In the age of social media, everyone has a voice and everyone wants to be heard. So, if a company wants to keep a positive relationship with the public they should actively respond to as many people as possible.
It’s always a good idea to take a positive tone when responding to comments and mentions on social media whether you’re responding with a joke or a serious answer. Often a negative comment can be talked down just by an understanding response. Looking through Walmart’s Facebook activity in class last week, I found most of their negative comments were quickly neutralized with an understanding response and suggestion to move to private message to work out a solution.
An example of a really good social media manager is Jennifer Hill, the voice behind the Corn Nuts Twitter account. Last year at Upstate Social, Jennifer talked about how her job is more than full-time: she actually stays up on Twitter until about 3 or 4 in the morning most nights because that’s when her audience is most active. Not only is it important to respond to followers, but to respond to them in a timely manner. This makes them feel heard, and strengthens their loyalty to your brand. Jennifer’s talk was about dealing with trolls online, and she brought up how she rarely had to deal with trolls because of the strong rapport she established with her fan base, and whenever a troll popped up, her followers would quickly come to the brand’s defense. This says a lot about what proactive and positive responses can do long-term to boost a brand.
