#Takedownthebuffalo

I started out this post with "My cousin," but is that the correct term for someone who marries your cousin? Is she instantly related to me via marriage? Is she my cousin? I researched it, which is how many of my entries never come to fruition because I'm too damn busy with the research angle and likely forget the original topic. Need proof of that? See the post below this one where I write about almost burning down my house.

"My cousin" is actually no relation despite marrying into the family because there is no blood relationship. I looked into that term since it sounded yucky and discovered blood relationship is a relationship with a common ancestor. So while my cousin's wife isn't related to me, her children are because we share a blood relationship. 

Thank you for making these kids so we could add them to our family tree, but sorry you aren't part of it. 

But then I found Familytree Expert, a website that stated, "Most people would refer to her as "my cousin's wife" or "my cousin." BAM! Validation from the Internet and the Familytree Expert.

So...

My cousin, who used to be my number one blog reader, got on her high horse and started her own blog. It's called A Simple Life and can be found here. I check in once a week because her life is hilarious, and she is a decent writer. 

Recently, she had an experience she blogged regarding her terrible customer service with Buffalo Wild Wings. Because I know awful customer service--hello Amy from Home Depot--I related. At the end of the post, my cousin added the hashtag #takedownthebuffalo, and had we died laughing.

But the article itself is not funny.

So, in helping her go viral, and because she does not have Twitter (My god, why do people not have Twitter?), I tweeted it out to my 92 millions of followers. 

I am a firm believer in using social media to voice pleasure and/or displeasure regarding companies. I mean, they make apps for this sort of thing and hire employees to monitor these sites, so absolutely, I'm going to do it despite my kids rolling their eyes. I looked for the @buffalowildwings, but there wasn't one that wasn't specific to a store, so I couldn't send it to the Twitter handle. It didn't matter. Buffalo Wild Wings (@BWWings) reached out to me, asking for more information. They sent a link to a form, and my cousin took the time to fill it out. She is on a mission to #takedownthebuffalo.

She put the link to her blog post on Facebook so that her 100,000 friends could read it and pass it on to their 100,000 friends. Within a few hours, she'd heard from quite a few people, including some with great information. She discovered the manager had recently asked for a transfer to another store, and so that store received a call. She heard from someone who had forwarded her post to her son, who oversees the district. He wasn't happy and plans action. On and on it went with people telling their own stories and passing information on--hello, the power of social media. 

Of course, it can also go against you, which is what my cousin was teaching her children from this whole experience. Watch yourself. Treat people as you want to be treated. Don't act in a way that will not look good on social media because this is the world we live in now. We're all just a misbehavior away from ending up as the lead story on Yahoo or YouTube. My cousin is very aware of her anger and her own response to the Buffalo Wild Wings manager, and she knows the people in the line behind her might've videotaped her behavior. 

Welcome to the other side of the coin.

It is now in the hands of Buffalo Wild Wings. How they chose to handle it will go a long way in whether we dine at that establishment. I've boycotted quite a few places due to things I've read and witnessed via social media. Let's see how the buffalo responds.