LIBR 246-04/13 Web 2.0 (Fall 2010)

An organization must respond quickly when it discovers negative things being written about them online.  It's true that if you ignore it, the comment might fade away.  Maybe no one will be interested.  Maybe you have enough good will out there to cancel it out.  But it will still be read.  If the company does not respond, then anyone who reads the attack will only get to hear one side of the story.  If the attack is compelling enough, users may link to it, re-tweet it, or otherwise share it with the world.

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>

In the spirit of all the lists we’ve been reading this week, I thought I’d do my own: 8 things an organization should do when they find negative things being written about them online…

1. Monitoring. Rather than haphazardly finding out the bad news, the organization should be monitoring its brand so that it can be alerted as soon as bad things are said.

I find the Open and Honest approach to be admirable.
You will learn just as much, if not more, about your company and your customers from their comments about what they don't like about your organization or product, as you would from their praise.  Praise is just easier to swallow.
That being said you don't want your brand to take too much of a hit…so the first step is admitting that you would like to work towards making your product better and encourage constructive feedback.