MackCollier.com

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EConsultancy Blogs about @KennethCole hijacking hashtag, then promotes it

I noticed this earlier.  If you’ve been on Twitter within the last 24 hours, you have probably seen the backlash over @KennethCole’s insensitive tweet about Egypt.  KC has since deleted the tweet and apologized, so the backlash has died down considerably.

Econsultancy, like many social media sites and bloggers, also wrote  a post on the episode.  But what’s interesting to me is that EConsultancy is now promoting their post and have purchased the #KennethCole hashtag to promote their post, as you can see above.  The same hashtag that people are using to voice their displeasure over KC’s tweet from yesterday.  What that means is if you are following the #KennethCole hashtag on a client like TweetDeck, or if you search for it via Twitter Search, the promoted tweet from Econsultancy will always stay at the top of the results.

So it seems that Econsultancy is doing the exact same thing that KC did, they are attempting to leverage a hashtag for their own personal gain.

My question to you is, do you think Econsultancy is wrong to do this, or brilliant?

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3 Reasons Why Social Media Training is Critical for Companies in 2011

The above is a graph from EMarketer listing the top areas that corporate social media strategists will be investing in 2011.  Note that the most important investment area for these strategists, behind only measuring SM ROI, was internal education and training.  I think there are 3 reasons why social media training is so critical for companies, especially larger ones, in 2011.

1 – Social media for companies has evolved, teams are now in place.  Larger companies are no longer experimenting with social media, they’ve now committed and staffs have been hired.  It’s very important for companies to invest in training these teams and not only that, but that they get the same training.  And that open interaction and collaboration is facilitated.  In many cases, the people that spearheaded a company’s social media efforts a couple of years ago, are now training all areas of the company on using these same tools.

2 – Social media training is cost-efficient.  I’ve seen this far too often over the past 2-3 years. A company sends an employee to a social media conference, then that person takes copious notes all day in every session, then goes back to her office and tries to explain to her team what she learned.  So the end result is the company paid $1,500-$2,000 to send one person to a conference, and all they get is a notepad full of hastily scribbled notes that no one can really explain.

This is exactly why last year I shifted the focus of my consulting to providing on-site social media training for companies.  I realized that for about the same amount that a company could send an employee or 2 to a social media conference, I could give them on-site social media training for an entire day, to their entire team.  This is a huge cost-savings to the company, and helps the entire team be more efficient in its social media efforts, meaning the investment in social media training easily pays for itself several times over.  Please check out my Social Media Training and Workshops page to see exactly how this service works.

3 – Social media training helps get everyone on the same page.  Instead of having ‘the blogging guy’ and ‘the Facebook gal’, your entire team can be up to speed on how your company is using these tools, and more importantly, what you are trying to accomplish.  That means that the efforts of the individuals will be more effective, and as a result, the output of the entire team will increase dramatically.

So if your company now has an organized social media team, there’s three reasons why I think it’s critical for you to invest in social media training in 2011.  If your company has started a social media training program, either internally, or by bringing in external consultants or agencies, how has that worked for you?

And if your company would like to hire me to either provide on-site social media training to your team, and/or to help your company organize an internal social media training program for your employees, please email me.

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CMOs look to find revenue growth from Social Media in 2011

Ian Greenleigh, who heads up Social Media at Bazaarvoice, gave me a heads-up on a new report that the company has published on how CMOs use and view social media heading into 2011.  Long-time readers here will remember that I interviewed Ian here a few months ago.  You can receive a free copy of the report here.

Here are a few of the key takeaways I had from the report:

  • 40% of CMOs surveyed said they were able to tie some of their company’s revenue back to their social media efforts in 2010 (I am surprised the percentage is that high)
  • Site Traffic is the most popular metric used by CMOs to track the success of their social media efforts, followed closely by Page Views and number of Fans/Followers
  • Of the ‘Big Three’ Social Media tools (Blogs, Facebook, Twitter) CMOs feel they get the highest return on their investment for company blogs, followed by Facebook and then Twitter

At the heart of this report, I think it verifies that as companies are becoming more familiar with using social media and how these sites and tools function, they are getting a better idea of how to measure the effectiveness of their efforts.  The fact that most CMOs look to Site Traffic and Pageviews to gauge the effectiveness of their social media efforts suggests that when they launch their efforts (a blog, for example) that they are assuming that the same/similar metrics that they use to judge if their website is working, will work for social media.  I also think this is partly why CMOs feel that they have a better handle on the value created by blogs, simply because companies have been using blogs as a tool to connect with customers for longer than they have Facebook and Twitter, for example.  As the knowledge of the tool/site increases, so does the efficiency in which the company uses that tool/site.

