Don’t Hide From Bad Publicity

Sonya Wood - July 2, 2009

Many companies are afraid to delve into the brave new world of social media. A major reason for concern is that consumers can speak their minds and have their opinions heard by a larger audience than ever before. For most companies, this can be a great thing. Your consumers are actively engaged in your brand and are speaking out about it. However, the fear arises when the conversations are not positive. What do you do when your consumers are giving not so great feedback on your company? Do you just ignore it and hope it goes away?

The answer to that is a simple, no. Your audience is going to be on different social channels, whether it is Facebook, Twitter, blogs or forums, giving their opinions. For good or bad, it is necessary to have a presence on the social media channels.

We all know that every company will experience some negative word of mouth comments.  If a company discovers that a customer is unhappy, they should reach out to the person to rectify the situation, turning a negative experience into a positive one. Social media channels are the ideal place to do that. Once that person is satisfied or the audience knows you have reached out to do the right thing, you will not only recover from the negative publicity, you have also gained positive publicity. Leveraging social media can not only overcome bad publicity, it can also fortify strong relationships with your loyal consumers.