In 2012, the Kony 2012 video was at the time the most viral video ever. That’s meant a lot of sudden exposure to the organization behind the video, Invisible Children, and a lot of criticism. Critics have said the video oversimplifies the current state of affairs in Uganda, and there’s also been questions about how the organization/charity spends its money. And there have even been rumors that the video’s creator, Jason Russell, has suffered a mental breakdown due to the criticism the film has received.
“Because of how personal the film is, many of the attacks against it were also very personal and Jason took them very hard,” Jason’s wife Danica explained in a statement.
To be fair, Kony 2012 is an extreme example. No one, not even the video’s creators expected, or were prepared for it to receive 80+ million views. But it did, and that’s the funny and amazing thing about creating digital content: You never really know when your message is going to strike a cord and spread like wildfire.
And when that happens, that means your message leaves the ‘safe’ bubble of your devoted friends/family/readers, and a completely new audience is exposed to your content for the first time. And that means YOU are open to criticism as well. When it comes, here’s how to deal with it:
1 – Remember that the criticism is NOT personal. It can’t be personal if it’s coming from Joe Jones in Washington that had never heard of you before he read your post this morning. Even if the criticism is harsh and attacking, it’s aimed at your ideas, not you.
2 – Remember that criticism means your idea is spreading. Receiving criticism on your blog post or video or picture almost always means you’ve struck a cord with someone. And when that happens, your content is more likely to be shared, and that means more people are exposed to it.
3 – Remember that criticism means more debate. Nothing spikes a conversation more than someone jumping into the middle of a comment thread where everyone is agreeing, and saying ‘yeah I think everyone here is full of crap!’ Differing viewpoints breed more interaction and comments. Which feeds back into the above point: It means your idea is spreading.
4 – Remember that how you HANDLE the criticism greatly determines if you will get more or less of it. In the first point I mentioned that the criticism you’ll receive initially isn’t personal. But if you attack your critics, then you open the door for far more criticism. And you also pull the rug out from anyone that was defending you. But if you keep your wits about you and keep the interaction focused on the ideas and not the people, then the chance of receiving further criticism falls dramatically.
5 – Remember that if everyone agrees with your idea, then it’s not reaching enough people. Seriously, if every blog post you ever write is only viewed by your friends and family, you’ll likely never hear a bit of criticism, and you’ll be told every day that you’re the best blogger in the world.
When your idea leaves your safe little bubble, that’s when it begins to make an impact. And I think that’s what most/all of us want. We want to create content that others find value in. We want others to interact with our content, and be moved to action.
We want to make an impact. And making an impact means upsetting some people, and drawing criticism. Accept this, and understand that criticism isn’t a bad thing, it usually means your idea is winning.
Hard to put so much time and thought into something, then not take criticism ‘personally’ – even when it’s not. I’ve seen plenty of comments that attack the people, not the ideas; in fact so much that it’s part of my comment policy – debate the issue, not the debater.
That said, critics absolutely do drive us, push us to do better, to improve, to grow. And I really think #4 is where the rubber meets the road, esp. as I see businesses follow bad advice and ignore critics, delete negative comments, feed the trolls and act out. Like you said, if you’ve developed a true community, they’ll be there for you – good and bad. We’ll get criticism and negative feedback, people will call us on our crap; it’s what we do next that makes the difference. FWIW.
As an author who has received my share of 1-star reviews, I couldn’t agree more, Mack. Fortunately, I’d been blogging for awhile and cut my teeth as a salesperson for fifteen years. I know of rejection. 🙂
While you want to tell people to ‘write their own damn book,’ you can’t. My advice to fellow authors and my clients is to not interact (on review sites) at all. If it’s on a social media site, polite discourse is great. That’s what social media interaction is all about! But flame wars? Forget it. You will never change someone’s mind. As you said, they bring their own stuff to the discussion or comment — never take it personally. There is never a winner in a flame war. Walk away.
Great article, great points. I’ll be sharing with my stream and clients for sure.
A criticism is a fuel for growth of my blog. Always!
You suck dude. I hate this article
Lol, people need to harden up … shit happens, move on and get on with it. The worst thing you can do is cry and curl up in a ball and die.
I think if you are going to put yourself out there for everyone to see (or read) there is always going to be a select few that have something to say. Use it as fuel for growth.
Food for thought: What would you rather have, criticism or praise? Praise isn’t always sincere. People will praise you to be nice. But usually there is something sincere in criticism – whether the person giving it is in their right mind or not, to them it is real. We can learn a lot more from criticism than praise. For that reason alone, I prefer criticism. And then I’ll ask myself – is it true? and if so… what can I do better?
It could help to distinguish which kind of criticism it is, I’m always open to constructive well thought criticism, if no thought or effort went into it, I just ignore it. I heard their is a popular preacher that has his assistants deal with the criticism about him, apparently he takes everything positively and wouldn’t even notice that is was criticism,.
So that explains why, despite some people’s (in my view, totally misguided) criticism of Scientology in blog comments and the like, the religion is now growing faster than ever before. According to this blog post, Scientology seems to be perfect blog fodder!
Interesting article Mark… definately taking crticism is easier said than done however you make a really good point with number ‘5’- if everyone agrees you audience is just immediate friends and family, so whats the point of writing at all?