Of course, traffic and page views aren’t worth very much unless that traffic performs certain action(s) on the site.  I believe companies are starting to realize this, and THAT is why you will begin to see companies being able to quantify real ROI from their social media efforts.  I also think the report addresses this, as the 2nd most popular metric that CMOs are expecting to use to gauge their social media efforts in 2011, is conversion.

So thanks to Ian and the folks at Bazaarvoice for creating this report, and you can download your free copy here.  Also, on February the 2nd (Next Wednesday), Bazaarvoice will have a free webinar where they will do a deep-dive into the findings of this report, with several top CMOs.

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How to overcome your boss’ objections to using Social Media

In the last post, we talked about some ideas for selling your boss on why your company or organization should use social media.  But if you are having to ‘sell’ the boss on social media, that probably means she is skeptical, and probably has a set list of reasons why she does NOT think social media is a good option.  You need to address those concerns head on, and here’s how to tackle the objections you are most likely to hear:

1 – We don’t have time for social media. Social media is a big time requirement, but most companies don’t have to start from zero.  Often, you can take existing content and repurpose it for your blog or even Twitter and Facebook presences.  For example, if you have any whitepapers, or articles, or interviews, or even videos that you’ve created, these can be used as content sources for your social media efforts.

2 – Social media wouldn’t work for us, since no one is talking about us online. This is a big misconception that many companies have, especially smaller ones.  If no one is talking about your company online, that is often a POSITIVE, not a negative!

Think about it, if you are a big brand, then part of your social media efforts involve monitoring and responding to hundreds if not thousands of daily brand mentions online.  So that big brand is having to REACT to an EXISTING conversation that it’s customers are creating about and around the brand.

But a smaller company that doesn’t have any online mentions can CREATE the online conversation about them.  They don’t have to react to the conversation that their customers are creating.  So while the big brand is responding to and attempting to reframe the existing conversation, the smaller company has the advantage that they are the ones creating that conversation.

3 – Our current marketing efforts are just fine. If done smartly, your current marketing efforts, especially online, can be enhanced by social media.  For example, a blog can help drive qualified traffic to your website, which can increase sales, as we discussed in the last post.  Also, content you create for your blog can help provide inspiration and content for your email newsletter.

4 – We don’t know what to do or which tools to use. Here’s where you will need to do a bit of research, but you can often take your cues from how your current and potential customers are using social media.  If they are mostly on Twitter, then it’s a good indication that make your company should have a presence there as well.  And once you launch your social media efforts, as you are monitoring your online mention, you can track WHERE these mentions are happening.  Are they coming from blogging customers, or maybe message boards?  This gives you a great idea of which tools you should be using, and where you should be spending your time.

5 – Social media is just a fad. Social media has been around for 20 years, at least.  Even in the late 1980s, I was creating content on message boards on local BBSes, then in the 90s on online services such as Prodigy and AOL.  I think the main difference in the current version of these tools and sites is that it’s now easier than ever for individuals to create content, and it can be on their own site (blog) or even pull content from a centralized site (Twitter) to their site, via widgets.

As more customers get more advanced smartphones, these social media tools are following the phone, which means customers now have the ability to create content on the go.  Such as quickly taking a picture and immediately posting it to Twitter or their blog.  So social media has been around for a while, and isn’t going away any time soon.

So there are some ideas for countering possible objections to social media that your boss might offer.  If you have a specific question about how your company can convince your boss to use social media, either leave a comment for all of us, or email me and I will be happy to help!

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How to sell your boss on using Social Media

Ready to have ‘the talk’ with your boss?  The one where you make your case for why it’s time for your company to start using social media (what talk did you think I meant?!?)?  Here’s some tips for helping you make your case:

1 – Don’t talk buzzwords, talk tangible business benefits.  Only mention things like comments, Facebook Likes and Twitter followers IF you also explain how they relate to things like sales, conversions and leads.  Make your case for why your company should use social media by showing your boss how it will help your company generate sales, and/or lower costs.

2 – Point out how social media can help your company build its awareness.  A lot of people focus on ‘the conversation’, but using social media is a wonderful way to increase search placements and traffic.  For example, yesterday I wrote a post titled How to write good blog content.    Here’s a screenshot I took of the Google results for the term “How to write good blog content” right before I wrote this post:

The #1 Google result just a few hours after publishing the post.  Not too shabby.  And this perfectly illustrates how blog content can help your company’s search results.  Maybe even to the point where your company can lower or eliminate its SEM budget?

