Bad online PR – how do you handle negative comments?

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In social media, a buzz word is “authenticity.” In simple terms, authenticity means being genuine, which we all know is important. But in social media, authenticity is everything.

You have to be transparent, honest, and genuine in any situation. Authenticity is easy when things are going well, but then what happens when someone posts a less-than-positive comment about your organisation, its services or your employees on their blog, Facebook page or Twitter account? Or what if a major event, such as a confidentiality breach, or a staff mistake puts you in a precarious position?  The key to a successful crisis-management strategy is what you do next…

Respond:  This is a measured and self-controlled action that tells your audience that you’re in control and able to work towards the best solution.
React: This behaviour tells your audience that you’re not in control and that you were not prepared for a negative situation.

While your first instinct may be to go into defense mode, don’t – this would be your reaction. A reaction, like “we’re sorry for any inconveniences we may have caused” doesn’t say you are doing anything to address the problem or concern. But directly apologizing and asking questions such as “how can we help?” will show you are responding, listening and intend to address it.

This is especially important when the rest of your audience is waiting to see what happens and waiting to judge you based on your response.

Just as important is the timeliness. Before the Internet, timeliness had a whole different meaning and was related to the print cycle of a newspaper. But now that information can be put on the Internet instantaneously, it’s even more important to address problems quickly. If you don’t discover a problem for 48 hours, it’s impossible to know how far the news spread, whether it’s as simple as an unhappy client or as serious as a breach of protocol.

Good news travels fast, but bad news travels faster. This is particularly important to keep in mind when you have a blog or Twitter or Facebook account. So how will you handle it?

Will you try to ignore it and hope it goes away, possibly making the problem worse, or will you respond with honesty and sincerity and do your best to remedy the situation? The good news is that you can prepare yourself and avoid potential disasters by setting a policy for how to respond to negative comments. Discuss details, such as “What will I say when a negative comment appears on my blog?” and “Who will monitor and respond to comments on Twitter, Facebook and other blogs?”

Remember this: you can’t prevent negative comments , but you can prevent them from spreading by paying attention and responding in an authentic, patient and timely manner. It’s important to trust your audience so that they will trust you and you do this by responding and not reacting.

If you continually strive to manage your organisation and your communication with integrity and authenticity, dealing with difficult people and situations will be far easier and short-lived.  Good, honest communication is founded on good, honest business principles.

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Smartlists – Facebook gets cleverer…

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Okay, so cleverer isn’t really a word, but Facebook is definitely growing more clever with every new feature.  One of the most frequently asked questions of all my new clients is…

“How can I keep my personal and business relationships separate on Facebook?”

Up until now, there hasn’t been an easy answer… that was up until Wednesday.  This report is from AFP.

Facebook, on Tuesday introduced, “smart lists” that automatically sort friends into categories and prioritise news from those dearest to members of the world’s largest online social network.

The rollout of smart lists commences on Wednesday and comes as rival Google+ seeks to win over users by providing sharing in “circles” that mirror real-world social groups such as family, friends, and co-workers.

“This is really something we have been working on for four years,” Facebook director of product management Blake Ross said as he gave AFP a preview of smart lists.
“We think this is the way people will make lists going forward,” he continued.

Facebook began in 2007 letting members individually sort friends into lists for targeted sharing of comments, photos and other digitised snippets of life.

The smart lists feature spares Facebook users the tedium of creating lists by automatically putting friends into groups, with the first four categories being work, school, family and city.
“It is silly for you to spend a Saturday afternoon categorising your friends on Facebook,” Ross said. “We want to make it as easy as possible to organise your friends.”

Smart lists are created and updated based on information people consent to share with friends on Facebook, according to Ross.

“Smart lists take all the pain out of organising friends on Facebook,” Ross said, noting that the feature was optional. “You can always add to or remove people from a smart list after Facebook makes a recommendation.”

Facebook, being the largest online social network in the world, is the place to be in order to keep up with opinions and social trends.  At timslatter.com we believe that businesses need to be present in order to interact with their stakeholders, and create and respond to opinions as they happen.

Public Relations is no longer limited to publishing houses and print professionals… any organisation with a little bit of web savvy can become their own independent publisher and curator of newsworthy content.  For more info – contact us.

