Social Media is a great big flame war waiting to happen

The biggest problem with social media is that frankly any dummy can now speak loudly. In fact, that's what I just did right there! Quick, off the cuff statements like that are among the easiest ways to get someone's dander up. I mean, sure, it’s one thing to say that the Internet is now far more democratic, and anyone with a simple connection can now have as much voice as any politician, mobster or PR executive. The problem, however, are the number of occasions when someone will post something that is either largely uninformed or just flat wrong. With no liable laws being enforced online, (yet,) this usually means people have to get out there and defend themselves. And that’s when you get a Flame War: A hideous little bit of fun that involves hurling insults like a 9 year-old at an otherwise complete stranger, online, in full view of the world. This has been around just about as long as forums, chat rooms, or anywhere you could have a public conversation – and now it’s back. Chances are good you’re in one right now and you don’t even know it. If someone has started bagging on you on Yelp or Twitter, then you need to decide if you’re going to respond, and if you do, how. What to do if someone starts flaming you First off, it is important to remember that anyone who takes time out of their day to start blasting you in public is not necessarily your enemy. If this is a client or customer who feels they haven’t been able to get in touch with you any other way, then this is actually an opportunity to get in touch with them privately – emphasis on “privately.” Because if appeasing this person means giving them a deal you don’t just give anyone, count on others finding the exchange and trying to get the same deal out of you. Next, remember that someone blasting you in public also isn’t necessarily your friend, or even your problem. Sometimes, people start these fights just to draw attention to themselves. It’s rather like back in 2001 when groups no one had heard of before started protesting Eminem, whom everyone had heard of before. By shouting down Eminem, these groups elevated their own position. So it is worth looking at the quality of individual or individuals calling you out, and seeing if a response would really halt the damage, or just give comfort to the enemy. Finally, as Mad-Eye Moody said, (ask your kids,) you must maintain, “constant vigilance!" For starters, you are mad if you don’t have a Google Alert set up for both your own name and your company’s. This will let you know when Google has found any mention of interest. You’ll need to play with it a bit to make sure you’re getting the right you, of course, or company name. For instance, having done this recently for our client Re-bath, I had to make several changes to the keywords selected to keep out any post marked, “re: bath”, which turns up a whole lot more than you’d think. So keep up on conversations within the more popular social sites. There are a TON of social sites, so you won’t be able to monitor them all on your own. Try to stick to the ones where you know there are a lot of users: Myspace, Facebook, Twitter. The first two have decent enough search to find anyone riding you, and Sumize is the place to go for Twitter. Then keep tabs on how you turn up in other people’s conversations. And if you aren’t turning up at all… well, at least you aren’t getting flamed, right? It’s a two-way street, that – at least when people are slamming your company in public, it shows that you’re big enough to be envied!

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)