the right things. And if he can deliver on promised native Italian food and distinctive, brewed-on-premises ales and lagers, he could well make it.

“Something like this can be turned around,” said Beth Hutson of Hutson Creative Group in Fort Worth. “With social media, you can communicate, apologize, one on one.”

Hutson heard about the incident and moved quickly, organizing a pro bono, damage-control intervention. “It was a humbling, life-changing incident for him,” she said.

Hutson sat down Galotto and his fianc e, Luann Mancini, and lectured them on the pitfalls of social networking. Then she edited Galotto’s apology and helped him decide on a free pizza-slice night — a peace offering for the first 100 people.

The public mea culpa said: “I apologize to all my friends and customers. Getting this business off the ground has been very difficult, and there have been many challenges. The last few days have been difficult, and the pressure got to me. I said many things I regret, and wish I could un-say them. ... I am truly very sorry for the way I acted and hope you will forgive me and support me. I sincerely mean this. Carlo Galotto.”

In an interview, a chastened Galotto said he had been drinking heavily — not his beer but cheap red wine he uses for cooking — and was sizzling over a recent rupture with employees.

Targets of his wrath were the young workers, not the youths who frequent the West Magnolia Avenue area, he said.

The clash was the latest in a series of setbacks, including replacing a new but faulty roof. Galotto went through his life savings of $300,000, then had to sell the building and rent it back.

“I did a stupid thing to vent my anger on a business page,” he told the Star-Telegram. “I learned not to use Facebook or the computer when I’m not completely sober. I am not proud of myself. Facebook is too dangerous — like a car or a gun — if you don’t use it properly.”

And he doesn’t understand why he made a seemingly anti-Obama remark. He supported President Barack Obama during the 2008 election and even tried to make a political donation, which was rejected because he still holds Italian citizenship.

“He’s the liberal Democrat in the family and always supported Obama,” Mancini said. “I’m the Republican.”

Galotto, a software engineer who met Mancini on Match.com before he immigrated from Turin, had some very naive ideas about freedom of speech in America, she said. “Carlo said, ‘People can put bumper stickers on their cars; why can’t I express my views?’ He didn’t realize his views could be so powerful.”

Dan Keeney, a Dallas PR consultant whose clients include St. Arnold’s, a Houston microbrewery, said Zio Carlo can put the whole messy episode behind it.

“I doubt much lasting damage was done by his initial comments,” Keeney said by email. “Plenty of people patronize businesses despite, and not because of, their owners. People lined up for soup from the Soup Nazi,” he said, referring to a character from “Seinfeld.”

Galotto’s biggest challenge now is the continued interest, which is exposing more people to his earlier statements, Keeney said. “And this gives him further opportunities to say things he might come to regret. We call that the echo effect.

“I suspect some, like me, didn’t know the brew pub was open and will head down to check it out,” he said. “The exposure isn’t all bad.”