Facebook deals… how to use them

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http://memeburn.com/2011/09/facebook-check-in-deals-south-africa-confirms-first-commercial-partners/

Facebook launches an app to boost positive interaction between organisations and their clients - on the ground.

What’s the basis of a good SM campaign? Valuable, authentic, and honest content.  Content that will engage and encourage your followers to act with integrity and support your brand/cause.  Facebook’s latest app, that was recently launched in South Africa enables organisations with a little bit of FB savvy to engage on a far deeper level that will reap an immediate response.

“South Africa is a natural market for this — we are massive users of Facebook on our phones,” says Adrian Hewlett of Habari Media, Facebook’s local sales partner. “There are 4.25-million active users in South Africa, of whom 3.1-million access Facebook through their mobiles. Another 425 000 check in to various places weekly.”
(source)

What this means is that the 425 000 (and growing) Facebook users who use ‘Places’ will be able to check-in to a place and share with their friends where they are.  If the place is running a special, they will be able to redeem the Check-in Deal when they check-in on their Facebook profile.

Whether it’s a free cup of coffee or a discount on merchandise, they will receive immediate benefit from engaging with the organisation through Facebook.  Mazda UK sold 100 cars in two weeks using Facebook Deals!

The service will offer four types of deal to commercial merchants:

  • Individual Deals, a one time deal which offers a discount or free merchandise to existing or new customers
  • Loyalty Deals reward the most loyal customers after a certain number of check-ins
  • Friend Deals offer discounts or vouchers to a group of up to eight friends
  • Charity Deals offer businesses the oportunity to donate money each time user checks in

Obviously, this doesn’t easily fit into all organisations, especially those that provide professional services or are NPO’s.  It does, however, open up opportunity for increased creativity and a new platform to engage with your stakeholders on a more tangible level.  This will be based on a history of good and valuable content generation.

If you offer your clients something to engage with on an ongoing and sustained basis, when you offer them special deals, they are much more likely to engage with that too, because you have an increased level of trust.  At timslatter.com we believe in working towards long-term sustainable relationships that are mutually beneficial.  Offering once-off Facebook deals that aren’t within the framework of a trusted relationship will be far less effective to building brand/corporate loyalty.  In fact – they may even be viewed as spam and end up being detrimental to your brand.

Great words make great posts

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There are so many tired and over-used expressions that plague everyday writing.  For those who employ the craft of writing and take time to create thought-provoking and encouraging literary pieces, we need to have an array of great words that will capture and communicate what we’re trying to say.

In order to make your posts stand-out, I have tracked down an inspirational list of words seldom used in modern writing – enjoy!

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Nathaniel Hawthorne once wrote, “Words—so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”

Those of us who make a living “combining words” appreciate their power to convey even the most-subtle shades of meaning. I love that “pretentious,” “ostentatious,” and “haughty,” are all synonyms for “arrogant.” But under the surface, they all have different meanings.

What follows is a list of some of my favorite words, a discussion of their shades of meaning, and an example of how it’s used:

• Nonplussed. Means bewildered or unsure how to respond. I always think of nonplussed as that look on someone’s face when they’ve been completely blindsided in a conversation or meeting. Example: The CEO’s tirade has left me completely nonplussed.

• Aspersion. Means an attack on somebody’s reputation or good name, as in “to cast aspersions on.” A second meaning is a sprinkling, especially with holy water. Not sure how this word ended up with these two definitions. Example No. 1: Let those without fault cast the first aspersions. Example No. 2: There was an aspersion of dust on the books.

• Insipid. Lacking flavor or taste; lacking qualities that excite, stimulate, or interest; dull. Example: Why do you insist on writing such insipid, dim-witted blog posts?

• Acquiesce. To accept or consent by silence or by omitting to object. So to acquiesce is not just to give in, but to give in by not objecting. (Acquiesce is also the most difficult word to spell on this list. Remember, “i” before “e.”) Example: Do not acquiesce to his unreasonable demands for perfection.

• Feckless. To be feckless means to lack purpose or be without skill; ineffective, incompetent; spiritless; weak; worthless. With most words in English, if you remove the suffix you have another word. This is not the case with feckless, as “feck” is not a word. Example: We were embarrassed to witness such a feckless performance.

