{"id":2522,"date":"2011-02-10T13:20:53","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T13:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=2522"},"modified":"2011-02-10T13:20:53","modified_gmt":"2011-02-10T13:20:53","slug":"the-antidote-to-negative-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/the-antidote-to-negative-commentary\/","title":{"rendered":"The Antidote to Negative Commentary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As much as we might not want to admit it, something negative about our brand will<\/em><\/strong> be said sometime by someone in a social network.\u00a0 It might be due to a change, or something out of the brand\u2019s control or only one little misstep in many months, but chances are, that unfortunate experience will be shared.\u00a0\u00a0 Such is the nature of information-sharing through social networks.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s that same nature of social media that also gives us a powerful antidote to negative commentary \u2013 ENGAGEMENT.<\/p>\n

We might be tempted to cover any negative feedback with a huge push of positive messaging, stating and re-stating how wonderful our products and services really<\/em> are. This attempt at damage-control, however, does little if anything to protect our brand reputation.\u00a0 Whether or not our products and services are usually<\/em> terrific doesn\u2019t matter to the person who had a different experience with our brand, nor to those closest in their social network.\u00a0 What matters to them is the one unsatisfying experience they had.<\/p>\n

This is where engagement becomes vital.\u00a0 We can stay disengaged and pretend nothing negative was said, but ignoring those comments won\u2019t keep them from spreading quickly through various social networks.\u00a0 If we choose instead to engage with the consumer(s) making those comments, we have a huge opportunity to help positively change the perception of our brand.<\/p>\n

Be careful not to come to those conversations with a defensive or even offensive position.\u00a0 Consider the following \u201crules of engagement:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Listen carefully.<\/strong> Search out any additional negative commentary, and be open to truly hearing whatever is said about your brand.<\/li>\n
  2. Ask genuine questions.<\/strong> Ask as many questions as you need to ask to feel you understand your customer\u2019s complaint.\u00a0 This information can inform your next steps now and in the future of your brand!<\/li>\n
  3. Empathize. <\/strong>Empathy lets your customer know they have been heard. <\/strong>This step <\/strong>shouldn\u2019t be too difficult, because you truly are sorry that the experience was not top notch for your customer.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Make it right. <\/strong>Based on what you learned through steps 1-3, let your customer (and their social networks!) know what action you will take to restore their faith in your brand.\u00a0 This is the step that has the power to spread a newly-positive message throughout this customer\u2019s social networks and effectively wipe out the previous negative message.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Bottom line: When the going gets tough, ENGAGE<\/a>.\u00a0 Your customers \u2013 and your brand \u2013 will thank you for it.<\/p>\n

    Ted Rubin<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>Ted Rubin Ted has a deep online background beginning in 1997 with Seth Godin, as CMO of e.l.f. Cosmetics, & recently as Chief Social Marketing Officer, Open Sky. Originally posted at SheSpeaks<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As much as we might not want to admit it, something negative about our brand will be said sometime by someone in a social network.\u00a0 It might be due to a change, or something out of the brand\u2019s control or only one little misstep in many months, but chances are, that unfortunate experience will be … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,7],"tags":[1040,31,32,1027,958,30,1041,1029,3,103],"class_list":["post-2522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-tedrubin","tag-clients","tag-community","tag-marketing","tag-online-communities","tag-shespeaks","tag-social-media","tag-social-media-4-comments-tags-brand-reputation","tag-social-media-marketing","tag-ted-rubin","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2522"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2526,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions\/2526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}