How to manage negative comments on your business blog [BT broadband office]

How to manage negative comments on your business blog

Posted 3 January 2007 at 11:36AM by Martin Faux in Business blogging

Following on from Alexa's post on the benefits of business blogging, I thought it would be worth explaining how we manage negative comments, as it's something any business needs to consider before starting a blog.

Before launching this blog, as a team we looked at a number of business blogs, reading the comments left by visitors and getting an understanding of good practice. This helped us define our own policy.

So for example, we don't publish anything that is illegal or offensive. We will only publish comments that we feel are related to the topic of the post.

However if someone disagrees with what we've written, that doesn't mean we wont publish it. We want to hear what our customers have to say. From the feedback you provide we're able to influence the development of the products and services we offer.

That being said, it doesn't mean that it will always be comfortable hearing what you have to say. But to quote Mark White of Better Business Blogging, who wrote a post titled Why negative comments are positive: "Rather than suppressing negative comments, you should be looking for comments and feedback of all types and trying to encourage them. While it might sometimes seem a painful process, there is little doubt that it will be a very valuable one in the long run."

Tags: business blogging, handling negative blog comments

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Comments

1. At January 6, 2007 3:28 PM, Kian Ann wrote:

I think the best thing about having and addressing negative comments is that it really shows how transparent and authentic and frank you can be with your customers, which lends you well on the credibility plate! :)

BT broadband office