Likeable Social Media - Digital Leadership Experience Week 3- The Good The Bad and The Responsive

Consider yourself as a brand for a second.  You have had a great deal of local success and are now ready to integrate yourself into the world of social media.  You are ready for the world to see! You launch a Facebook page, Twitter account, or the like and begin to promote yourself via social media, or the brand rather. You mention all the highlights of the brand, what makes you great and why people should intrust in you.  You are gathering supporters left and right people are talking about how great you are and how much they love the brand. It seems that you have built a great reputation amongst your supporters.  You have also engaged in some great conversations with supporters of "you" and have developed some meaningful relationships.

Then it happens.

Debbie Downer posts:

"This brand is the worst. I cannot believe the experience I had. What an awful experience. I will never use them again."

Now what? You think to yourself, "My reputation is tarnished." And begin to think of ways that you can turn back time and block Debbie Downer from being able to post on you page.  Then you snap out of it and realize that this is your chance to redeem yourself and defend yourself, your brand. However, because you're thinking rationally of course, you know that you have to be diplomatic in your response and defense. You don't want people pulling buckets of popcorn out behind their computer screens watching WWW (World War Web) commence, over Debbie Downer's petty remark. 

Kerpen explains on page 75, that unless you're ready to respond to negative commentary, you are not exactly ready for the world of Facebook. (2011) "If your company is not prepared to face the good, the bad, and the ugly, then social media in general isn't right for you now. If you are prepared to handle criticism and respond appropriately, however, then, having your own social network community where people post positive and negative comments will be a huge asset."(Kerpen, pg. 75, 2011)

Using the assigned readings, please respond to TWO the following questions. 

Questions:

1. Explain what strategies, according to Kerpen, organizations should use when counteracting negative commentary on social media sites. Why is it important to keep the negative comments posted, as opposed to deleting the negative and only keeping the positive? And why is it important for organizations to respond to positive feedback as well?

2. What advice would you give an organization that struggles with poor ratio of bad vs good feedback? Be specific.

3. Why is listening first and continuing to listen an important aspect in social media strategies?  How can this social media strategy best be carried out, in your opinion? 

Kerpen, D. (2011). Likeable social media: How to delight your customers, create an irresistible brand, and be generally amazing on facebook (& other social networks). New York: McGraw-Hill.