Warning Signs That Your Business is Under Attack by Melissa Agnes
Topic: Warning Signs
We work hard everyday. If we’re lucky our business becomes one of our passions and as passionate people we like to see our hard work turn to results, which in turn turns to success.
Being in today’s market we know that taking our business online is crucial to that success. Said simply, online is where our customers are. Building relationships with them, educating them, solving their problems with our products and services, and ultimately selling to them is all done as much online now (if not more) than it is in person.
But as online business grows, so does our reputation and the risk of some unhappy customer leaving a complaint or negative comment online, which we fear can alter the results of that success we work so hard towards.
So how can we protect ourselves against this? Of course we strive to do our best and give our best virtual smile and customer experience to our clients, both online and offline, but sometimes things just don’t go our way. However, if we can learn to detect the warning signs, then we can teach ourselves to catch an attack early on, reverse it, and potentially turn that unhappy customer into a happy, loyal fan – which brings us back on track to that success we aim to achieve.
Since it all starts with detecting the warning signs, let’s take a look at the top 3 signs that your business is under attack online:
Warning sign #1: You’re hit with negative comments
This is a clear sign. When someone – or multiple people – leave their discontent with your company online for the world to see. It could be on Facebook, on a blog post, Twitter, or anywhere else. When this happens, the important thing to do is to take a deep breath and try to understand where they’re coming from – putting yourself in their shoes and acknowledging what they’re feeling.
Tip: Whatever you do, do not delete the comment! That’s just asking for more negative criticism to be thrown your way. Instead, reply to the comment and aim to please. Find a way to connect with the unhappy individuals, fixing the issue at hand. Do this, and soon you’ll be watching as your positive comments begin to spike!
Warning sign #2: You’re not sure what everybody’s talking about
Sometimes the public finds out about things before we do. And sometimes it’s a pleasant surprise, while other times (and most often) it’s an unpleasant one. If you find that your customers and followers are discussing something about your brand, either to you or amongst themselves, play detective and uncover what they’re talking about pronto. If it’s negative, go back to warning sign #1 and try to resolve the situation as quickly and compassionately as possible.
Warning sign #3: You’re finding it hard to regain control of the situation
Sometimes this happens. There are just too many negative comments flooding in and people are simply too upset to want to hear your apologies or be open to resolving the situation. When this happens, you’re in what we call a social media crisis, and the only way to resolve the situation with minimum repercussions to your brand is with a properly formulated social media crisis plan. Your crisis plan is a communication strategy that you develop before you find yourself in a situation, allowing you to overcome it quickly and efficiently.
This leads me to the final warning sign: This article!
Businesses and passionate entrepreneurs such as yourself face scenarios such as these everyday. These types of online attacks are more than common in today’s world of online marketing and social media. So let this be your warning sign to protect your business by developing the right social media crisis plan, so that if you happen to find yourself faced with any of these scenarios, you’ll know what to do and how to keep that goal of success achievable.
What about you?
What warning signs has your company faced online, and how did you overcome them to keep your company on the right path to success? I invite you to share your comments with me below!
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The Write On Project 
I’m just starting out as’ Indie author/ publisher’ on Amazon and I would love to have some feedback comments on the near 5,000 copies of my books that I gave away.(They were available free for 5 days, there’s about five of them, and that’s how many people downloaded free). I did that in the hope of getting reviews. It’s the lack of comments, good or bad that’s bugging me! I gave them free books and only three people left reviews. I have good reason to believe that Kindle e-book buyers use reviews to guide them to new books so not getting reviews is really annoying. I’m glad 5,000 people have read my books, that’s 5,000 more than if the manuscripts had remained on my PC, rejected by publishers and agents. I’m glad nearly 200 people bought copies of my books. I still need readers to review me though. Your great blog did set me thinking about what I would or will do if I get 5,000 bad reviews! I’d have to take on board the criticism and see what I could do to improve as a writer, but I suspect I’d do it under a pen name with a new account. It’s a good thought isn’t it? What do we do when people criticize then click? Thanks for the warning. Good thoughts.