Fight, Flight or Flood - How to Respond to a Negative Online Buzz about You or Your Business

People talk about things that are meaningful to them. They’ve been talking about products, brands, businesses and people offline since the first means of communication were created. Therefore, it’s not surprising that people today talk on the social Web. The global conversation is loud and powerful, and it can positively or negatively affect your, your brand, and your business.

But what should you do when someone says something negative about you or your business online?

This is one of the most common fears of individuals and businesses considering leveraging the social Web conversation to build their reputations, brands and businesses, and unfortunately, it’s one of the main reasons that people and companies are not getting the results they want and need from their social media efforts.

Don’t be afraid to let the audience take control of the conversation. That’s where the power of the social Web comes from in terms of building brands and businesses. And if someone publishes something negative about you or your business online, don’t try to squash the conversation. Overtly trying to control the conversation can do far more harm to your reputation than good. Instead, follow one of the three paths described below to effectively respond to a negative online buzz about you, your brand, or your business.

1. Fight

While you don’t want to appear controlling nor do you want to stop the online conversation (even if it’s negative), you can fight without looking like a bully. Join the conversation and nudge it in the right direction (i.e., the direction that is best for you and your business) by addressing misconceptions, admitting mistakes, and demonstrating your desire to fix them and put customers first. The more time you spend building your audience of brand advocates across the social Web, the more you’ll start to see those people standing up for you. Therefore, the fight path offers two effective options — nudging conversations yourself and allowing your band of brand advocates to nudge it for you.

2. Flight

While you don’t want to actually run away from negative online conversations about you or your business, you do want to consider the source of those conversations and evaluate whether or not ignoring them is your best course of action. The social Web is filled with people who like to stir the pot under the veil of anonymity. Savvy Web users typically recognize these people and ignore them. It’s perfectly acceptable for you to ignore them, too. Always consider the source of the negativity, evaluate it’s potential to spread further across the social Web, monitor its progress, and determine if by ignoring it, the negative conversation will die a quick death.

3. Flood

While it’s important to consider the source of a negative online buzz about you or your business in terms of both the person talking and the online destinations where those conversations are happening, it’s also important to consider how they affect your overall online reputation. That’s because people who conduct keyword searches using search engines like Google might find those negative conversations. Even worse, those negative conversations might rank higher in search engine results for your target keywords than your own Web site or blog does! That’s a problem. Fortunately, you can fix it by flooding the Internet with amazing, shareworthy content with a focus on search engine optimization to effectively bury negative content in search results.

Each path to respond to a negative online buzz has positives and negatives, and in some cases, you might need to pursue multiple paths to massage the online conversation to best benefit you and your business. The most important thing is that you’re aware of what’s being said about you online (e.g., set up a Google Alert using your name and business name and use tools like Monitter to track Twitter conversations), evaluate those conversations, and follow the appropriate path to respond to them.

Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.