In Monday’s post, Jay Baer and Amber Naslund explained how to use social networks to respond to a full-blown communications crisis. They offered some great advice for handling a PR nightmare on a social channel. But how can you keep it from getting to that point? How do you diffuse conflicts before they turn into all-hands situations?
Having a social media presence means you will have social media fights. If you seek attention, some of your buzz will inevitably be negative. No brand is immune. But you can take steps to minimize conflict — and even turn a negative comment into a golden moment that wins your brand positive attention. Here’s how:
- Hurry, don’t rush. It’s been drilled into our heads that speed matters in social communications. You don’t have two days to respond to a crisis. You probably don’t have two hours — depending on when the situation develops. But that doesn’t mean you can get away with an off-the-cuff response. Critical comments require immediate attention. That doesn’t mean typing a response right away. It means doing your homework.
- Know the lay of the land. Before you engage a negative commenter, you need to develop an understanding of the conflict. There are three pieces of information you need before you can formulate an appropriate response:
- Who is this person? Putting an unhappy commenter in context is critical. Is this person a long-time fan or are they new to the brand? Do they have a history of engaging the brand? Do they complain a lot about other brands? Do they have one issue that they bring up over and over? Are they affiliated with any other groups? Your response needs to be calibrated for that specific commenter — particularly if they have a history with your brand or if they’re bringing up a long-standing issue.
- Are they asking for a response or just venting? Believe it or not, there are cases where silence is an appropriate social media response. The more irrational, profane or immature a comment seems, the more likely it is that your commenter is after attention, not a resolution. Don’t feed the trolls. Instead, look for ways you can address any legitimate grievances they may have had without publicly engaging them further.
- Where does the response need to come from? Are they reacting to something you said on that channel or are the reacting to something the brand did in another context? Who do you need to coordinate with to come up with a satisfying response?
- Be honest in your response. Don’t promise a response you can’t deliver. Don’t offer lip-service apologies. Don’t delete a controversial post and pretend it never happened. You may occasionally need to delete content in extreme circumstances, but that content should always be replaced by content that fully acknowledges and apologizes for the original error. You need to be sure it doesn’t look like you’re trying to cover up a problem.
- Be classy. Don’t adopt the tone of your attacker. Be the bigger person in every way you can muster. Creating a clear disparity between the anger of your commenter and cool, calm way you’ve handled the situation builds sympathy with other followers. You’re not going to win anyone over by being proud, sarcastic or dismissive. It might feel good in the heat of the moment, but you’ll regret it later.
- Have conversations, not arguments. An angry fan is an invested fan. They wouldn’t have lashed out at you if they didn’t care. If someone has a concern that stems from having an investment in your brand — say, not liking your new logo — try asking questions about their issues, rather than just telling them they’re wrong. Remember that no one ever really wins an argument. So instead of trying to badger an irate fan into resenting you silently, show a little empathy. If you can demonstrate that you take their concerns seriously and find ways to prove it, then you’ve validated their decisions to care about your brand. Do it right and they’ll love you more than ever.
- Use your surroundings. What if the complainer isn’t reasonable? If you can’t get them to have a civilized public conversation, then you need to try to take that conversation private while simultaneously getting your supporters involved in the conversation. Taking the conversation private makes most people more reasonable, since they’re no longer playing to the crowd. At the same time, turning the initial complaint into a community-wide discussion makes the disagreement more abstract and invites other fans to come to your defense. Developing a reputation for handling disagreements well is one of the best things that can happen to brand because it shows definitively that you’re as invested in your fans as they are in you.
Have you ever had to cope with an angry fan? How did you handle it? What did you learn?
Image credit, imbarney22, via iStock Photo
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Biggest issue I have had to deal with is a fan who brings up the same issue over and over, not matter how many times and ways ideas and solutions are presented to him. How do you get them to either finally hear what you are telling them, or give up and go away??
Jeff –
It depends a lot on what their issue is. In some cases the most you can do is try to minimize harm. You do that by making their complaints as private as possible. Try getting them to complain by e-mail instead of on Twitter. One other way to do that is to get them offline entirely — buy a cheap disposable cell phone (the prepaid kind you get a drugstore) then say you'd like to set up a five minute phone meeting with them. You'd be amazed how often just hearing another person's voice adds an element of respect to the dialogue that wasn't there online. And if they really are crazy — hey, at least you didn't give them your work number.
Two other really radical things I've seen other people do are:
1) Give them a job to do. If they hate your software — ask them to be part of fixing it. if they hate your survey design, challenge them to come up with a better one. Sometimes all an angry fan wants is to be part of the process. Don't offer this unless you really mean to take their work seriously though. Asking someone to do work for you (for free!) and then ignoring them can only have bad results.
2) Give them away. Maybe there's a company out there that does what they want better than you do. It runs counter to everything we're taught about business, but sometimes the best thing for you (and your disgruntled fan) is for them to cross over to one of your competitors. Of course, that won't work if you're a small company they're your biggest client. But if you're spending a disproportionate amount of time on one fan — it might be cheaper for you if they took their business elsewhere. Don't just tell them to go away though — put them in contact with the place you think they should be. It's a classy move and it's one they're likely to remember and maybe even tell their friends about.
Those are just a few options — nothing bulletproof, I'm afraid. Tell me a little more about it and maybe I'll think of something better.
Thanks for the reply and insight! The issue in particular deals with a ski area that my family manages. There is a small but vocal community of people who constantly are pushing for improvements to the terrain park. They continue to request bigger jumps, a half pipe, etc.
The explanation to them has been everything from "show me the money" to "it's a mountain that caters to all types" to "there are lots of other improvements that have to come first". And yet whenever a new post comes up on Facebook, it eventually more of than not finds itself turned back into the same argument. It takes away from the overall community, and detracts from the conversations that were happening around the original post.
Jeff –
I gave it some thought, and I think the best way to handle this is to set up a special community for those people who wish the ski area was more "extreme" (for lack of a better term)– make a separate a FB page, Twitter account, wherever they're active. You're trying to do two things simultaneously here. 1) You're getting some space between your "extreme" community and your regular community so that one doesn't dominate the other. 2) You're finding a way to engage your extreme community and put their enthusiasm to good use.
You can't do #1 without #2. If you don't make a real effort to make these secondary FB pages, etc. attractive to the extreme community, not only will they not participate, they're resent you and be bigger pains than ever. It has to be crystal clear that this isn't an attempt to shut them up — it's an attempt to serve them better. Even though they're a small community, you have to give them full service. Special content, deals — maybe even a special event at your facilities on a day that would otherwise see very little business. It might not make them as happy as a half pipe would — but it lets them know you take them seriously and value their business. And then when the day comes that you can make these improvements they've longed for — you've got a community ready to spread the word about them and make them really pay off.
Hope that's helpful. Let me know how things turn out.
Jesse
This is brilliant. It's actually little lessons on leadership and life. I love it.
I'm not an angry fan but someone at the receiving end of a brand's ire after I expressed disappointment. Here's how that went: http://ideasmithy.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/bombay…
I don't know if they learnt anything from it but a lot of other people did!
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"Hurry, don't rush" is excellent advice. Just because social media allows customers to fire off semi-anonymous rants at a moments notice doesn't mean you should fire back just as quickly. Prompt, but carefully measured response is the way to go.
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