Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
City restaurant boss tells how social media account hacker left his business ‘floating about in cyberspace’
Sales took a dive as staff ‘booted off’ Facebook
IT can be tough trying to advertise your independent business, but when hackers steal access to your social media accounts, the process becomes even harder.
That was an experience felt by local restaurant Porters, who have only just this week regained their allimportant Facebook page after almost a month “floating in cyberspace”. Managing director Kevin Webster noticed he had been booted out of his business page on Easter Sunday.
Porters had closed temporarily earlier this year, while staffing issues were worked through.
Ready to go with a new spring menu and new head chef, Mr Webster said the impact of not being able to publicise what they were offering their audience was devastating.
And the hack had impacted sales negatively.
“We received an email on Easter Sunday, March 31, saying my page had been accessed,” said Mr Webster.
“When I tried to log in, I had no access at all to my personal Facebook page, which is linked to my business page.
“The hacker removed me, my partner and our accounts manager from the page. And it was just floating about in cyberspace. Nobody had any access to it at all. Facebook and social media is a powerful thing. We’ve been in business nine years, and we’ve grown our Facebook audience to more than 15,000 followers.
“So it is a lot for a small business, we put on a lot of good content trying to advise our customers what we’re doing, to showcase what we do.
“And having no access at all for the last three weeks, I think has had quite a negative impact at a time where we’ve just reopened, and in the middle of putting a new spring menu together. It has been very difficult to get that message out. And we have seen a decline in sales.”
Mr Webster points out the struggles faced by the hospitality industry. He hopes providing a consistent service, along with a new menu and a kitchen under a new head chef will keep customers coming back. Hospitality businesses, he said, are in dire need of support, not just from customers but policymakers too.
“We have a new
head
chef
and have absolute confidence in everything he is going to do,” he said.
“Things are not going to change greatly, but he is certainly going to put his own stamp on things. We have to continue doing what we do.
“It is not great seeing other businesses closed at the moment.
“There really does need to be a package of help from local authorities and the government, across hospitality, without getting into the politics of it.
“Everyone is feeling the financial pressures at the moment, there are very small margins for restaurants.
“We went through quite a lot of changes at the turn of the year, with staff and the team.
“We just have to keep trying our best and get people interested in what we do.
“Hospitality is a tricky industry and we have to be consistent. It is key.”