The Fear of the Comment

When a corporation looks to establish a blog, they have several concerns.  One main concern that prevents corporations from blogging is the possibility of negative comments.  Commenting is an essential part of interactivity.  Comments provide corporations with a look at a customer or stakeholder’s perspective.  These comments are very valuable in the long run, and should be handled in a specific way. David C. Skul, the CEO of Relativity, posted a video, “How to Deal with Comments on Your Blog”. 

This useful video provides advice ranging from different ways to monitor spam comments all the way to handling a negative response situation.  It explains that not all negative comments are serious.  Sometimes they stem from random people, which may not have even read the post, trying to create an issue.  If this is the case Skul suggests still remaining polite and responding to the commenter.  However he also addressed that some negative comments must be handled with action from the company to improve relations.  It is essential for every blogger to understand these tips.  Comments are inevitable and should be handled in a manner as to maintain the credibility of the blog.

If a company is concerned with the amount of negative comments they may receive, other Interactive Tools can be implemented within the blog.  These tools should not replace comments, but be used to improve the company’s reputation.  They are another method to establish relationships and gain feedback.  Once the company begins receiving more positive feedback then other interactive tools will work side-by-side to continue improvement for the company.

When developing interactivity for a corporation there are several tools to ensure your social media will become interactive.  These suggestions are very helpful for those getting started.  Several effective blog tools are forums, RSS feeds, polls, chat rooms, and trackbacks etc.   Just remember the amount of interactive tools used, should be based on the amount of time you can dedicate to a response.