I used to work for a guy. This guy has gotten a really bad rap over the years. Like, really bad. Multiple forums and third party sites were dedicated to saying negative things about this person. It was so bad, that people were even making Twitter accounts specifically just to bash him and his company.
So he hired a team of social media specialists, myself included, to push down all the negative things about him on the web.
Well, obviously there’s no way to really push down all the negative activity on the web. We could, however, create a strategy in which we could show all the fun and good things that he’s doing now in order to show that he’s really not such a bad guy.
In truth, he wasn’t a bad guy. He just had a lot of really disgruntled individuals after him because of a bad deal he made with a third party company to run a particular section of his business.
But anyway, the point is, we had quite the job ahead of us!
After a while of creating a positive image within his social media channels, we decided it was time to move on towards the third party websites & forums in the hopes of encouraging people to chat with us personally about their issues instead of slandering us on a third party website.
I said exactly this:
“I’m sorry for this misfortune. We would love to speak with you personally about your issue and hopefully get it resolved for you as quickly as possible.”
I did not hide behind a fake name. I also gave direct numbers & emails in which they could contact me.
In most cases, they were happy to get in touch with me, but in a lot of cases, people just wanted to make the situation worse by creating even more lies. One person even tried to say that I was no longer an employee of the company. What the what?! Why would I be trying so hard to help resolve an issue for a company that I don’t even work for?
After a while, there came a point where I had to stop engaging with them. It only took a couple times of going back and forth when I realized that I wouldn’t get through to them no matter what I said.
So at that point I said:
“I’m sorry you feel that way. You have my direct email & cell for when you’re ready to talk.”
And that was it. I had to ignore the rest of the conversation. Did it infuriate me? Frick yeah it did! I was so irritated that these people would rather moan about how awful my boss was instead of trying to actually resolve the issue.
You will always come across people who would rather moan and complain instead of solve the issue.
Here’s what you should do depending on the platform:
Twitter:
Block & report spam. No matter how many times they try to activate a new Twitter account to get at you, just block & report spam. Who cares if they have a Twitter account that does nothing but bash you? They may have a total of 15 followers…MAYBE. And who’s to say that those 15 people are even paying attention? Just block & spam.
Facebook:
If you can’t resolve the issue, then block them. Once blocked on Facebook, all the comments that that person made disappears so your reply comments to try to resolve the issue will look silly. So go ahead and delete your comments too. Everyone will forget about it in no time – no reason to ever talk about it again.
Third party sites:
As stated above, try your best to get them to talk to you directly about the issue. If after a couple communications they don’t seem interested in communicating with you, then leave it alone. There’s no reason to keep fighting over something that you’re going to lose against. They do not want to resolve the issue, so walk away.
Your own blog:
Try to reason with the individual and if it gets too out of control or the issue just isn’t resolving, there comes a time when you need to just delete the comments and spam/block him from ever returning. Most of the time you’ll be able to resolve issues on your own blog, but there are times when you just can’t.
The point is…
There are exceptions to the rules and there are people who simply don’t want to kiss and make up. When in those situations, the best option is to walk away tall, knowing you did everything in your power to fix the situation.
How bout you?…
Have you ever come across an irate person who just didn’t want to solve the problem?Â
Thanks so much Morgan for sharing this excellent post and great example with us! It's always important to try to show attention to our customers and fans and try to fix the situation, but it's equally important to know when it's a loss cause and how to handle those situations as well. Sometimes they can be hard to accept, but we have to remember that we cannot please everyone and if it's draining your time, energy and spirit to no avail, well it's time to say good bye and move on.
Great post! I'm happy to have you here!
Thank you for allowing me to guest post! 🙂
That's absolutely right. We realized that our time would better be spent creating a positive imagine instead of trying to convince stubborn people who were more interested in complaining than solving the problem.
Like you said, can't please everyone. 🙂
Great post on how to deal with negativity. I love that you can block them if they really cross the line. I believe it's always best to first try to resolve the issue but it cannot always be done. So people just love creating fires.
Hi Lisa!
You said it exactly right: some people just love creating fires. And then to continue to feed the fire!
Definitely try to resolve the issue first, but if not, there are lots of options to get rid of them and ignore them. 🙂
Thanks for the comment!
Great guest post Morgan
Thanks, Justin! 🙂
Great post Morgan! I am constantly trying to express this exact sentiments to my clients when they face any sort of attack via social media platforms. I can't stress enough how important it is to know which comments you should respond to and which comments you should simply ignore. These are great nuggets.
Hi Dany,
It can definitely take some time to realize when you're being trolled and when you have a truly concerned customer, especially if you're not very internet savvy. But that's why there's people like us (and Melissa) who are here to show peeps how to not only deal with the situation but how to spot it. 🙂
Thanks so much for the comment!
I see PR nightmares all the time as most bloggers and online 'preneurs do through the course of working in these atmospheres. Your approach is rock solid in how you handled such situations and when they get out of hand and someone doesn't abide by a commenting policy and shows no interest an true discussion, but only focuses on bashing for the sake of bashing then you have little choice but to block/wipe out threads of conversation on a blog you own.
I never mind negative feedback, but I do expect respect as should anyone. Never leave a comment on a site unless you would be prepared to say it to that person's face, people drive by venting is just unprofessional and can haunt them if future employers search for their name and find out what type of personalities they have online it can cost them a future opportunity.
Hey Justin,
You are spot on! There are just certain times in which you have to lay down the hammer to people who are straight up being disrespectful.
I love that you said never to leave a comment on a site unless you're prepared to say it to their face. The majority of the people online feel "protected" because they aren't face-to-face and it's become an epidemic.
Great insight! Thanks for the comment.
Admiring the dedication you put into your website and detailed information you present.
It's good to come across a blog every once in a while that isn't the same old rehashed material.
Wonderful read! I've bookmarked your site and I'm including your RSS feeds to my Google
account.
Why thank you, Thelma! What kind words of encouragement! I'm glad that you've stumbled upon my blog and I'm very glad to hear that you enjoy it enough to add it to your daily reads. Thanks for taking the time to leave me your thoughts and feedback.
Have a wonderful week ahead,
Melissa