Social media can make or break your online reputation. Likes and followers are all good, but when used inappropriately, social media can create a PR nightmare for you!  Brands and public figures have all paid a heavy price for their social media blunders. To make sure you don’t fall into the same trap, here’s what you should stay away from:

Insulting others or posting something controversial – Controversy may be good for movies and celebrities, but for businesses it’s usually not.

Don’t post anything malicious against any person, company, corporate group etc. It might help you grab some eyeballs initially, but the backlash won’t do you any good. Worst-case scenario, you’ll find yourself slapped with a legal notice.

Boring posts – Make your posts innovative and catchy. Your posts must have a unique perspective and personality.  The crux of branding is to instill your sense of humor, ideas, or perspective within each post.

Ignoring comments – Agreed that it’s time consuming to monitor each and every comment and response to your post, but there is no escape. Initially you have to revert to every comment posted by the customer, but as you build a strong online presence you can post a follow up comment per post to show that you care.

Sometimes the feedback that the clients share is more like an attack on the company’s reputation than a request for help. What can you do in such situations? The best approach is to focus on showing everyone how important your customer is to you. Humility and graciousness should be your two keywords here. In addition to that, you may also find the following tips useful when dealing with angry customers:

 

Respond Quickly – Don’t take too long to revert. Be polite and tell the customer that you have heard his/her complaint and that you are working on it.

Don’t lose your temper – Don’t lose your temper at any cost. Clichéd as it may sound, customer really is the king, treat him like one!

 

Talk the conversation offline – Make use of direct messages or mails if required. If the customer is just being unreasonable it’s the best to take the conversation offline. Make sure the first response is public, for people to know that you respect what your customers have to say.

Image source: Grant Cochrane/Freedigitaphotos.net

 

Google+