You’re Busy, but are You Checking Facebook? ^Featured

It’s a fact of life for businesses to use the Internet in various ways to achieve success. One of those ways is social media. Companies of all sizes have web sites and Linkedin pages and Facebook and Twitter accounts. They HAVE them. Are they using them appropriately?

You’ve been told that you must have these accounts. But just having them isn’t the key to using them to your advantage. Social media must be updated regularly to have any impact on your business. Tweets and status updates may be scheduled in advance and blogs can be written by ghostwriters. Easy, right? Except for one thing… Who is monitoring the comments?

The idea of social media is to be social. This implies a relationship between what you are putting out there as a representation of your company and the followers who respond to the information. If you post something, someone replies, and you never check for replies, this person will likely be unimpressed and feel slighted.

The other issue with not monitoring your social media comments is that someone could post something very derogatory or negative and you wouldn’t know. That could turn into a snowball of bad comments and company bashing. By the time you figure it out, you may have lost customers.

So, what do you do if someone does leave a comment for you? Let’s start with a positive one. If someone is complimentary, thank them and feel free to pursue further what it is they feel positive about. This gives you a look at what your clients want and like. If someone posts a question, find the answer and post it. Be honest. If you don’t know, find out. If it turns out to be something unpleasant, it probably needs attention anyway. You can let folks know you are fixing it.

The most difficult kind of response is to a negative comment. Those comments can make you feel defensive or angry and want to engage in a way that isn’t productive. Consider these carefully, because your comment can start an all-out nightmare or turn you into a great role model in the eyes of your clients.

What you should NOT do is ignore the posts. That is leaving someone who felt strongly enough about something in your company that they sought out your page and left you some information. It may not be information you want to hear, but they left it for you. Do not ignore it.

Resist the urge to hit the delete button. Deleting the comment will only cause more fallout in the long run.

Absolutely do not respond in a negative way. No name-calling, no angry posting, nothing that you wouldn’t say to your grandmother! And don’t try to cover it up with excuses .

The only way to deal with negative social media comments is directly, professionally, and thoroughly. If the person has a problem, acknowledge the issue, apologize sincerely, and try to solve the problem. Imagine that the person is standing in front of you and you are in charge of customer service. If you wouldn’t say it to their face, certainly don’t type it on the page.

Yes, use social media to promote your company. Just remember to monitor comments and address each one individually as if the writer was standing in front of you… and your grandmother was watching over your shoulder.