How can you address negative messages on social media?
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— The LinkedIn Team
Social media can be a powerful tool to connect with your audience, build your brand, and promote your products or services. However, it can also expose you to negative messages from unhappy customers, competitors, trolls, or critics. How can you address these messages effectively and professionally, without damaging your reputation or losing your followers? Here are some tips to help you handle social media conflict resolution.
The first step to address negative messages on social media is to monitor your mentions and notifications regularly. You don't want to miss any important feedback, complaints, or questions from your audience. You also want to be aware of any potential issues or crises that may arise from negative posts or comments. Use tools like Google Alerts, Hootsuite, or Mention to track your brand name, keywords, hashtags, and relevant topics across different platforms.
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Vanshita Gupta
LinkedIn Top Social Media Voice | Aspiring Marketer and Personal Brand Expert | Social Media Strategist | Content Strategist
There are two types of negative comments: those that point out your mistakes and others that criticize you. For both types, it's essential to stay calm, as receiving both love and hate is inevitable in the online world. You can't please everyone. Next, evaluate whether the negative message has a valid point. If the answer is yes, take notes and consider acknowledging it. You can respond by saying, "I didn't think of it that way; yes, you are right." If the negative comment lacks merit, you have two choices: respond calmly or ignore it. Striking a balance between addressing valid concerns and not letting baseless criticism affect your online presence is crucial.
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Janky Patel
Top 3% of Growth Marketers | I Help Ecomm Brands Grow Their Revenue
Addressing negative messages on social media requires a strategic and empathetic approach. Start by acknowledging the person's feelings and apologizing if necessary. Then, try to move the conversation offline or to a private channel to discuss their concerns in detail. Always respond promptly and professionally, demonstrating that you value their feedback and are committed to resolving their issues. Remember, every negative comment is an opportunity to showcase your brand's commitment to customer satisfaction.
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Sornakummar Nemidoss
Digital Marketing Strategist | Lead Generation Specialist | Social Media Marketing | Driving Engagement and Conversions
Effectively managing negative messages on social media is crucial for maintaining a positive brand image. Respond promptly with empathy, acknowledging concerns and expressing a commitment to resolution. Shift the conversation offline when appropriate to address issues privately. Implement a proactive social media monitoring strategy to catch negativity early, allowing for swift and strategic responses. Demonstrating transparency and a genuine desire to address concerns can turn negative interactions into opportunities to showcase your brand's responsiveness and dedication to customer satisfaction. #SocialMediaManagement #CustomerExperience #BrandReputation
The second step to address negative messages on social media is to respond quickly and politely. Ignoring or deleting negative messages can make the situation worse, as it can show that you don't care about your customers or their problems. It can also encourage more negative messages from other users who want to get your attention. On the other hand, responding promptly and courteously can show that you value your audience, respect their opinions, and are willing to help them. Use a friendly and professional tone, acknowledge their concerns, apologize if necessary, and offer a solution or a follow-up.
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Raghul Saravanakumar
Digital Consultant | Brand Strategy | Social Media Brand Building | Content | Project Management
And in other simple words, take the problem to DM rather than explaining or apologising in the comment section of the query follows. Keep it private and subtle.
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Lisa Harper
Helping busy and frazzled business owners with their time consuming tasks, social media management & call handling
Always follow up with negative comments and messages. Deal with it promptly. These comments could be helpful to you to change or evolve your services to benefit your customers. Never ignore or delete this can escalate the issue. If you ignore you could find more negative comments appearing through the connections of person with an issue. Dealing with small matters in public show your professional standards. Issues that could cause your business damage, address the fault and tell them that we will move to DM. Always remember your professional reputation!
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Avery Akkineni
President, Vayner3
Don't be afraid to respond! Social media is a mirror that reflects our society- and that comes with opportunities and challenges. Address feedback head on (and politely) via replies or DMs to squash negativity.
The third step to address negative messages on social media is to take it offline if possible. Sometimes, a public reply is not enough to resolve a conflict or satisfy a customer. You may need to provide more details, ask for more information, or escalate the issue to a higher level. In these cases, it is better to move the conversation to a private channel, such as email, phone, or direct message. This can help you avoid further drama, protect sensitive data, and personalize your service.
