Metz, The Social Concept

Loving Your Haters: Embracing Negativity on The Social Web, Part Two

July 8, 2009

This is a continuation from yesterday’s post.

Key #2: Integration, duh!

You need to show that your brand is hip and connected with the social web (even if it’s not hip, it can be connected) in order to prove that your brand is (1) part of the conversation and sees (2) feedback via these tactics. It should go without saying, but I’ll state the painfully obvious: you should know of popular social destinations and integrate with them.

This can be tricky because there can be a very wrong way to do this. Know your place in the conversation. You don’t have to prove you know every social web platform unless you’re trying to be funny or amazing, like this West Side Story parody video.

In fact, you don’t want to present the paradox of choice and overwhelm your users.

I suggest eight social web destinations. In addition, use some of the integration tools/services that make might set you apart from everybody else.

Here’s one to get the ball rolling: Try the Twitterboard.

I could go on and on with the best ways to integrate and make your site super social web-friendly, but I’ll spare you. If you want more. Request it in the comments or directly let METZ know you want more than just a taste.

What’s important here is that the brand will be part of the conversation, and in the same way as outlined above, you need to respond to each and every feedback entry. It’s also important to respond on the same (or multiple!) platforms. If you get slammed with bad press via a Youtube video, create a Youtube video that explains you see their complaint and you’re on the case.

Key #3: Don’t be afraid to bridge online and offline as a way to be creative!

You might remember this creative example. It was brilliant. Not only did Delfina, a San Francisco pizzeria, show they were in tune with negative Yelp reviews, but they also bridged the gap between old school and new school. I especially love that latter fact. It accomplishes a great deal. You bring a lot more people into the conversation (think inactives). I think the focus, rightfully so, was on the action of taking back the negative criticism, but it was how they did it that garnered a lot of attention.

Not to make this into a mantra, but I’m speaking to a larger theme on how to reclaim the negative online press: be creative. Two simple words, but an enormously difficult concept. If creativity is lacking (especially early on) remember that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Your brand can simply reshape an existing idea. For example to reshape the above idea, reclaim your bookstore’s negative Yelp reviews be printing them on bookmarks and include the bookmarks in every book purchase. That way on one side of the bookmark is the negative review, which catches everyone’s attention, and on the other side you print your ad and info along with a statement that tells everyone you get it.

These are just three key points to get you started. If you need more, drop me a line at jason [at] adammetz.com.

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