• Diurnal. Occurring or active during the daytime rather than at night; relating to or occurring in a 24-hour period; daily. I love this word because until I learned its definition, I never knew that “nocturnal” had an opposite. Example: In general, college students are not cut out for a diurnal life.

• Indefatigable. Someone who is indefatigable is incapable of being fatigued; not readily exhausted; unremitting in labor or effort; untiring; unwearying. Also, a great name for a ship—the HMS Indefatigable was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line launched by the Royal Navy in 1784. Interestingly, the antonym of this word is fatigable, not defatigable. (Indefatigable is the most difficult word to pronounce on this list. Say it 5 times fast.) Example: She was indefatigable in her efforts to ensure accuracy.

• Supercilious. Having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those viewed as unworthy. Arrogance + attitude = supercilious. Example: I find Anna to be very cold and supercilious.

• Disingenuous. Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating. Example: It’s simply disingenuous to encourage others to volunteer when you have no intention of volunteering yourself.

• Pensive. If you are pensive, you are engaged in serious thought or reflection; given to earnest musing: often implying some degree of anxiety, depression, or gloom; thoughtful and somewhat melancholy. Example: A pensive gloom settled in as the afternoon progressed.

Content Curators

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How do you establish yourself as an opinion leader with online social media?  You become a content curator.  It’s that easy.  Well… not quite easy…

Let’s start with defining what content curators are:

“Content curators are individuals, or companies, who continually sort through all the online content that is available within a specific interest group, pick out the best and most valuable, and share it with their followers.”

It’s not enough to just ‘be on’ Facebook.  You need to have something to say – but you also need your followers to trust what you have to say.  Here’s where becoming a content curator makes all the difference.  Content curatorship helps to establish you as an opinion leader – why – because you’re ‘in the know’.  You’re following the current trends AND you’re responding to them.  This communicates to your audience and stakeholders that you know what you’re talking about and, therefore; what you have to say is valuable.

At timslatter.com we aim to establish our clients as opinion leaders by managing their own content with the content that is already out there. This balance is essential to building your online reputation and keeping it valued.

Rohit Bhargava puts it like this:

“In the near future, experts predict that content on the web will double every 72 hours. The detached analysis of an algorithm will no longer be enough to find what we are looking for. To satisfy the people’s hunger for great content on any topic imaginable, there will need to be a new category of individual working online. Someone whose job it is not to create more content, but to make sense of all the content that others are creating. To find the best and most relevant content and bring it forward.

The people who choose to take on this role will be known as Content Curators. The future of the social web will be driven by these Content Curators, who take it upon themselves to collect and share the best content online for others to consume and take on the role of citizen editors, publishing highly valuable compilations of content created by others.

In time, these curators will bring more utility and order to the social web. In doing so, they will help to add a voice and point of view to organizations and companies that can connect them with customers – creating an entirely new dialogue based on valued content rather than just brand created marketing messages.”

I read recently that content curators will become like ‘individual Googles’.  The point that this statement makes is that the internet is saturated with blogs, videos and pictures and it’s hard for people to make a wise choice in the clicks that they make.

They will start to turn to the content curators, the one’s who give good advice on what content to follow.

Three solid principles for your SM

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Three solid principles for social mediaIt’s not enough to have a Facebook fanpage or twitter stream – you need good, engaging content.  In a recent article published on Ragan.com, some useful tips were presented that we wanted to share with you and our clients.  For the original article (it relates specifically to healthcare) click here.

I have also had many discussions with some new start ups that are considering delving into the SM-world and know that these points will help!

Getting started

Firstly, you need to know what you want to achieve through your social media presence and encourage your staff to engage in it with you.  Most of your staff will be on twitter and have Facebook profiles.

Your first ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ should come from your own team – it builds confidence in what you have to say and includes them in sharing your company profile and online reputation.

Secondly, listen closely to what your audience is saying. “If you’re not listening, you don’t know how to respond to people,” Ryan Squire (Ragan.com) says. “When you’re listening, you gain trust. Trust is what brands are built on.”

