Not all of our mothers taught us, “If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all”

Companies considering social media often ask us, “What if people say nasty things about us?”

Our answer is, “If people want to say nasty things about you, they are already doing so on other channels. Having an official social media presence allows you to respond.”

There are some surprisingly positive benefits of communicating openly on social mediums. For example, Social RSS used a post on their Facebook page wall to apologize for a bug in their system; 7 fans “liked” their post, and one fan thanked them for it. No one responded negatively. How differently would this have played out if Social RSS had left the problem for a user to discover and broadcast on a third-party channel?

Another consideration is that one nasty comment often prompts your fans to jump in and support you.

Mitre 10’s ‘Big is Good’ commercial on YouTube attracted 50,000 views and numerous positive comments. The video also attracted two negative comments.

The first called the star of the commercial fat. This comment was removed and other fans replied with:

•    “He's not just fat he's quite strong, stronger than you anyway”

•    “i agree...he's not fat he was a strong man champ before he did the adds i know him we works out every day for quite a few hours”

•    “Dont be hatin on the big boys!!!”

•    “I love the big guy!”

The second comment was “big prices arnt good”, which was rebutted with “But Big Discounts Are”.

If you are being open and honest on social media: you will develop a community who are your first line of defense, you can proactively prevent negative comments, and (if negative comments still slip through) you have the opportunity to respond.