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Today I had lunch with John Heaney, a local Cleveland entrepreneur, marketer and social media advocate who also blogs about marketing at Orange Envelopes. One of the topics we discussed was the hesitancy some organizations have about implementing social media strategies.

Issues about controlling the message, intellectual property, firewalls, time commitment, return on investment (ROI), measuring results and goal setting are all common concerns, but in particular John raised a point that I've been hearing a lot about lately: negativity.

Specifically we've both heard from individuals and companies who worry that if you're participating in social media, you run the risk that people will say something bad about you. This is true, but the risk is there whether you are online or not. No matter how ethical or clever you may be, someone, somewhere, will be ready to disagree. There's no getting around that. None of us is capable of pleasing everyone all the time. But if we're participating ourselves, we can:

Listen:

People will talk about you or your organization whether or not you can hear them. Ignoring them won't keep the criticism at bay, so you might as well pay attention. If you set up Google alerts on your name or brand, subscribe to Yahoo and Google news search feeds, Twitter searches, etc. you can find out what they're saying about you—be it good or bad—immediately. If we know what others are saying about us on their blogs, our blogs, Twitter, Facebook, online media, discussion forums and elsewhere, we have the opportunity to take advantage of that knowledge and use it productively.

Learn:

Criticism comes in many forms. Some people (trolls) like to leave rude blog comments or make nasty remarks about your brand just because they're angry or they like to stir up a bit of controversy. But other comments can be more constructive. If someone complains about your customer service or your product, this points out a potential problem. You can now determine if this is something you need to fix or if it was just a one-time issue. Someone's product problem could also give you a great idea for a new product or a new version of an existing one. If someone's critique can lead you to build a better mousetrap, then it's worth a listen.

Evaluate:

What was the context of the criticism? Does it have a bearing on your reputation? Your customer service? Your product design? Should this information be passed onto others in your organization, or can it be safely ignored?

Rebecca Kelley, Director of Social Media for 10e20, recently wrote a critical blog post about a panel discussion she attended, Black Hat vs. White Hat Social Media and the Battle for Common Sense. In the original post she had made some negative remarks about Beth Harte who is the Community Manager at MarketingProfs and very well regarded for her knowledge of social media marketing. (I read her blog, The Harte of Marketing and follow Beth Harte on Twitter.) Beth evaluated the situation and chose not to respond. As it happened, other people reacted for her. Readers responded in ardent support of Beth. Rebecca read their comments. She then toned down her blog entry, documented the change and contacted Beth directly to arrange to discuss the panel more thoroughly. Beth and Rebecca each listened and evaluated the situation so that the matter could be peacefully resolved.

You don't need to act on every mention that is made of you, but if you listen regularly you can develop a system of triage in which you determine which mentions deserve which reactions. If you do this regularly and establish a policy, you'll be prepared for the big nasty—that seemingly harmless negative reaction that will get you bad international press if you don't respond in the right manner.

Act:

Once you've evaluated a comment—and deemed it worthy of a reaction—it's time to use that knowledge productively. Can the comment help you improve your widget design? Send it to your product development team. Has it shown a weakness in your customer service department? How can you fix it? Frank Eliason of Comcast became the international poster boy—for using social media to enhance customer service—when he start solving people's problems on his Twitter account, Comcastcares.

Respond:

Let the person who made the comment know what you intend to do. As I recently wrote in Here’s how one web designer deals with negative comments, I like to take a deep breath and step back a bit before responding. If during your evaluation you decide that a response isn't necessary, then you can get back to other matters. But if a response is warranted, then one wants to react clearly and tactfully. Did the person point out a problem that you are going to solve? Explain how you will solve it. Was the comment the result of a misunderstanding? See what you can do to clarify the confusion—while allowing the commenter to save face. If you take the diplomatic route then you both have a better chance of coming out with your reputation in tact. If you respond in anger you'll just make the problem worse.

If you can't solve the problem, do your best to explain why in a manner that will let the commenter know you really did your best. Share the situation with higher-ups in your organization, find out if there is a way to turn the problem into an opportunity, and keep listening.

Establish a baseline reputation via social media NOW.

I've been telling people for years that they need to establish their online presence before someone else does it for them. It behooves us all to take control of our own message. If I'm a small business without a Web site or other online presence, then the only things people will find when Googling my business will be reviews from others, media mentions, social media comments and other opinions written from an external perspective. If I build a site (or hire Heidi to build it for me), start a blog, create a Facebook page, share tips on Twitter, etc. then I can share my expertise and let people know what my business stands for.

What John cleverly pointed out, during our lunch, was that this social media presence also serves to establish your baseline reputation for providing good customer service, offering educational content or whatever else you might be communicating through social media. If you've been doing this regularly, then next year, when customer X blogs about your lousy information resources, he won't have as much clout. Other readers will see that most customers love your blog, enjoy using your customer discussion forum, follow your Tweets, etc. Customer X isn't speaking for the masses, but is instead in the minority.

And, since you are already listening, you will now be ready to respond to customer X in a timely and appropriate manner. If all goes well X can join the majority of your other happy customers. This is a far better outcome than you'll have if X writes a song—extolling your failures—that just happens to go viral on YouTube.

Related Social Media Resources

• A Chronology of Brands that Got Punk’d by Social Media
• Biggest Mistakes Made by Social Media Gurus
• Chicago Domino’s Gets Social Media Right!
• My biggest social media mistakes by Mack Collier
• Top 10 Twitter marketing blunders in photos
• United Airlines Online Public Response to Dave Carroll YouTube Video: 9 Tweets

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