3 – Social media can make your marketing more effective.  Look at your existing online marketing efforts and how success is judged.  Show your boss how social media can compliment those efforts, making them more effective and efficient.

For example, a blog will help drive qualified traffic to your website.  Let’s say you provide lawn-care services, and you write a post entitled ’10 Steps to Having an Insect-Free Lawn by June’, and someone arrives at that post by Googling the term ‘getting rid of insects in my lawn’.  And let’s say that in that post, you give wonderful advice about ridding a lawn of insects, and add a call to action inviting the reader to visit your website if they want to schedule an appointment with you.  Anyone that arrives at your site from visiting that post is probably going to be a potential customer, or qualified lead.  So the blog is enhancing the website’s ability to sell your services.

So those are some quick tips to helping you convince your boss to use social media.  The problem is, your boss is likely to have a few objections to using social media.  We’ll talk about how you can address and counter your boss’ objections to social media, in the next post.

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Will there be a LIVE #Blogchat at SXSW?

One of the most frequent questions I have gotten in the past few months when I attend or speak at events is ‘Have you ever thought about doing a live #Blogchat?’

In fact, I have.  And what I would like to do is find a smart company that wants to sponsor a LIVE #Blogchat during SXSW.  In looking at the SXSW schedule, we could even do it on Sunday nite, March the 13th.  That way, we could have a live #Blogchat in Austin, but also have the regular #Blogchat on Twitter during the same time.  Which would mean we could also take points raised and questions asked on Twitter by #Blogchatters, and incorporate them into our live conversation at SXSW.  Additionally, we usually start mingling and networking an hour before #Blogchat starts each week, at 7pm Central.  We could do the same thing at SXSW, this would give the people that are going to join us live in Austin a chance to meet each other, and the sponsor as well.

For participants, I think it would be an amazing learning experience, and a great way to meet so many people we’ve probably already connected with during past #Blogchats.

For the sponsor, I see several key benefits:

  • Minimum of 2 hours exposure with some of the true leaders in the social media space, both at the event, and on Twitter.
  • Since it will be the 1st LIVE #Blogchat, I will be promoting it on Twitter and my blog for the next 2 months, which will only draw a bigger crowd.
  • You’ll get a TON of useful advice from some of the smartest minds in social media.  This alone would pay for the sponsorship.
  • Sponsoring the event would bring a good deal of positive exposure to the sponsor.

Also, if it makes sense from the sponsor’s point of view (especially if they are a blogging company), I’d like to have a representative from the sponsor join me at SXSW and co-host the live #Blogchat.

And to be clear, I’ve already talked to a few potential sponsors who have expressed interest in this idea, but no one has committed yet.  So if this idea sounds like something your company or organization is interested in learning more about, please email me.

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All types of Social Media Engagement are not created equally

Sankar left a great comment to my last post about Measuring What Matters in Social Media:

In my understanding, I think that instead of going by just the number of fans, followers, friends, a company has, it would be practical and logical to understand their level of participation.

Just to give you an example, if we are going to find out the success of Starbucks’s the Betacup challenge, we can see how many have read/viewed/tweeted/bloged about it – first level of participation, and how many have become registered members and reviewed others ideas, (this denotes a higher level of participation), and how many have actually proposed new ideas (obviously, a higher level of participation).

I think this reinforces a great point: You should think about not only the different types of participation and engagement you want around your social media efforts, but also, how you prioritize and link those activities.

For example, let’s say you are using the list in the graphic above to prioritize the levels of engagement you want on your company blog.  Sharing the blog posts would be lower than commenting on them.  But if you knew from examining your analytics that people that share one of your posts on a social site were far more likely to subscribe to the blog (which is a higher priority than commenting), then perhaps you would want to encourage sharing, since it would lead to the higher-priority activity of subscribing to the blog.

Also, how can you encourage a visitor to engage in a more ‘valuable’ activity to you?  How can you convert a reader into a subscriber, or a commenter, into a buyer?  By prioritizing the level of possible engagement activities associated your blog, you can get a better sense of how each activity relates to your ultimate goal for the blog.

Does this help?  Have you made a list of which types of activities you want your readers to take on your blog, and how each ties back to your company’s blogging goals?  Please leave a comment, or if you would rather, email me your thoughts, I’d love to hear from you.

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How much does Social Media cost companies in 2011?

Click here to get the 2012 Price Update to this post.

