New clients almost always ask this question: what do I do if someone leaves a negative comment on my blog?
A recent post by Jeremiah Owyang answers the question of negative comments beautifully and completely reflects The Blog Squad's beliefs as well.
A negative comment is an opportunity.
An opportunity to learn from your customer/client/subscriber/reader about a potential problem in your business.
An opportunity to clarify your position.
An opportunity to get valuable feedback and improve your business.
An opportunity to improve your relationship with the commenter and others who may be reading the comment.
An opportunity to correct a mistake.
An opportunity to take the high road, acknowledge possible issues and correct them.
Of course it's best if you find out about the problem as soon as possible. This means you should be getting email notifications as soon as someone posts on your blog so you can read, review and respond quickly.
What if someone posts negative comments about you or your business elsewhere on the web? You better have Google Alerts set up so you're notified and again, can respond quickly. At the minimum you need to have alerts for your name and for your business name.
The other question that comes up is whether or not you should delete negative comments. I'll open that question up to you. I'm curious to know how others respond to negative comments on your blog, forum or website. Leave your comments below (nice ones only! LOL, just kidding, respond how you wish!)
