One of the questions often asked when meeting with a new Social Media client is “What do we do about negative comments?” I had one client tell me that he wanted them taken down immediately. Doing that misses out on a golden opportunity for your followers to see how you react to negative issues and stand behind your brand.
Social media is providing people with all new ways to share, collaborate and communicate. You now have the opportunity to connect one-on-one with anyone, anywhere in the world, and turn a negative into a positive.
A huge downfall of many Social Media initiatives is in not replying when confronted with an issue, good or bad. I grant you that there’s no place for profanity and I would remove any hurtful or profane posts but a negative comment gives you the opportunity to right a wrong as well as take negative momentum and make it work for you. If a product is defective, offer to repair or replace it…… even offer a value added extra. Other followers of your page will then see that you have corrected the issue and even offered a good will gesture going, above and beyond. Ideally, respond to every post almost immediately, get the customer to connect offline if there is no quick fix and get them a resolution quickly. In a lot of cases, the customer comes back with a retraction, positive update or “thank you.”
Don’t ignore negative comments, own them! Don’t ignore, be social, it is social media after all!