A week-or-so ago, I was perusing my Twitter feed when I saw a tweet accusing someone of deleting negative comments from a blogpost. I’m not going to name names because that argument is totally irrelevant here. What I want to talk about is how deleting negative comments from your blog, however instinctive that reaction might be, is actually a waste of a great branding opportunity.
Most people speedily delete negative comments because they think that if someone sees them, word will be all over the place about how bad their product/service/blog is. Truth is, had the person who triggered this blog post not deleted that comment, chances are only a handful of people would have even noticed. As it turns out, his action went viral because a few people tweeted about it. Not what was intended, and in the event, probably did huge damage to his brand–and quite the opposite of what I call ‘Mindful branding’.
Dare to think differently
First, everyone has negative reactions to their service or products at least some of the time. That’s life. So for most people, seeing a little negativity merely alerts them to the fact that this product or service is pretty normal. And if this is all there is, then chances are what’s being sold isn’t so bad.
More importantly though, if you take the time to address someone’s negative comments you can even turn a bad situation around. You may be able to explain convincingly why a certain event/situation happened, along with what you’re doing to make sure it never happens again. Or you may be able to recommend a different product that would meet the customer’s needs more specifically.
Turning negativity around
Mindful Reputation Management
It is a huge reputation management mis-step to behave as if negative feedback doesn’t exist. There is no way it can be considered effective damage control. It makes a lot more sense to face criticism squarely and do your best to win over the dissatisfied customer. You come across in a much more credible way by confronting the person who is criticizing you (in the nicest way possible of course). When the person who wrote a negative comment sees that you’ve deleted it, your sort of confirming what they felt: telling them they were right all along.
I know that some will disagree with me over this–and that’s alright. Healthy debate can help us all understand more about the complex subject of branding, don’t you think?
Search Engine Journal
SOSG
How Negative Feedback Can Still Help Your Brand
Dealing with negative feedback
STOP! Don’t delete those negative comments!
A week-or-so ago, I was perusing my Twitter feed when I saw a tweet accusing someone of deleting negative comments from a blogpost. I’m not going to name names because that argument is totally irrelevant here. What I want to talk about is how deleting negative comments from your blog, however instinctive that reaction might be, is actually a waste of a great branding opportunity.
Most people speedily delete negative comments because they think that if someone sees them, word will be all over the place about how bad their product/service/blog is. Truth is, had the person who triggered this blog post not deleted that comment, chances are only a handful of people would have even noticed. As it turns out, his action went viral because a few people tweeted about it. Not what was intended, and in the event, probably did huge damage to his brand–and quite the opposite of what I call ‘Mindful branding’.
Dare to think differently
First, everyone has negative reactions to their service or products at least some of the time. That’s life. So for most people, seeing a little negativity merely alerts them to the fact that this product or service is pretty normal. And if this is all there is, then chances are what’s being sold isn’t so bad.
More importantly though, if you take the time to address someone’s negative comments you can even turn a bad situation around. You may be able to explain convincingly why a certain event/situation happened, along with what you’re doing to make sure it never happens again. Or you may be able to recommend a different product that would meet the customer’s needs more specifically.
Turning negativity around
Mindful Reputation Management
It is a huge reputation management mis-step to behave as if negative feedback doesn’t exist. There is no way it can be considered effective damage control. It makes a lot more sense to face criticism squarely and do your best to win over the dissatisfied customer. You come across in a much more credible way by confronting the person who is criticizing you (in the nicest way possible of course). When the person who wrote a negative comment sees that you’ve deleted it, your sort of confirming what they felt: telling them they were right all along.
I know that some will disagree with me over this–and that’s alright. Healthy debate can help us all understand more about the complex subject of branding, don’t you think?