Last February I wrote a post about the prices companies could expect to pay for basic social media services.  It ended up being the most viewed post here in 2010, by more than a 3 to 1 margin.  And interestingly, it gets a TON of search traffic, terms like ‘social media cost’, ‘cost of a blog’, ‘social media fees’, etc.  That tells me that there’s still a lot of confusion and a lack of clarity about what prices companies should expect to pay for basic social media services.

So I wanted to update that post for 2011, with a bit more information, and greater clarity around the numbers. These figures come from rates shared with me by fellow consultants and agencies that specialize in social media marketing, in addition to my own research, as well as what I charge for similar services.   Last year I only included ranges for each service, this year I’ve added a Most Charge distinction to give everyone a greater idea of what they will probably pay.  I’ve also added a few more services, such as training workshops, speaking, hourly consulting rates, and even ghostwriting fees (yes companies pay for this).

As I mentioned last year, when you are trying to set your social media budget for a project, there are several questions you need to ask yourself, such as:

  • What are your goals for using social media?  Brand awareness? Generate sales or leads?  This greatly determines the tools necessary to achieve those goals
  • What are your resources?  Can you handle everything in-house, or will you need to outsource some of the work?  All of the work?
  • What is the length of the project?  Obviously, a 6-month project will cost more than a 3-month project.

When you contact a consultant or agency, they should be asking you questions as well.  They should want to know why you want to use social media, what are you trying to accomplish.  If they try to give you prices without asking you questions, that is a red flag.  They really can’t give you prices until they know more about your company, your resources, and what you are wanting to accomplish.

Here’s the prices:

Blog:

Launch a blog from the ground-up, outsource all content creation (including customer interaction, handling responses to comments, etc) – $1,000-$12,000 a month

Most Charge – $3,000 – $5,000 a month

Launch a blog from the ground-up, outsource some content creation – $1,000-$8,000 a month

Most Charge – $2,000-$3,500 a month

Restructure an existing blog to improve your efforts – $1,000-$5,000 a month for 3-6 months

Most Charge – $2,000-$4,000 a month for 3-6 months

Ghostwriting blog posts – $50-$500 per

Most Charge – $100-$250 per

Twitter:

Launch a new presence on Twitter and outsource all content creation and customer interaction – $1,000-$7,500 a month

Most Charge – $2,000-$4,000 a month

Launch a new presence on Twitter and then provide ongoing training for company – $1,000-$6,000 a month

Most Charge – $1,000-$3,000 a month

Restructure an existing Twitter presence to improve your efforts – $1,000-$4,000 a month for 3-6 months

Most Charge – $1,000-$2,500 a month

Limited coaching to improve your existing efforts on Twitter – $1,000-$4,000 a month

Most Charge – $1,000-$2,500 a month

Facebook:

Launch a Facebook Page from the ground-up, outsourcing all content creation and customer interactions – $2,000-$9,000 a month

Most Charge – $2,500-$5,000 a month

Launch a Facebook Page from the ground-up, with limited ongoing training – $1,500-$7,500 a month for 3-6 months

Most Charge – $2,000-$4,000 a month

Social Media Strategy:

Comprehensive Social Media Strategy Creation, assuming outsourcing of all content creation through all channels(minimum 2) – $3,000-$20,000 a month

Most Charge – $4,000-$7,000 a month

Comprehensive Social Media Strategy Creation, assuming limited outsourcing of content creation and/or ongoing training –$3,000-$15,000 a month for 4-12 months

Most Charge – $3,000-$6,000 a month

Audit of existing Social Media Strategy Including Recommendations for Improvement – $2,000-$10,000

Most Charge – $2,000-$5,000

Social Media Consulting:

Hourly rates – $50-$500/Hr

Most Charge – $75-$200/Hr

Note: These prices are based on buying just one hour of a consultant’s time.  Many consultants also offer their consulting time in blocks of time.  These hours are usually offered at a discounted rate.  For example, a consultant might charge $100 for one hour of her time, but if you buy 5 hours of her time, she’ll give you a 25% discount to $375 for 5 hours.  Progressive discounts are sometimes offered as the volume of hours bought increases, with final discounts being as high as 33-50% off hourly rates.

On-Site Training/Workshops (All fees excluding travel expenses)

1-2 Hours – $500-$5,000

Most Charge – $500-$2,000

Half-Day (4 hours) – $1,000 – $10,000

Most Charge – $1,000 – $4,000

Full-Day (6-8 hours) – $2,000 – $50,000

Most Charge – $2,500-$5,000

Note: Keep in mind that consultants (at least the ones worth hiring) will invest several hours of prep time in assembling and customizing their training materials for you.  So while you might buy a full-day workshop, the total time investment for the consultant (including the workshop) could easily be 20-40 hours.  Plus they will likely lose at least a full day in travel to and from your company.

