Me and Carie Lewis, HSUS at Mashable Conference
At the Mashable Conference, I enjoyed hearing the latest update from Carie Lewis about her organization's experience in social media crisis mode and the recent controversy with Michael Vick. She was able to clearly demonstrate the value of listening and engaging.
Carie has proposed a panel at SXSW called "Let the Haters Hate" (and while you are voting for Carie's panel, consider casting votes for these nonprofit panels). I caught up with her to get some tips on managing angry people.
Given that you are on the front lines, what do you when people say bad things about your issues?
How do you know when to respond and when to brush it off?
1 - tone. What is the severity of the person's tone - are they totally negative, neutral, seem like they could be talked to?
2 - influence. How many followers, friends, subscribers do they have? If it's a blog, what's their technorati ranking? How many people are they really talking to?
3 - frequency. Is this a standalone argument / complaint or does there seem to be a trend brewing? Is it the usual suspects or does this person seem to be gathering a following? I look at number of retweets, comments, etc.
How do I leverage the people who are saying good things about my brand?
How can do you turn a negative experience into a positive one?
Anger in Action from HSUS blog
What are your tips for managing angry or disgruntled people online?