Laura Donovan — March 30, 2017 Follow @thewordpro
The current climate of Social Media can be a bit hot as of late. Updates people feel very strongly about tend to draw some serious commenting, often not very pleasant. While most of the really nasty, negative comments are aimed at personal updates or news articles, occasionally negative feedback or comments make their way to a business page, perhaps even to your business page.
Here are 3 tips for handling these comments like a Social Media Marketer without damaging your reputation.
1. Be Polite and Helpful
Even when you don’t want to be nice, be nice! Again, this is a very public display of how your business’ customer service issues. Respond directly to the commenter and attempt to correct any issues. Highlighting your customer service skills for everyone to see will let potential customers see your willingness and readiness to address and solve any problems, contributing to your company’s overall reputation.
If the situation requires a more in-depth discussion for a solution direct the commenter to contact your company privately. Have them send a direct message or an email describing the need for more information and take it out of the public eye if necessary.
2. Respond to Every Comment
Responding to positive feedback regarding your products or services, or comments on your blog or just pleasant comments in general is easy. Negative reviews, feedback, and comments are where it gets uncomfortable. It is very important not to ignore the negative.
If someone has a valid complaint or if they are just commenting about something incorrect it is important to respond. If the complaint can be resolved, do so right in the comment section so that other visitors can see that this is not actually a problem or what a solution is if there is an issue with any products or services.
Additionally, responding with a solution to a complaint or explanation to a poor review can showcase your business’ willingness to work with customers and fix any issues that may come up in the future. It allows your business to provide a bit of good PR in response to a negative situation.
3. Don’t Delete or Hide Comments
It is important that your initial response not be to just delete the negative comment or block a user. Walmart ran into a situation a few years ago, where they were deleting negative comments. This caused a huge backlash from its customers and took a bit of good PR work to rectify.
Trolls are out there, but if the complaint is valid and the issue can be resolved do it right in the comment section (see #1 above.)
However, if the comment is a blatant lie, hateful, is a link to a competitor’s products or has absolutely nothing to do with your update or company it is OK to hide those comments.
Using Social Media to market your products/services is so much more than just slapping up a photo or link to your blog. It is important to have a Social Media Policy and have a dedicated professional handling your business accounts.
Beyond just posting updates interacting and engaging with your Social audience is vital to the success of your marketing and advertising strategy.
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