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Nagendra Bisht
CHRO, Education guide, Career Coach, Business Coach
From HR point, social media can dangerously spread negative messages leading to increased mental health issues. If I reflect 20 years back as HR, there were less mental health issues as the use of social media was minimal. The widespread of negative messages leads to significant stress impacting mental well-being. The risk of damaging individual and brand reputation is significant which causes worry. Now, both competitors and individuals harm each other on social media..often & deep without realizing it's a zero-sum game. Nobody truly wins.. it only affects them & their families. Levelling up is not the solution. The best approach is engaging in heart-to-heart offline discussion to resolve issues instead of addressing them on social media.
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Tom Ruff
Head of Social at Journey Further
I think it is important to publicly acknowledge that you are looking for a solution, this ensures that anyone who sees the comment knows you are a good brand to deal with. However, the majority of the conversation should take place offline.
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Alexandra Gheorghe
Seasoned Social Media Manager | Honed skills in brand storytelling and digital engagement | Surfing through life
From the social media community manager to your customer service team, ensure that messaging, reply guidelines, and overall reputation management are handled consistently. It's here that I've observed the tone of voice can be lost, leading to disruption.
The fourth step to address negative messages on social media is to encourage positive messages from your satisfied customers, loyal fans, or influential partners. Positive messages can help you balance your online reputation, boost your credibility, and increase your engagement. You can encourage positive messages by asking for reviews, testimonials, or referrals, by sharing success stories, case studies, or user-generated content, by rewarding your advocates with incentives, discounts, or recognition, or by creating campaigns, contests, or challenges that invite participation and feedback.
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Karan Khosla
Social Media Strategist | Branding | Organic Growth Strategist | Content Marketing | LinkedIn Strategist | Building InfoObjects
In simple words, Let the customer know that you understand their frustration and that you're committed to resolving the issue. If you made a mistake, own up to it and apologize. People appreciate honesty, and they're more likely to forgive you if you're upfront about your mistakes.
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Alvin N.
Author 📚 | AI Futurist 🌟| Strategic Digital Solutions Expert 🌐 | 5+ Years Corporate Experience 🏢
🌟 Fostering Positivity: The Power of Uplifting Messages In the dynamic realm of social media, uplifting your brand requires a proactive approach. Elevate your strategy with these engaging tactics: ✨ Encourage User Advocacy: Ask satisfied customers, loyal fans, and partners to share their positive experiences. 🌐 Reviews and Testimonials: Request reviews, testimonials, or referrals to build a library of positive content. 🚀 Share Success Stories: Amplify success stories, case studies, or user-generated content to showcase real-life triumphs. 🎁 Reward Advocates: Recognize advocates with incentives, discounts, or public acknowledgment to fuel positivity. 🎉 Create Interactive Campaigns: Initiate campaigns, contests, or challenges
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Maya Meyouhas
Marketing Executive : Driving Brand and Business Growth
In a recent role, we formed a "Joy Committee". Their objective was to seek out at least 5 commenters per week to randomly award a little reward--a shirt, a hat, a sticker, a coupon code for a free perk. The goal was to find people who went out of their way to write something kind about the brand on social media. it wasn't advertised. Just something we did to surprise and delight our fans.
The fifth step to address negative messages on social media is to learn from feedback and improve your products, services, or processes. Negative messages can be a valuable source of insight into your strengths and weaknesses, your opportunities and threats, and your customer needs and expectations. You can use negative messages to identify areas of improvement, to develop new features or solutions, to fix bugs or errors, or to update your policies or guidelines. You can also use negative messages to measure your performance, to track your progress, or to set your goals.
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Yann DESPRES 🚀
Responsable expérience clients chez Sopra HR Software | Communication
Burger King France 🍔👑 réalise très bien cet exercice notamment en rebondissant sur les commentaires de ses clients pour une campagne de recrutement. 🙌 Il s’agit là d’un très bel exemple pour rebondir sur les commentaires, même négatifs, de votre communauté pour en faire une force et un angle de communication impactant et pertinent. Cela montre que vous êtes attentifs et à l’écoute, et savez apporter une réponse.
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Alvin N.
Author 📚 | AI Futurist 🌟| Strategic Digital Solutions Expert 🌐 | 5+ Years Corporate Experience 🏢
📊 Harvesting Growth from Feedback: The Art of Learning In the social media tapestry, negative messages are not setbacks but stepping stones to improvement. Elevate your strategy with these impactful lessons: 🌱 Insightful Feedback Analysis: View negative messages as a valuable source, offering insights into strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 🛠️ Identify Areas of Improvement: Utilize feedback to pinpoint areas of improvement in products, services, or processes. 🚀 Fuel Innovation and Development: Transform negative feedback into a catalyst for developing new features, solutions, or enhancements. 🐜 Bug Fixes and Error Resolution: Address bugs or errors highlighted in negative messages to enhance user experience.
