A good moan

In social media as in the real world, people love to moan. We thrive on it. Bitching is the lynchpin of many a female relationship; griping the glue of many a session down the pub. I remind clients of this when they panic at the sight of social media users laying into them with glee. It’s natural; it’s inevitable; and, most importantly, it’s an incredible asset for companies that want to offer the products and services their customers are crying out for.

Last night’s episode of I’m Running Sainsbury’s, the Channel 4 series in which employees try to improve the supermarket giant, showed the power of harnessing negative WOM in the right way (you can watch it again here). Realising that customers are much happier if they are freely allowed to complain – so long as they also feel listened to, and see that their comments have practical effect – Checkout Manager Niall Dobson set up an in-branch surgery to actually encourage shoppers to moan more, not less. Niall, it turned out, did good.

The principle – don’t fear negative WOM but embrace and use it – holds true online, but the difference is that social media is not a branch of your company, or a customer services department. Yes, you could use a brand Twitter feed or Facebook page to pick up on or deal with individual enquiries, but people usually don’t want brands to barge into their own venues and spaces – when they do, it often degenerates into an argument or escalates the problem. This is why we tell our clients: don’t try and change the conversation, change yourselves. Once you’ve done that, more positive conversation will follow, as long as you’re listening, adapting, and then proactively engaging people with your improvement and growth.

The good thing is that people who are complaining are in fact people who still care about your brand. If nobody’s talking about you – or if the conversation is all boring, emotionally neutral, repurposed press releases or technical specs – that’s when you need to worry.

Brought into the world on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 and filed under Uncategorized.