5 Steps to Resolve Social Media Negativity

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It can be difficult to live on the internet, especially for those selling products or services. Negative comments and reactions to your social media posts are common and almost expected, regardless of whether you’re a company or an individual. These comments are inevitable. But the most important thing is how you handle them. Neglecting to handle these comments can cause damage to your brand and result in customers leaving.

ReviewTrackers found that 94% of customers have rated a negative review as a reason to steer clear of a company. It is important to have a clear policy that outlines what you should do if you see negative reviews on social media. This will allow you to address the issue before it becomes a problem.

1. Negative comments about your brand or yourself should be addressed immediately

Do you have to address every comment that you get? We believe so. Public relations are essential to build personal and business brands. Part of that includes customer engagement in positive and negative situations.

You can use the comments you receive to help you understand your followers’ feelings about your brand and content. This will allow you to build better relationships with them.

Rosie Hall, a PR & Communications Manager for Hable, agreed with this approach. She stated, “My policy to deal with negative comments on Social Media has always been to respond quickly, be apologetic and then try to get it off the public-facing places to discuss it privately. This way your audience will know that you are dealing with any issues but not the details. Negative comments should be deleted as soon as possible. It can make people angry and could lead to your brand hiding something. A big no!”

Royal Bank of Canada’s Twitter Response Team adopted this approach. Instead of being defensive, they approached with empathy.

The exception to this rule is your mental health or that of your social media manager. This should be the priority over all else. It can be hard to deal with any type of attack on social media, from negative and fair feedback from customers to incendiary or outright unfair comments from trolls.

Negativity is normal. Talk to your team members or friends about how a rude comment has affected you. The commenter may not know you, no matter how personal it might seem. Focus on the positives and be confident in your worth.

2. Learn how to respond to negative comments of all types

A set of guidelines should be included in your social media strategy to respond to all messages and notifications. The team should know how quickly they must respond and have some templates for messaging on-brand that address frequently asked questions.

Stephanie Gutierrez is a Senior Social Media Strategist for Online Optimism – a digital marketing agency. She shares the steps and system that the agency has created to deal with negative emotions. Stephanie states, “At our agency we create a Communication Guide for every client at the beginning of our partnership. This allows us plan for any comments or messages we expect to receive on social media. We can then respond promptly.

These are steps to help you create standards for your social media communications based on Stephanie’s guidelines

• Find out which questions customers are asking the most. Also, note the positive and/or negative feedback that they give. To see the questions and comments that you have received in the past, you can also check your social media accounts.
• Have a list of possible responses for negative situations you anticipate. This will prevent users feeling that you are copying and pasting the same messages to everyone.
• Keep these responses up-to-date so that they are relevant and not feel outdated.
• You should respond to the person in a personal way bycalling their name. Recognize the problem they are facing and assure them that you will rectify any negative experiences. Customers feel heard when personalized messages are sent. Nike’s customer service team went beyond personalization and offered to help customers find the item they wanted.

These are not only the best practices that Stephanie recommends, but there are other things you can include in your Communications Guide.

• Reiterate frequently your policies regarding harassment in your social media accounts
• To respond to comments, use the BIFF
• If you don’t need to respond, ignore the comments.
• Consider blocking them or muting them (after you have determined that the person is a troll).
• Report the post if it goes too far.

You’ll be ready for any situation if you have your policy. As an additional layer, ensure that every employee has a communication policy. This includes how to handle negative comments on public-facing channels. This will ensure that everyone within your company is aware of how to handle any situation.

3. You must respond promptly

Rafal Mlodzki (CEO of Passport Photo Online) points out that time is a critical factor in responding to negative comments via social media. People expect a fast response to problems, and social media allows them to do this by allowing customers all over the world (and from different time zones) to engage with you. A lack of response could indicate that you don’t care about customers’ opinions.

Buffer has a lot of experience quickly responding to messages. Marketing and Customer Advocacy team members have access to our social media accounts, so they can quickly respond to users. This tweet was sent at 4:40 AM (GMT+1), and received a response by our team four minutes later.

Although we have a large team for customer engagement, it isn’t feasible for all business owners. You don’t have to hire a large staff to engage customers. However, you might share your experience on your profile.

4. Negative comments should be approached with facts, not emotions

When confronted with negative comments, it is important to respond factually, regardless of whether you are admitting that you’re wrong, offering solutions, or countering misinformation.

If your brand or you are wrong, please apologize and offer a solution to the customer. Logan Mallory, the VP of Motivosity, which develops employee engagement software, advises against engaging if someone is posting just to get a reaction from you or your audience.

Logan says, “There is a difference between someone who expresses concern and someone who is trying to instigate.” Negative comments should be addressed if someone is directly concerned. However, comments that are merely inflamatory are best ignored. Reacting to negative comments will not help and may cause the commenter to post more.

This option will not work in every situation. While it may seem right to ignore negative comments, it could also be suspicious to your followers.

Share fact-based sources to refute misleading information if you are asked for clarification. Do not respond directly to the troll – it is their job to decide what your response should be. Leave a comment to clarify any confusion. Although this isn’t from social media it is a great example for how to put out fires with facts. The Mazda dealership responded by listing the steps taken to resolve the customer’s problem, effectively closing the case.

You must decide what approach is best for each case – responding with facts or ignoring them.

5. Always report harassment

There is a fine line between harassment and criticism. If someone makes you uncomfortable, or threatens you via social media, don’t hesitate to report it.

You can find out what policies Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have regarding filing complaints about abusive behavior. You can also block accounts that harass you and your followers, and highlight them to your legal team.

You might consider creating a “rules for conduct” post that you can pin to your profile. This will give you a reason to boot someone if they behave in an inappropriate manner.

You should cultivate positivity in your community

Social media has the incredible ability to connect people around the globe. Unfortunately, this can also lead to negativity. This is something brands must deal with as they grow and gain more attention.

It’s crucial to be positive and encourage positive interactions with your community members when dealing with social media trolling. David Bitton is the Chief Marketing Officer at DoorLoop, a property management software company. He recommends you dismiss any conversations that could lead to conflict before they get heated. If there’s no value in the conversation, it will not help you achieve your business goals via social media.

When managing your community, your goal should be to create a safe environment for people to talk openly, listen to each other, ask questions and express their opinions respectfully.

You can keep track of everything that happens in your comments and mentions across your social media accounts. Engage by Buffer is a great tool to keep track of everything happening on your social media accounts.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://onlinemarketingagencies.net/?p=4854