When Your Members Criticize a Company or Person, Invite Them to Your Community
I recently had a member on one of my communities start a thread to review a book, which he criticized. Most of his review was fair, but there were some parts that I felt were a little harsh. Still, it was appropriate for our community.
As an author, I do sympathize with other authors because when you really invest of yourself to write a book that means something to you, there is a vulnerability in that. I also don’t want our community to be known for unfairly harsh reviews so while the review itself was OK, I went ahead and replied to steer the topic toward productive discussion.
The next thing I did was to invite the author of the book to the community. I told him about the discussion that was occurring on the community and made clear what was being said. I explained what our community was about – that it is a friendly, respectful community – and encouraged him to join to offer his thoughts.
I did this for a few reasons. First, I’d appreciate someone inviting me in this manner, if it was my book. Next, I think it’s a good opportunity to bring someone new into our community, for meaningful discussion. Finally, I have no desire to create an atmosphere at our community where any member thinks that it is inherently a one sided place and that it is a space where words don’t carry weight. If everyone understands that their words affect real people and have greater meaning, beyond our community, that will lead to better contributions – generally speaking.
I have yet to hear back from the author and he has not joined the community, yet. But, I hope out hope that he will.
Time after time, we see communities pounce on a particular company, organization, product or individual in a constant whipping fest. While it can be easier to simply allow your members to beat on someone in a one sided way, and jump on that bandwagon, I think it sometimes, though not always, more meaningful to encourage respectful sharing from both sides. At the end of the day, you usually want both groups to feel comfortable on your community and that starts with you developing and defending that mentality.
I’m not saying I do a great job at this. I’m not saying I contact everyone who is criticized on my communities. But, once in a while, where I see a good opportunity, I do so and that effort is far better than no effort at all.
I think by the same token, it’s a valuable opportunity for PR representatives to hunt out discussions like this and get engaged where they can.
A community I frequent is currently focused on a 180-page thread raking a particular company over the coals. To that company’s credit, a few representatives and even an investor came out to offer their side of the story. In this case it was awful as the investor began resorting to personal attacks, but that’s beside the point.
As an observer, it spoke volumes about the company’s attitude when they stepped up, walked into the lion’s den that these threads can sometimes become and offered to discuss the issue at hand. I would think the same of any author or other personality that took the time to seek out discussions of their company or product, however small the forum may be.
Hey Brad,
Thanks for the comment. Yeah, that is true, as well. If you mention the title of my book, there is a fair chance I will pop up in that place! I’ve responded to criticism or critical remarks numerous times. :)
Thanks,
Patrick
I like this kind of outreach. Something that’s worked well on some of my communities is having a live Q&A session with various subject experts. If there has already been good discussion around a particular individual then it shows there is demand there.
Obviously it’s a similar thing but taking a slightly different angle to it. You could also do podcasts or video interviews if you wanted to mix it up.
Thanks Adi. Those are great ideas, as well. :)
Patrick
I’m constantly amazed by how companies and people who are criticized on communities don’t bother to come and join in even when invited. Time and again i’ve seen a simple customer service issue crop up on our forums, the company wouldn’t bother responding (even after being invited) and starts issuing threats of legal action against the forum or even individual members. The best approach (again seen time and time again) is for the company to respond directly on the thread in question and be open/honest about what went on (and generally try to fix the issue). Ultimately that works much, much better than ignoring it or throwing their weight around!