LIBR 246 Post Week 3

What should an organization do when they find negative things being written about them online?

Respond immediately, honestly, and in a well viewed social forum. I read the article “10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media” and while it focuses mostly on the positive attributes of social media it has good advice for negative occurrences as well. One of the examples they provided of how social media can work for a company was an incident Ford faced.  Ford had a negative rumor spread through social media so they were able to catch the information early on and diffuse all negative comments.  With immediate response and honest communication on company business to consumers, Ford was able to maintain their positive and safe reputation.  Libraries should take a cue from this and maintain transparency and address any negative situations or complaints quickly and directly.  Social media can mean spreading the negatives, but it also provides an avenue to diffuse them quicker and can help avoid being talked about to neighbors or friends where we have no opportunity to address the negativity.  I would recommend this article to everyone, useful and interesting!

    Another article discussed crowding out negative blog comments or news reports with positive social media pages, articles, and comments.  That way google searches bring up the positive rather than the negative.  This was mentioned in a personal branding context, but I think it can apply to libraries by pumping up the positivity around a brand and potentially diffuses negative accusations or abnormally disgruntled consumers.