Complainers on Social Media – What to do?
Advice on how to write an effective complaint.

When we first started learning about social media, one of the most pervasively sited reasons for delving in was the idea that the “conversation” is going on without you; you might as well participate; it’s a golden opportunity for you to be able to influence and respond to the dialogue versus simply ignoring it. This is especially true with negative feedback I think – I buy in to the idea that it’s better to know about it then be completely ignorant to it – and I also buy in to the idea that it can help drive positive changes within your company/product/service, that is, if your company structure is flexible enough and has the time and personnel to be making responsive changes.

Anyhoo, what I’ve realized recently is that this whole idea of engaging “influencers” and targeted groups is great when it’s all positive, but when you are dealing with an angry, frustrated or disappointed individual, it’s very hard to know what to do. There are two ways to probably look at this situation: 1) This is a great opportunity to showcase our customer service skills 2) Wow, this looks really bad; we need to get rid of this post. Now, you may poo poo on the option 2, but honestly, I know very few companies who feel comfortable getting in a pissing match with an irate customer that is most likely not going to be swayed by a compelling argument, no matter how sincere, congenial or right the argument may be, especially in such a public forum. You run the risk of further infuriating the negative “post-er” and you also run the risk of making the other people in your social media community uncomfortable. For me, there is really no light
at the end of the tunnel that is assured when reaching out to the angry, let alone a predictable response when engaging the author of a negative comment; you may just be adding fuel to the fire. So, what do you do?

Here is one suggestion I thought of, although this is just an idea meant only for discussion; I have no idea if this would be the “right” course of action:

If someone does post a negative comment and you don’t feel comfortable leaving it on your wall for example on Facebook, take it down, but let them know via a message that the comment did not go unnoticed. The next step in my example is inviting them to share their opinions on a blog or in a forum; you would like them to be able to weigh in on the important topic they brought up. You can create a specific entry or topic around that complaint, and then have a subject matter expert within the company respond. (This is assuming that the negative comment had some semblance of intellectual value and wasn’t just a string of manipulated, but obvious expletives.) A blog or forum is more conducive to in-depth conversation, dialogue that can’t be achieved in short posts like on Facebook. And in my opinion, both offer a more appropriate platform for this type of communication; you are not ignoring the individual. You are actually giving them a voice in an arena that is more private for you, the business, (Not public on a “wall” that pops up on all your fans or friends pages.) yet STILL AVAILABLE to the public – since some people just want to make a “public” stink. And, you are actually doing a couple of  things that social media people always tout – ENGAGING and LEARNING!

(One caveat to my previous statement about blogs and forums being more “private”, bloggers link to other bloggers, and the viral growth and page ranking growth of a blog or forum can be greater than a Facebook page in a lot of ways. You of course don’t want this blog or forum coming up higher on Google than your company web site, especially if it’s addressing a cluster of complaints, so I would put together a Key Word avoid List, so that the author avoids using certain words and tags.)

Back to my point – with a blog or a forum, you’re also providing great content that others may find interesting and compelling. For forums specifically, content is more like a discussion, so others may feel the need to defend, agree, disagree, etc. All great stuff. And, you don’t just have to address complaints; the majority pf posts can be about the good stuff going on, educational stuff, editorial stuff etc. One of the main pitfalls of my defer-to-blog idea, is you have to have someone with the time and confidence to be the discussion point person on behalf of the company. This can be a very difficult situation in that if something is said that is wrong, it may fall back on this individual, and often times, having an approval process can be too tedious – by the time a discussion or content is approved, it may be too late. A possible solution to this is to not make it an obvious company blog – meaning don’t post Official CEA Blog all over the place or host it on your company site etc.
Disclose that the author works for and is paid by CEA, but the comments and discussions this individual posts represent their opinions only. You still have to have a huge trust factor, but this may be a good option for some. Lastly, one other pitfall is that most companies are uncomfortable with housing a collection of complaints in one place and making it so readily available for anyone to find it on the web. This is a legitimate issue; so it’s really just weighing your options:

1.     Take down the post – that’s that (May even want to block the post-er.)
PS – There is no shame in this! It’s your social media page. And, if you don’t want to be social with someone who is slamming you, it’s your right to manage the page the way you want! You don’t “owe” anyone anything – this is your tool, and although ENGAGING, talking, and interacting is all part of the true beauty of social media, it’s ultimately your tool to wield and control how you see fit.

2.    Talk to them on Facebook – Facebook has a “Discussion” tab where you can carry on the conversation away from the extremely exposed “wall”.