You can do this by following similar interest groups and posting a variety of topics.  People will respond to the status updates that communicate to, and, engage them.  Once you figure out what people are talking about, you’ll have an easier time generating content.  At timslatter.com, we believe that a regular blog update is the best way to regularly generate and archive your content.  Facebook and twitter are the media that you use to publish ‘teasers’ and interesting facts that will link back to your blog.

 

Should you create a fan, group or community page?

Ryan Squire points out differences among three types of Facebook approaches.

  • Fan pages are not necessarily connected to one person’s account. You’ll have the chance to post updates, pictures, videos, links and events. You can send fans “updates” and plug-in applications. A fan page will give you a better search result on Google, and you can add a vanity URL.
  • Group pages are more focused on person-to-person communication. You’ll have the opportunity to post pictures, videos or updates. You can also send messages to members.
  • A community page has an unofficial presence, Squire says. These pages can be created by anyone, but they function like a regular Facebook page. Squire says that if popularity heightens, the page will then belong to the community.

 

Keep content current, engaging and fresh

You don’t need to necessarily have new content every day, but should look to generating your own content at least once a week.  As you build your archive of articles (through your blog) you will have more and more to refer to in your status updates.  Remember this trick to following social trends and seeing how they might be influenced or enhanced by your previous articles, then use the links to create new engagements with your clients and followers.

Visuals, graphics or pictures, as we’ve mentioned before, help in generating interest in a post.  People are attracted to good visuals and are more likely to follow the rest of the discussion, or the link, once they’ve seen a picture.

Remember, the way you communicate to others will influence the way that they communicate about you!

If we could just get the gist of it

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Here is a brilliant article on misused words – one that I had to leave unedited.  It is not new for the written language to become so conformed to the spoken word that the original subtleties find themselves lost in time.  Five hundred years ago there were several different spellings of the name ‘Shakespeare‘, this, and other words, are regularly incorrectly used because of their phonetic similarities.

Consider the use of ‘to’ and ‘too’, or ‘gist’ and ‘just’ – they sound so similar yet have very different uses and meanings.  This article by Rob Reinalda is a must-read for all bloggers!

(the article is taken from ragan.com)

The most common verbal errors spread the way the common cold does: One person picks it up from another, usually quite casually. The next thing you know, nearly everybody’s infected.

I compare these transgressions to a cold, as I am likening the two elements. Think of this: The critic compared his voice to that of Caruso. To draw a contrast, I would use compare with. “Caruso was a great singer, compared with you, Larry; you howl like an alley cat in labor.”

So, let’s treat the linguistic outbreaks—with some usage antibiotics.

Here’s hoping they will affect you positively, yielding a salubrious effect. Wow. These two near-homonyms are tough, because each can be used as a noun or a verb. Those are just the most common usages for each.

Effect as a verb is to bring about, as in to effect change.

Affect as a noun—pronounced AFF-ect—denotes a person’s emotional state, especially when it’s visible. This one is probably of little use to you—unless you’re a clinical psychologist—except for the purposes of recognizing its misuse: “Hey, Smitty, you spelled effect with an A, you yucklehead!” That’ll affect his affect, all right—and quite effectively, at that.

Henceforth, ol’ Smitty might become reticent, or reluctant to speak. Although reticent has come to be used in place of reluctant, the phrase “reticent to speak” should be avoided. Better not to say anything.

Time now to home in on another widespread problem. Hone means to sharpen; one does not hone in on a target. Rather, one would home in, like a homing pigeon. A honing pigeon would be unusual, and probably dangerous. Switchblade-toting birds should be avoided, I say.

Also to be avoided is the misuse of comprise, notably in the phrase “is comprised of,” when “is composed of” is meant. I’ll say this once: The whole comprises the parts, not the other way around. OK, I lied. I’m saying it again: The whole comprises the parts, not the other way around. Remember it this way: New England comprises Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

If you want to go with the components first and conclude with the entirety, use constitute. In that case, please start with Connecticut, which is, after all, the Constitution State.

I continually remind people that [sic] continuously means incessantly, whereas continually means repeatedly, in frequent intervals. Many dictionaries concede that their usage has become virtually indistinguishable, but we do try to cater to purists.

In doing so, we’ve developed a rapport with our audience — not to be confused with a report (pronounced REE-por, as I’ve heard it said). That’s a simple mishearing of a term, but viral it has gone, nonetheless.

Gesundheit.