As with volume discounts on hourly consulting rates, many consultants will charge more at an hourly rate for workshops shorter than a full day.  For example, one consultant might charge $2,000 for a 2-hour workshop, and $5,000 for an 8-hour workshop.

A final word about prices: Don’t be afraid to negotiate.  If the quoted price is past your budget, ask for a break, especially if the project will be longer than 3 months.  A consultant might not be willing to give you a 15% discount on a 2-month project, but they might for a 6-month project.

So hopefully this post will be of some value to you as your company finalizes its 2011 budgets.  And if you need help fleshing out your own social media strategy, or if you need social media training, please email me for a custom quote.

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The promise of social media for business lies in FEWER conversations

Last Wednesday I held my Think Like a Rockstar blogging class for the Content Marketing Crash Course at Marketing Profs.  The course is over, but if you want to view all 17 classes, here’s information on how you can.  I’ve been spending a lot of time on the Rockstar analogy this year, covering why rockstars have fans and companies have customers.  I’ve done so, because there’s an extremely important lesson for companies in the rockstar analogy:

Rockstars and their fans have the same conversation.

Or at the very least, they have more similar conversations than most companies and their customers have.  The disconnect between how the rockstar views its fans and how the fans view its rockstar, is far less pronounced.  Which means the conversations that each group is having about the other, is more similar.  A big reason why is because most rockstars SEEK engagement with their customers.  They not only listen to the conversation that their customers are having, they participate in it.

Contrast this to most companies, who not only lack engagement with their customers, they often FEAR that engagement.  As a result, the company is having an internal conversation about the customer with little to no input from or interaction with the customer.  And likewise, the customer is having an external conversation about that company, without any involvement and interaction with that company.

Participating in a conversation changes that conversation.

Prior to launching its company blog, Graco discovered that 68% of the online conversation that customers were having about and around the Graco brand, was positive.  That’s not bad, but 18 months AFTER launching its company blog, Graco found that the tone of the online conversation its customers were having had shifted to 83% positive.  Additionally, the company found that 99% of the additional online mentions that the company gained in the 18 months AFTER launching the blog, were positive.  The blog gave Graco a vehicle to directly connect with customers and interact with them.  As a result, the online conversation that Graco’s customers were having about the brand, changed.

Interaction breaks down walls.

Likewise, a lack of interaction between the company and the customer strengthens walls and silos conversations.  Then you are left with two groups that each are having a conversation with the other group, without actually knowing that group.  Which means neither group really understands the other, and as a result, doesn’t trust the other group.

But as interaction between the two groups happens, the conversation the customers are having begins to be understood by the company.  And the customers begin to better understand the company’s point of view.  Hugh was talking about this five years ago.  As the company begins to understand the customers’ point of view and incorporate it into THEIR conversation, that conversation that the company is having becomes more familiar to the customers.  Because the company is starting to speak in a language that’s more easily recognizable to them.

Interaction leads to understanding, and understanding leads to trust.

So this interaction is prompting change in both the internal and external conversations.  By better understanding the company, the external conversation the customers are having about the company, changes a bit.  And likewise, as the company begins to interact with its customers and better understand them, that internal conversation it is having about its customers, changes a bit.

Most importantly, the walls around both conversations weaken a bit.  The distance between the two groups shortens.  Both conversations become a little bit more familiar to the other group, and as a result, both groups begin to trust the other a little more.  Four years ago I wrote this on The Viral Garden:

As we correctly anticipate the consumers’ wants and needs, and fill them, a trust is developed, which leads to the consumer lowering their defenses and letting us interact with them on a deeper level. This leads to a greater understanding of their needs, which means we can more quickly and effectively meet these needs, and thus the cycle is created.

And that cycle creates an incredibly powerful barrier to entry for other companies.  It also creates fans and advocates for that company.

Trust leads to advocacy.

At this point, the company has interacted with the customer and become so familiar with their conversation that the walls around each conversation are starting to blur.  The voice that the company speaks in becomes more familiar to the customer.  Which makes it easier for the customer to trust the company, because they are speaking in a voice they recognize.

Their own.

And that makes it much easier for customers to advocate on behalf of a company that they believe have their best interests in mind.

