According to a recent Nielsen study, more than 50% of consumers use Social Media to express their satisfaction, lodge complaints or ask questions of the brands and companies they follow. For one in three, sharing a bad experience or rebroadcasting the responses they receive is common practice.

1. a social media primer
defending your brand against negative word of mouth

2. Across the Social Web, brands are
doing much more than simply
marketing their products: they’re
addressing customer questions,
solving support issues and protecting
their reputations.
According to a recent Nielsen study,
more than 50% of consumers use
Social Media to express their
satisfaction, lodge complaints or ask
questions of the brands and
companies they follow.
For one in three, sharing a bad
experience or rebroadcasting the
responses they receive is common
practice.
what you should know

3. states of fandom and the bother scale
source: twenty pixels

4. build credibility before you need it
The first key to protecting your
brand from negativity is to
insulate them by forming close,
trust-based relationships with key
communities and influencers.
With that foundation in place ,
you’ll be able to stop the
negativity when – not if – a
situation arises.

5. make leaving feedback easy
The easier you make it for upset
customers to contact you about their
problems, the less likely they are to go
elsewhere to vent.
Luckily, most Social Media platforms
make it easy for our fans and followers
to get in touch.

6. take it offline
When it comes to sharing feedback,
complaints or frustrations, it’s always
best if your fans to do so on your
owned channels.
Even in those environments, however,
it’s easy for negativity to escalate and
quickly fill your feed.
When that happens, it’s important to
remain calm and move the dialogue
away from the thread where others
will be exposed to it.

7. let your fans come to your rescue
Sometimes the best way to respond to
negative word of mouth is to let our
communities address it for us.
It’s okay to ask for help, or to point to
an online conversation that gives fans
an opportunity to further express their
opinions.
It takes tact, but a response from a
peer (who also happens to be a loyal
fan) has the potential of being more
credible than anything “the brand” has
to say.

8. have a plan
We’ve all read our share of cautionary
tales, so there’s really no excuse for
getting caught by surprise when it
comes to negative word of mouth.
With access to a variety of business
units within your company and a
myriad of tracking tools at your
disposal, you should know – in close
to real-time – when a storm is on the
horizon.
The key is to be prepared before
negativity happens and have a plan in
place.

9. Be proactive – have a plan to
address the “what ifs”!
Respond quickly and in “real-time”
– don’t let things spiral out of
control!
Value complaints – and learn from
them!
Listen to your communities –
they’re your biggest fans and most
inexpensive focus group!
key takeaways

10. let’s connect
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11. a social media primer
defending your brand against negative word of mouth