Conquer Your Opponents with Love or How to Deal with Negative Comments from We Blog Better

Conquer Your Opponents with Love or How to Deal with Negative Comments

Posted: 15 Dec 2013 09:00 PM PST

Conquer with Love Wherever is a blog with commenting capabilities, there will be comments. Good, encouraging, relevant, irrelevant, spammy and mean. So, the question is: should you care about comments and how to deal with negative comments? Though the answer seem to be obvious, sometimes it can be hard to make the right decision. It really depends on many factors (commenters' motivation, your marketing goals and quite often – the commenting platform you use). By analyzing these factors you'll see whether or not you should worry about what commentators say on your own website.

How to React

People leave comments for different reasons. Some of them do share their unique position and add valuable remarks, while others use comments to build links. There are also people who leave mean comments. They do this because they're dissatisfied with a certain product, service, idea or just for the sake of a mean comment. Whatever the reason, you should always stay respectful and… conquer your opponents with love*! I always stick to this rule and I highly recommend it to everyone. Below is a cheatsheet that will help you deal with negative comments:

1. Don't procrastinate. Answer as soon as you get a comment. The more time you delay, the more time other visitors see this comment and… don't see your response. They may think you have nothing to say in defense or that you just don't care about comments on your blog. This is completely wrong. So, don't let a single negative comment grow into something bigger (and aggregate other mean remarks) – just reply to it.

2. Show your appreciation. As a blog owner, you should treat negative comments as constructive criticism or feedback. As a rule, people write negative comments to warn others and to be heard. So, if you run a company blog you should show your appreciation for the feedback and then send the complaint to your product team. You may also write another comment when the problem is resolved for others to see you can handle criticism and use it to improve your product.

3. Apologize. Customer is always right, even if his/her complaint is not warranted. So, just say you're sorry and you will try to fix the problem. In case the commenter is complaining over something silly or non-related to your blog or article, rest assured, others will also realize that, so you can just say you're sorry about the inconvenience. Another advice is to ask the naysayer how you can help (especially if the comment itself lacks context). Just ask him/her how you can change the situation for better. In case the complaint does have grounds, the commenter will explain it and you'll be able to figure out the issue. In case the comment is unpointed, you have nothing to worry about – you've shown your concern.

Surely, public reaction is extremely important. However, it doesn't make sense to discuss details (especially if someone is being really difficult) in public. Just take your conversation to a private channel. This way, you'll give the commenter an opportunity to discuss his/her problem in detail as well as to find a way out.

*Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.

― Mahatma Gandhi

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