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Alvin N.
Author 📚 | AI Futurist 🌟| Strategic Digital Solutions Expert 🌐 | 5+ Years Corporate Experience 🏢
📈🚀 Elevating Growth: Transforming Negativity into Wisdom In the social media tapestry, learning from feedback is a powerful stride. Elevate your strategy with these insightful steps: 🔄 Turning Setbacks into Setups: View negative messages as opportunities to uncover strengths, weaknesses, and avenues for improvement. 🌐 Insights for Innovation: Harness feedback to identify areas for innovation, whether in products, services, or operational processes. 🐞 Bugs as Stepping Stones: Treat bugs or errors highlighted in negative messages as stepping stones to refine and enhance your offerings. 📊 Performance Metrics Wisdom: Use negative feedback to measure performance, track progress, and set realistic and achievable goals.
The sixth step to address negative messages on social media is to avoid common mistakes that can worsen the situation or damage your image. Such mistakes include arguing, attacking, or blaming the user; using sarcasm, humor, or slang; copying and pasting generic or scripted responses; deleting or hiding negative messages; making false or exaggerated claims; sharing confidential or personal information; and responding when angry, tired, or stressed. Taking care to avoid these missteps will help you handle negative messages with professionalism, confidence, and respect.
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Afolashade Azeez
Social Media Manager|| I specialize in helping entrepreneurs and brands build a solid online presence and achieve their social media goals.
It's best to take time off when you are not in the best frame of mind to respond to certain feedback. It's a common mistake that should be avoided at all costs. And if you must respond take it off the social media space and make sure you are in the right frame of mind while responding either via a phone call, text message or email message.
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Dunnia Vargas González
| Especialista en Linkedin | Empleabilidad | Conferencista | +3000 personas capacitadas | Ghostwriter | Mentor | Consultora | Recursos Humanos | Revisión de Currículum |
Si algún mensaje te molesta, no lo contestes de inmediato, si no es un asunto urgente, deja el mensaje para el día siguiente y ya con tus pensamientos frescos de repente la óptica hacia la respuesta cambie y sea más asertiva. No caigas en la trampa de la exaltación y emociones negativas.
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Alexandra Gheorghe
Seasoned Social Media Manager | Honed skills in brand storytelling and digital engagement | Surfing through life
Remember the support the brand 'The Ordinary' received when their CEO decided to publicly attack customers online. The audience learned about the CEO's struggles and did not abandon the brand. This demonstrates that a good product and a solid prior reputation can help you weather a scandal. So if things go south, don't despair. Your loyal audience might still stand by you.
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Nathalia Luque Acevedo
| LinkedIn Top Social Media Voice | Social Selling | Commercial Management | Digital Prospecting | Business Development | B2B | Employability | Personal Branding | Social Media | Demand Generation | Market Opening
Las RRSS son un canal importantisimo para estar en contacto con nuestros clientes y audiencia, pero tambien hay que estar atentos y darle manejo inmediato a comentarios que puedan afectar la reputación de una marca o empresa. Para casos de clientes insatosfechos, demás de las recomendaciones dadas, yo hago enfásis en: 🫵 No discutir: No se enganche en una discusión con el cliente. Esto solo empeorará la situación. 🫵 No culpar al cliente: No culpe al cliente por el problema. Esto solo hará que el cliente se sienta más frustrado. 🫵No eliminar el comentario: Eliminar el comentario solo hará que la situación parezca peor. Y tener siempre presente que el cliente no siempre tiene la razón... es nuestra razón.
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Fabián Puerta
Copywriter freelance. No soy un meta humano pero escribo meta textos.
Agrego que tampoco es presentable responder las consultas en RRSS, después de 2 o más días. Lo recomendable es darle manejo y contestar en el transcurso del día, ideal, no pasarse de 30 minutos después de la pregunta y escribirle el mensaje que espera el lector, ante una inquietud.
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Benjamin McDaniel
Energy, optimism, and all things Barrow County.
Here’s how I handle negative comments as a brand: I keep it real. Nobody likes talking to a robot. So, when there’s a complaint or a not-so-great comment, I talk like a human. I show that there’s an actual person reading and caring about what’s said. I own up if we messed up, and I'm straight-up about what we're doing to fix it. I also try to keep the tone friendly and understanding. I think about how I’d chat with a friend who’s upset. I don’t get all corporate-speak on them – that’s just off-putting. It’s about making the person on the other end feel heard and valued, even if they’re not happy with us at that moment.