Social Media is all about the interaction between expert and audience, company and customer, blogger and fan.  It’s that dynamic that sets it apart from writing a book or producing a TV show.  Yet when we open up the conversation we’re bound to hear from people who don’t agree with us.

The internet is not always filled with calm, reasoned people.  If you’ve ever read comments on YouTube you know exactly what I’m talking about.  People take great pride in ripping apart things they haven’t spent any time thinking about.  We call them trolls.

But there’s also a group of people who have legitimate complaints.  They are rightly upset at poor customer service or disappointed in receiving a bad product.  What do we do with them?  How do we respond to their negative comments?  Do we just turn comments off all together?

Those are good questions.  Because if you’re starting a business online the last thing you want is for people to rip you apart.

So how do we respond to negative comments?

First we need to resist the urge to turn comments off.  While some blogs / websites work well without comments, removing comments breaks a great advantage of using social media (you know, the social part).  Secondly, the absolute worst thing you can do is arbitrarily delete and edit comments.  You can’t allow some bad comments, but edit others.  It reeks of favoritism and selective behavior.  And those are two things that will set your audience against you.

So again, how do we respond to negative comments?

I recommend two things:

1.  Assume innocence.  Don’t jump to the conclusion that the commenter is an evil, uneducated, morally questionable troll.  Assume that maybe they just aren’t very good at expressing themselves.  Not everyone is a Pulitzer prize winning author!  And even if they are a troll you don’t need to become one yourself.

2.  Address the feedback.  Don’t attack the commenter.  Address the feedback.  Maybe your product does really suck.  Maybe you need to fix your customer service.  Maybe they just caught you on a bad day.  Address the feedback by giving specific, action-oriented, steps you are taking to correct the issue.

3.  Thank them.  They may be unhappy.  But they are still a customer.  If you assume innocence, address their concerns, then they may very well become another customer.  Thanking them is a way to show them that you are a real person, and that you actually care.  People are forgiving if they think you care.  Plus, just because they don’t like your product it doesn’t mean your manners have to disappear!

Receiving negative comments is never easy.  But dealing with them now gives us a chance to salvage relationships and build good will.  Ignoring complaints may make you feel better, but it doesn’t solve the problem.  If someone is upset enough to post on your page, then they are upset enough to post somewhere else.  This way, you can at least know there’s a problem and can fix it.

photo provided by flickr user zachklein