When businesses are thinking of to get into Twitter, and set up a Facebook business page they often are afraid what people can say about them. Maybe they could complain and other will see this and they could lose business and reputation.
But the opposite is the fact!
You should be thankful for everybody who is complaining on Twitter and Facebook. This gives you the opportunity to get in touch and to explain your position.
You better should be worried about the people who do not complain but turn away disappointed from your business and you don’t know why and how to reach them to get the issue fixed.
To simplify social media and to make it work by 100 % for your business you should include all people which work in you company to showcase what they do and to communicate with your customers.
This can be done trough a corporate network of blogs where anybody can write about any topic he or she interested in, independent from the company topics. The same way IBM already does.
You can also motivate the whole staff to Tweet and to get the word out about the company, news, events other interesting topics. The same way like Zappos does.
Activities like a corporate network of blogs, Twitter and Facebook can show a human site of our business and motivate future customers to get in touch with you. The recent customers can become “evangelist” for your business and become your most valuable asset in social media marketing!
To benefit from this tremendous business potential which social media offer to you, you should change your thinking and turn away from the dogma that you have to and must control any communication of your employees!
You need to have effective social media policies in place, train your staff and the most important TRUST your employees and show them that you are willing to hand over control to them.
You also need to ensure yourself that anybody in the company understands the responsibility which accompanies this strategic move! A great way is to establish a self reacting control based on trust where everybody is looking what the colleagues are doing to prevent mistakes.
If anybody misuse trust, than it works like in any other company and business where employees misuse good will. Say good bye to this one and go ahead to work with them who understand and are trustworthy.
Ask your employees to give 100 %, care the same way and take responsibility as you do. Leave them space to make their own decisions. And the one who don’t want to, fire them and look out for people who want!
Here are some ways you can deal with ugly messages in social media:
- 1. Put the truth out for everybody to see it.
- 2. Communicate with the person which puts up the negative comment.
- 3. Be thankful for every customer which gives you a negative comment. He still wants to talk with you!
- 4. Listen to your customers.
- 5. Treat your customers ALWAYS with respect.
- 6. Try to satisfy realistic requests.
- 7. Show that you care, step back and express regret.
- 8. Try to offer an alternative.
- 9. Get into debate and state your point of view.
- 10. Keep the conversation objective, polite, civil and honest.
As your conversation will stay online forever, anybody can see it and track how you have responded. This can rule about the way how the people perceive you and your business in the future. Keep this in mind!
—How do you deal with ugly Tweets and bad Facebook comments? I am looking forward to your comment.
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