If you've ever read a really bad review on Amazon, you might wonder why they let it stay. Don't bad reviews dissuade people from buying? Not really. They've discovered that giving people a place to talk helps sell stuff. More than that, the bad reviews often stir up passionate counter-reviews.
Are you letting all this happen? That's the important point at the Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That! Blog: Are your biggest fans able to defend you?
If you don't have a message board, blog, or reviews on your web site, there is no way for your fans to step up and defend your company. Instead of hiding from negative reviews, put them in-house, inside your own community, where your fans are waiting to defend you.
If you do anything notable at all, people will talk. Some of them will complain. A few will even spread outright falsehoods about you. Others will leap to your defense.
We used to live in bubbles, where these discussions happened in isolation, where we could create fantasy brands that had nothing to do with what people actually thought and said.
The new organizations that are taking off are those that exist in the context of real-life conversations.
Why not encourage conversation, and brave the inevitable negatives? Make it easy, fun, and rewarding for people to talk about you. You have nothing to lose but your isolation.
Technorati Tags: fundraising, nptech
I simply couldn't resist commenting on this post. i L-O-V-E and so agree with you. There are always going to be blogging bullies, and on other philanthropy blogs, I've read them. Some folks just think their opinion counts more than others.
Blogs are supposed to be engaging, fun, create dialogue, even laugh. More important, they can be educational.
Cheers!
Posted by: Maggie F. Keenan, Ed.D. | 30 November 2007 at 21:53