Trolls and Flamers: How to Respond to Negativity on Social Media

In my presentations about companies using social media, I'm often evangelizing the importance of being responsive to complaints, problems, or issues that might arise in the public space. On social media, oftentimes a problem ignored is a problem magnified. But, then, sometimes responding to a negative comment or post just drags you down into the mud, and something that wasn't originally a big deal blows up out of proportion. Just this morning, one of my workshop attendees asked me how to avoid coming across as defensive. How do you know when to respond and when to walk away?

Believe it or not, you can look to an unlikely source for the answer to this etiquette question: the United States Air Force. They've created an Air Force Blog Assessment, which I found on Global Nerdy. It's designed to guide decisions about responsiveness and escalation on social media, and I think it's great.

Click the diagram to download the PDF version (455K).

At Missing Link, we take the "Aikido" approach to negative feedback. Setting yourself up in opposition to harsh feedback often strengthens it. So if we do feel a negative comment warrants a response, we'll embrace it -- "Thank you so much for helping us make this company better..." This isn't a saccharine appeasement; it's genuine. We're grateful for engagement, because engagement presents us with the opportunity to improve. That being said, we also recognise that sometimes there's little point in taking a discussion further, and it's up to our internal wisdom whether we keep trying for resolution or accept that it's time to let something go.

What are your strategies for responding to negativity online?