Hi everyone...for those of you who have continued to follow my blog..thank you so much...I know I have not posted much at all and I appreciate you still following me, even in these times of sparse postings...you still are kind enough to comment on my posts when I "do post". With winter quickly approaching (even though you couldn't tell by today's temperature) I'm sure I will find more face time with the laptop!
Now onto business at hand...
Since all of you are much more accomplished than I am when it comes to blogging, and the overall world of social media, I would like to ask for your input on how much
credence you place on negativity that is posted on blogs, specifically when it comes to products and services.
The reason I ask this is because yesterday, I was alerted to the fact that my company had been unfavorably mentioned on a blog. After quick counsel with my general counsel, my counterpart on the retail side of our business and I telephoned the blogger to ask, how could we help him with his problem? We listened intently to his issues and then we provided a couple solutions to his problem and we came to an amicable agreement, so it was a "win-win" for the both of us.
I wonder...had we not been alerted of this situation, how bad could it have become with his 549 follower's possibly commenting or at a minimum, reading the post and then having a less than favorable perception of our company and products?
I feel we did the right thing by acting with a sense of urgency, and I feel it paid off because unsolicited, he posted a very nice note on his blog about speaking to me and my colleague. But, I wonder how much power someone really has in the social media circle, be it complimenting a product or criticizing it. I'm sure it obviously depends on who is making the claim, if it was Oprah, I'm sure it would could be a huge "Tipping Point" for your product or service. By the way, Tipping Point is a great read, check it out!
Do you as social media experts have an opinion? How much
credence do you put into others blogs when it comes to products and services? And, considering the power of technology as it is today, for example, Google Alert allows you to put key word searches into this service and get e-mail alerts when your key words are used on the web, companies have so much power at their fingertips that if they don't defend themselves, does that compound the perception, mostly if the company is cast in an unfavorable fashion?
Hopefully the questions make sense and you can share your insight. Please let me know!
Thanks, R Dean "
Slowdog"
