I’ve noticed a disturbing trend with a lot of small snowboard companies and their facebook pages recently. Many of them seem to be deleting any negative comments they receive.
You can’t do that and it will only make things worse. Here’s why:
How you deal with negative comments is important
Everyone will receive negative comments once in awhile. The whole point of your facebook page isn’t just to hi-light what makes your company so awesome, but to also show how you treat your customers and critics.
Firstly, if you delete anything negative, it just becomes a press page that no one will want to interact with. There’s no 1 on 1 connection when you only push out positive stuff about your company. Not to mention, word will spread if people find out you’re deleting comments.
Secondly, people will watch how you deal with the negative comments. I’m not saying you have to say thank you for the negative comments, but you need to keep things professional and use reason to show why you disagree with the negative comments and take it upon yourself to be respectful, but passionate about what your company does.
If your company really is doing the right thing, you shouldn’t have anything to fear from negative comments, rather, you should welcome it as a chance to show your supporters that you really believe in what you company does and it’s not all just fluff.
If your company is actually in the wrong, how you respond to negative comments and make amends is just as important. People understand that you may make mistakes sometimes and you’ll be surprised at how well people respond if you admit your mistakes and do your best to make it up to them.
In the end, you’ll gain more respect by keeping things civil and responding professionally to negative criticism instead of just deleting everything bad that’s said about you on your facebook page.
– Jed