The Guardian interviews Igniyte’s Simon Wadsworth

Last week, Simon Wadsworth, Managing Director of Igniyte, featured in an article for The Guardian, How To Deal With Negative Online Comments.

The article explores how the effective use of social media channels can combat negative comments online. Specifically, it goes on to highlight the positives of fully optimising a company or brand’s presence on social media sites, such as Facebook.

Relevance of Social Media in Business

Finding the right social media sites to use and the correct tone of voice are the initial challenges with a company or brand’s social media presence. Once these points have been established, a brand or company, if using them to their full advantage, can increase customer service and sales for their business. Word of mouth encourages potential customers to try new business, but before they pursue the recommendation, most people use Google to find out more about the business or brand.

The article spoke to a number of businesses about how the use of social media and their response tactics to negative comments online have influenced their businesses.

Igniyte quizzed 500 UK businesses and found that 1 in 10 said their business had lost between £50,000 and £100,000 as a result of negative online content.

AO.com told The Guardian that they have a team dedicated to online monitoring on social media channels and a personal response strategy. David Atherton, head of customer experience at AO.com said that the most important resolution for tackling a critical, negative post is by reacting fast.

Hello Fresh said that out of their 25 employees, 8 of them are dedicated to customer service, including the full responsibilities of the Hello Fresh Facebook page.

Network Rail have more than 57,000 followers on Twitter and regularly take the time to reply to disgruntled tweets. They first of all establish the truth (as sometimes it may be a misconception or hoax) and then they determine whether it requires a response, sometimes it’s just an expression of frustration towards Network Rail.

All of these companies have one main thing in common with how they are dealing with the negative comments online and on their social media profiles. They are taking the time to respond and try to improve their customer service by building a strategy for dealing with the online criticism.

Simon Wadsworth, the managing director of Igniyte takes a similar view. While companies can use the defamation laws to have content taken down, Simon says that by responding to comments directly is a more effective way. Simon believes that if someone is in the mindset and determined to defame or despoil a company, by getting a comment or a website removed by these people, it could only lead to more negative comments or links popping up in their place. By talking to the people who are negatively affecting your brand and business and opening up a dialogue, it allows you the chance to easily resolve an issue.

We find that the biggest online critics can often be converted in to the best advocates for a business through communication and understanding.