As we opened our emails this morning we experienced a first here at Half a Bubble Out – our first negative blog comment. Not just negative – hostile, harsh, rude, ignorant, irrational, ridiculous – are other words that come to mind. It’s ironic actually, because we’ve been discussing blog comments around here a lot lately, asking questions like: Do they matter? Should we care? How should we moderate them? How long should we leave comments open? Do we respond to every comment? But we haven’t yet had the opportunity – yes it’s an exciting opportunity! – to respond to a very negative blog comment until now. So we of course had to share these internet marketing tips with you about how we responded.
To give some brief context, one of our company owners, Kathryn, wrote a blog post last week about how she disagreed with a commercial for the Cadillac ELR because it essentially proclaims that the achievements and greatness of America rests in the fact that we don’t take time off, and if we do, it diminishes our earning potential. Read the blog and see the commercial here: The Makers of the Cadillac ELR Commercial and I Simply Disagree.
In response to the blog post, we received the following comments from the same person who obviously didn’t think them through before commenting, because he had to do it twice and changed only a couple of words:
When someone brings something up in public, we think you automatically have permission to respond publically. With tact, grace and wit Kathryn audaciously did just that:
Irrational, ignorant and outright argumentative comments are exciting because it gives your business the opportunity to show its character. Your response allows you to show the depth of who you are and what you stand for as a company; and not just what you stand for, but what you stand against.
Inevitably at some point in your internet marketing efforts, you will be faced with a negative comment that seems more like a merited attack, like the comment above. When you are, here are some suggestions for responding:
- Determine the type of comment you received. While the attack itself may not be merited, the issue that catalyzed it does have merit in this type of negative feedback. Essentially, you or your company did something wrong or said something someone didn’t like or agree with, and they are angry.
- Create a comment approval policy for your specific company. If someone leaves a comment that is blatantly obscene, links to a site with adult content, or the comment doesn’t make sense and is obviously spam, you’ll probably just want to delete it.
- Respond promptly, within 24 to 48 hours. But don’t respond immediately after you receive the negative comment. Take a little while to cool off if the comment got you heated, and craft a thoughtful response.
- Have someone read your response before posting. A coworker or friend can provide valuable feedback so you can make sure you are saying what you mean and it’s being read the way you intend.
- Remember, it’s just one comment! Your response gives you the opportunity to show your character, but it’s also just one comment on one blog post. Don’t forget that all of your other internet marketing efforts are getting positive results.
We hope this information is helpful, and we encourage you to use negative comments as an opportunity to show the character of your business and respond with grace and dignity.
These tips can be used in other areas of your internet marketing strategy too, like responding to social media posts. To learn more, download our free offer below. It also includes a section about responding to negative comments.
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