How to Handle Social Media Backlash in 2022?

Backlash means a sudden violent backward movement or reaction. Negative comments, grievances, and client complaints on your social media profiles are all social media backlash examples.

For whatever cause, a company will find itself in the crosshairs of the masses. When this occurs, one of the first areas where individuals vent their negative feelings about the business is on social media.

As a result, the platform that helps the company sell its products and communicate with customers becomes a battleground, with the company typically coming out on the losing end. As a brand, it is your responsibility to act maturely and conduct yourself smartly and responsibly to persuade and comfort unhappy customers.

5 Ways to Handle Social Media Backlash

Let’s look at the top five ways to deal with social media backlash that will keep you out of trouble.

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1. Don’t delete the negative comments

If you get negative feedback from a user on social media, you must handle that publicly. You should never delete comments unless they’re just malicious spam from the competition. But if an actual user or an actual customer takes the time to come to your Facebook page and write you have a bug, you shouldn’t hide that.

Instead, embrace that and thank them for helping you because getting that feedback from a user about a negative experience is extremely valuable for your business to get it right in the future.

2. Turn negative feedback into a positive thing

Getting negative feedback can improve your business if you go above and beyond. Make sure that the customer gets whatever issue they have resolved. Because of that, you can actually turn negative feedback into a positive thing for your brand.

You can take somebody upset because of your product; maybe it didn’t come on time or malfunctioned, and turn them into a lifetime customer if you handle their problem correctly and quickly.

3. Own it up In public

When people research brands and see if they want to work with them or hire them or buy their product, they want to buy it from a human. Seeing somebody make mistakes every once in a while and be willing to own up to it in public is extremely valuable. Apologize in public and say, “We’re sorry for the inconvenience. This is what we’re going to do to fix it.”

4. Take your time to react

Don’t react too quickly, even if your first reaction is to retaliate with a defensive answer. Put yourself in the customer’s position and try to understand what they’re going through.

Once you realize where the consumer is coming from, it will be much simpler to give a meaningful apology and solution to the problem. Other customers will see that, and they will be even more willing to shop with you or buy your product.

5. Trolls should be ignored or blocked

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Having an online presence exposes your business to social media backlash and simple trolling. Trolling can take numerous forms, such as someone posting indecent photographs on your company’s Facebook page or someone commenting on every post you make with profanity and excessive explosive language.

These people merely attempt to destroy the company’s name for no good reason – primarily for their pleasure. You can politely ask such a troller to stop, but you can also delete their postings and block them from your page if you spot them.

The above-listed ways help handle media backlash, but it’s useless unless you’ve truly fixed the problem that becomes the reason for your unhappy social media users.

The solution may demand a complete turnaround of a decision or event— or examining the factors that led to the problem. Whatever the issue is, your business’s job is to resolve it.

Conclusion

Complaints and social media backlash is inevitable, so when next time you get negative feedback on social media, don’t let it disappoint or agitate you. Nor should you hide it. Embrace it because you got invaluable product feedback and an opportunity to show everyone that you’re diligent about it.

Keep in mind that you are engaging with a human on the other end of the line; respond with humility, friendliness, and politeness. Recognize and empathize with the customer’s worries. It will be helpful to have a social media policy, FAQ page, and crisis management plan.

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