Criticism | davefleet.com

Posts Tagged ‘criticism’

Avoiding The Dark Side Of Social Media

09.01.07

If you look at social media as a collective group of instruments, the exciting part is that it’s, well, social. The discussion; the interaction; the dialogue is the game changer here.

Unfortunately, all too often the tone of discussion fails to live up to its potential. Just today, the Globe and Mail (re)stated its policy of closing comments on all Middle East stories:

"Past experience has demonstrated that too many people post racist, vulgar, abusive and offensive comments, often encouraging violence against specific individuals or peoples whenever we open comments on such stories."

The tone of discussion on other newspaper sites often falls to these levels too. Meanwhile, the commentary on sites like YouTube is notoriously vulgar.

Still, constructive and valuable conversations persist throughout the Internet using "social" tools. It’s these that offer the potential for businesses. The question for us as marketers and communications professionals is, how do we encourage and foster these discussions while keeping out the trolls?

Choose your issues carefully. If you write about politics, religion or similar types of topics, you’re going to attract controversy. Does your company need to wade into geo-political issues? In most cases, the chances are it won’t. If you do, be prepared for (sometimes over-)heated commentary.

State and enforce a comment policy. Set the boundaries on your properties and stick to those boundaries.

Establish a process for engaging online. Decide the criteria that will determine whether you engage with a specific post or not. The US Air Force’s process has done the rounds online recently (thanks to Joey deVilla for flagging it). It features a series of questions which determine whether the post in question is one with which you should engage. Devise your own process, or use this one – it’s solid.

Practice what you preach. Be respectful to others, particularly if they disagree with you or vice versa. Remember, disagreement with you isn’t always a personal attack on you. Criticism can be good.

Don’t poke the trolls. Some people are just out to offend or to pick a fight. Don’t let them. Again, criticism is fine; attacks aren’t. Don’t respond to the latter unless you have to.

Know the rules of the game. Old-school marketing tactics are frequently received poorly in social media forums. Know what you’re getting into and know how to navigate the murky, nuanced waters of each venue in which you engage. If you’re not sure, get some professional advice (ahem).

What other tips would you offer?

Posted in: best practices, social media

Tags: best practices, conflict, criticism, engaging, social media

16Comments

Criticism Is Good

08.12.22

Over the last few days I’ve seen several “social media” figureheads take a distinctly anti-social approach to feedback they’ve received online. I take a pretty dim view of that response to criticism:

If you’re someone who experiments on the leading edge of something, be prepared for criticism. What’s more, remember that criticism isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Criticism does not equal attack

Criticism can be constructive. The fact that someone disagrees with you or suggests a different approach doesn’t mean they’re attacking you. Instead of reacting negatively, which is easy to do, try thinking about what you can take away from the criticism. Yes, there are trolls out there who go out of their way to disagree in a destructive way. However, most people don’t do that.

Every time you dismiss feedback, you lower yourself in the eyes of not only the person who gave that feedback but also in the eyes of anyone else who is considering giving more feedback.

One of the big problems in the social media “fishbowl” is that people spend way too much time agreeing with each other, without thinking objectively about what they’re agreeing with.

There’s nothing wrong with agreeing with someone if they’ve made a good point. If you think they’re off-base, however, you do them and yourself a disservice by failing to air your views.

I’ll occasionally pop up on sites like PR Squared, PR Works, Social Media Explorer or Jennifer Leggio’s ZDNet blog. If you read over time, you’ll see I occasionally disagree with them. I don’t do it because they’re always wrong, or because I’m out to attack them. I do it because:

I have immense respect for Todd, Dave, Jason and Jennifer (and other people, too);
They put themselves out there and give their own views on controversial topics;
They react appropriately to constructive feedback;
This is meant to be a conversation.

Reacting badly to criticism has another effect besides just lowering your credibility: it discourages future feedback. I read a lot of blogs, and I rarely nod wholeheartedly at everything I read. However, I simply won’t comment on numerous sites because I know that my feedback will be met with “well then go read someone else’s site.” I may like the person; I may know even know them but I still won’t comment if I know the reaction will be inappropriate.