Negative Comment Found. World Ending.

“I’d love to get involved with social media from a corporate standpoint, but I’m worried about losing control of the conversation.”

I will guarantee that nearly every PR, marketing and social media expert has heard this phrase, perhaps uttered verbatim, from one, two or three-dozen clients in the past 12 to 24 months. And it doesn’t mean that your client is worried about thousands of ecstatic users flooding the Internet to deify their product.

Your client is worried about the bogeyman of blogging – negative comments. First things first, turning commentary off is not an option, so nip that thought in the bud. The whole point of a blog is to facilitate conversation, so why are you trying to clamp it down?

With silencing commentary off the table, how do you teach clients to deal with the fact that not everyone online loves their product or service?

1. The Inevitability of the Internet - it’s not if, but WHEN you receive negative commentary. It’s a fact of life, both Web and real-time, that no matter your opinion, someone in the world has the polar opposite viewpoint. Someone is probably already dissing them RIGHT NOW but they just aren’t paying attention. Prepare and have a strategy for when adverse feedback does appear.
2. Listen, then Talk – responding to comments to clarify points or positions, correct wrong information or just to ask questions is not just okay, it’s expected. Online conversation goes both ways, so bloggers should absolutely respond to reader’s points/questions/suggestions.
3. RAARGH HULK SMASH - Never, ever respond in anger. Take a timeout and examine the comment in question – Are they misinformed? Did they actually read the post? Do they have a point? Consider what sort of response, if any, is warranted.
4. Trolls Under the Web-Bridge – Once a blog starts to get popular, the trolls will start to pop up. Trolling is commenting purely to elicit an angry response or to start a fight – most of the time the commenter is also anonymous. These should be ignored or, in many instances, deleted.
5. The Big Red Button – Deleting negative comments could seem like a very appealing strategy, but it starts to look shady when you only have glowing remarks on your corporate blog – or none at all. That isn’t to say you should never delete comments (or block commenters) but it should only be used in rare situations – for obvious trolling or personal/inflammatory attacks.
   

The big thing about negative comments is that it means your company is engaging users – the community is willing to listen to what you have to say and respond. Use this as an impromptu focus group – find out what your users are concerned about or requesting. Who knows, you might even act on their suggestions.

-John Terrill

(Photo Courtesy of blueforce4116)