Wait, this isn’t about smart social media usage, this is about smart business.

Exactly.  Customer conversations are increasingly shifting online and to mobile devices.  Customers are finding new tools and technologies every day to help them more effectively and efficiently communicate with each other.  And they are getting up to speed on these tools and technologies faster than companies are.  But if companies can follow the lead of their customers and become efficient at using these tools and in the same way their customers are, then they’ll win.  It’s not about becoming a better marketer, it’s about becoming a better communicator.

Here’s to better communication in 2011.

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Setting the record straight on online reviews: An interview with Bazaarvoice’s Ian Greenleigh

A few months ago Ian Greenleigh gave me some great stats and case studies from some of Bazaarvoice‘s clients on how they were benefiting from online ratings and reviews.  I published those findings in a post that proved to be one of the most popular here so far this year.  So I wanted to bring Ian back to let him talk more about the power of online ratings, reviews and comments:

Mack:  Tell us what you do and why you are awesome.

Ian: I manage social media for Bazaarvoice. This includes oversight and content creation for all of your “usual suspect” channels, but I focus most on making sure we have a leading corporate blog that adds value and contributes to our thought leadership. Personally, I’m most active on Twitter (be3d).

Bazaarvoice: We help our clients build revenue by building customer conversations into their businesses. This takes the form of hosted & moderated solutions like Ratings & Reviews, Ask & Answer and Stories.

Mack: What’s the biggest misconception you think most companies have about online reviews?

Ian: Many companies don’t understand that negative reviews are normally a net benefit if they’re open to them. Here are a couple of ways they help:

  • They help the company appear more authentic and credible
  • Negative reviews are better than no reviews at all—products/services with more reviews (even if they’re negative) get more clicks than products with fewer or no reviews
  • Negative reviews often alert companies to product flaws that can then be addressed to lead to increased sales in the next product release
  • Negative reviews provide a more realistic view of the product to customers. They return this product less often, because they know what they’re getting and aren’t surprised by shortcomings.
  • Companies might think that if they don’t invite reviews, they simply won’t have to deal with them. Instead, they end up having to address these reviews outside of their “home turf”, in the social web where they have far less control and influence. Letting the conversations take place on company websites makes more sense because conversations are more easily tracked, complaints are easier to address and results are far more instantaneous.

Mack: Do you have any stats on how Bazaarvoice’s clients have seen an increase or decrease in sales after adding Ratings and Reviews to their site?

Ian:  Sure, from our stats page:

  • Products with syndicated reviews convert 26% higher. (Bazaarvoice Case Study, 2009)
  • MarketingExperiments tested product conversion with and without product ratings by customers. Conversion nearly doubled, going from .44% to 1.04% after the same product displayed its five-star rating. (MarketingExperiments Journal, July 2007)
  • Giving shoppers the ability to sort products within a category by customer rating led to a sales increase of 41% per unique visitor. (PETCO, June 2007)
  • 11% of retailers reported a 20% or more overall increase in conversions as a result of adding reviews to their sites, 21% reported an 11% to 20% increase and 5% reported a 1% to 10% increase. (eTailing Group, June 2008)

Mack:  If a company encounters a ‘negative’ blog post or comment from a customer, how should they handle it?

Ian: As long as the content is not ad-hominem of offensive, concerns should be addressed head on. When this doesn’t happen, you see things like the famous United Breaks Guitars video. Keep in mind that others are watching to see what is done about the complaint, so a public response is usually warranted. One of the best ways to take the conversation in a better direction is to leave a follow up comment saying that someone is going to call, email, etc., and then take the conversation offline toward resolution. This at least tells all the people watching the post that you’re taking action.

Mack: When a company encounters a comment they want to address online, should they have a ‘chain of command’ in place so certain employees handle certain comments based on topic/tone/etc, or should the employee that finds the comment always be the one to respond?

Ian: Responses should be assigned out to employees by role/expertise, but locating and cataloguing negative comments should be a centralized task. Employees that happen upon them should know who to ping in order to resolve the complaint. Alternatively, companies can adopt a “respond if it’s in your wheelhouse” policy, telling employees to pass along anything they don’t feel comfortable responding to (or don’t have the knowledge for). Either way, centralized records should be kept and incident data trended over time.

Great information once again from Ian, and really helpful advice on handling negative blog comments and the power of online reviews and rankings.  As Ian shows above, clients that use ratings actually benefit, as do companies that handle negative comments correctly.  Thanks again Ian, and please follow Mr. Greenleigh on Twitter at @be3d.