3.    Alternative game plan – like the blog or forum.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure you have a protocol in place for dealing with
negativity on your social media sites. It will happen, so ya gotta have a plan.

FOR CONSUMERS:
My advice for those posting negative feedback is to keep it clean and keep it smart. I saw a post from someone on one of our client’s social media pages where they were very frustrated when trying to sign in to the web site. They went point for point, talking about what was going wrong. Turns out, there were programming issues with this crucial page, and they ended up fixing the log-in. The important thing to note, yes, she was frustrated and yes, it wasn’t a cushy post, but it was written in a way that wasn’t overtly inflammatory and that wouldn’t cause any immediate discomfort just from reading it. A post worth commenting back to! So, negative post-ers, if you want to post a complaint, concern, or vent, make sure that it’s worth posting, and don’t lash out! It will just get you removed or blocked from ever posting again. But, more importantly, if you have a legitimate statement to make, the best way to get it resolved or addressed when
using social media as your outlet is to not abuse it. In my social media world, be respectful and you’ll receive respect in return. ☺

www.ceamarketing.com

Q: Everyone is using social media platforms. How have the rules changed on traditional marketing? How do you build a successful marketing program on the web?

The choices for marketing and public relations look a lot different than the old days.  In the past, real estate agents could stick a for sales sign in the front yard and the phone calls would pour in.  House hunters spent the weekend at open houses looking for a place to call home.  Today, most industries, not just homebuilding, have to be me more creative in driving traffic to their products.  Social media has become the new kid on the block that everyone wants to befriend.  Because of a struggling economy and the evolution of technology in the 21^st Century, we now have new online media avenues like blogs, social networking, and online forums that have homebuyers literally hanging on to the edge of their keyboards to take it all in. The web is the perfect opportunity to tell the world about your expertise. If you have not dove into the social media world, now is the time.

Understanding Social Media

Pulling a dusty encyclopedia from the family study was the old school way to research a topic unfamiliar to you.  Now, we bring a cup of coffee into our home office and surf the web.  Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia with constantly updated definitions.

Wikipedia defines Social media as online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It’s a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one to many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use.

Sound overwhelming?  Take it slow.  Spend time researching blogs and online forums in the homebuilding industry.  Some good ones to follow are topbuilderblogs.com, and themartellexperience.com/blog/.

Writing Effective

The number one rule in marketing and public relations in the homebuilding industry is to understand the needs of the homebuyer and communicate your expertise.  Think about the message you want your niche industry to hear.  Writing is not a bunch of strung together adjectives that make a house sound pretty.  It’s about giving the homebuyer what they want in digestible nuggets relevant to their desire to build or buy a home.

Blogs are powerful mediums in establishing connectivity because you can get instant feedback after a blog has been posted.  Blogs are meant to drive action and what better way to convince someone to take that step than having the ability to respond instantaneously.  Writing a blog is one of the most proactive solutions to fighting the negative mainstream media on the housing industry.  You can offer custom-friendly answers to any issue that is currently flooding the market.  If a newspaper columnist has written a negative piece about the down market, have your sales team put together numbers that prove otherwise in your company.  Always be first and always be credible.  Blogs should be well thought out communication tools not last minute thoughts thrown together.  Communication is power and opting for plain language as opposed to standard industry jargon goes a long way.

Getting Followers

Building an audience for your social media efforts can be exhausting at first and it may be easy to get discouraged just understand it takes time.  People need to know where to find your relevant posts.  It’s best to create links to your hompage, online news room, post to your Twitter and Facebook accounts and work into online newsletters.  People are even beginning to put their social media information on business cards and in their e-mail signature.

Blogs, tweets and Facebook posts should be done on a daily basis on topics of industry interest with your personality incorporated into the mix.  Homebuyers like to do business with people they know and trust.  Everyone including the media, homebuyers, homebuilders and your competition is on the web reading social media content.

Consistent and regular social media updates produce higher traffic with solid search engine results.  Tracking your social media efforts can be done by setting up free Google alerts.  An e-mail will be delivered to your inbox when the key words you have selected are published.

Once you have built a following base, you want to keep them, so ensure you are interacting with those who send you direct messages to your Twitter account or posts responses to your blog entry.  Etiquette also says to follow those who are following you within reason and reply to posts in a timely fashion.  Someone in your marketing department should always been monitoring your social media accounts.

Social media can be scary because there are so many unwritten rules to follow.  Relax.  Do your research and put together a plan of action.  It may be hard to hit the send button on your first blog entry or tweet post, but once you start the rewards are plentiful.