How to Deal with Negative Feedback in Social Media

Mashable.com, which offers social media news and commentary, has a great article about how companies can go about dealing with negative feedback which is incredibly common in social media where it’s very easy for an individual to make a seemingly big impact in open forums such as facebook fan page discussions and wall posts. They outline the need for companies to both identify the type of feedback their receiving and then find an appropriate means to respond.

There are actually significant opportunities present when you take a look at some of the types of feedback that are given to companies to turn a negative into a clear win for the company.
Mashable identifies four common types of problems, including “straight problems” with products or services that can easily be cleaned up by rectifying the customer service issue and also helpful in that they enlighten you into the problems with your products and services that you may not have found in your own testing. “Constructive Criticisms” include suggestions for improvement that can be taken to heart and acted upon by the company as well, these basically do all the hard work for you.

The more difficult types of feedback to deal with are “merited attacks”, where your company did something wrong that clearly angered the end user, and “trolling” or “spam” which can be detrimental to fostering an open discussion that’s meaningful. Typically these types of feedback aren’t easily fixed because the end user is at a point where they’re difficult to sway back on to your side. For product providers, offering a gift certificate or a free service goes along way to show your customer service and support is worthwhile, but for those that have a deep seeded hatred for your company, you’re going to run into problems. Read the full article at mashable for their thoughts on how you can appropriately respond.