Ryan Anderson dot ca

“Joining the conversation” is a phrase that is often echoed in Web 2.0 and social media circles. Even now, a lot of PR professionals and clients are unsure of the benefit of entering this mysterious conversation, and don’t see the necessity.

The reality is that if your product is worth talking about, good or bad, it will be talked about. This is nothing new – word of mouth has destroyed a lot of products in its day. The Ford Pinto, despite their attempts to cover up the fact that they would explode in rear-impact collisions, was forced out of the market by people talking about it. This took almost two years – in the new information economy, a story like this would make it around the world a dozen times in less than a week.

In general, there are two kinds of things being said about your products or your company on the Web. In most cases, the buzz is either negative or glowing. It’s rare that a blogger would go to the trouble to say “I bought X today, and it was not bad.”

So how do you respond when the buzz turns against you? Join the conversation. Negative buzz is one of two things – accurate or flawed. It’s important that both of these things are addressed quickly before that buzz gets out of control.

If the negative comments are factual, in the case that a product is flawed, a policy is unjust, or a mistake has been made on the part of your company, the best way to address it is to acknowledge that fact, and explain what steps are being made to correct it. This is very similar to a crisis PR approach, though the goal of this exercise is to fix the problem before crisis arises.

Kryptonite Locks are a perfect example of blog buzz destroying a product. When it came to light that these top-of-the-line locks could be picked with a bic pen, it was all over the Web, yet Kryptonite never responded with anything other than the same old line that “Kryptonite locks are the best.” Had they become a part of that conversation and explained what they were doing to fix this problem, and how they would compensate customers who had a flawed lock, they could have looked great. Instead, their stock plummeted, along with their reputation.

The main difference between blogs and the media is a lack of accountability on the part of blogs. Opinions are fair game in a way that newspaper columnists could only dream of. As a result, there are many unique opinions, and many, many flawed opinions.

When you’re hit with a negative and factually inaccurate buzz, it’s especially important to act quickly before another blogger sees it and reprints it as gospel. Simply by commenting on a blogger’s post or contacting them directly, you show not only that you care about what your customers are saying and how they are experiencing the product, but you’re also helping other bloggers who might be having the same problem, and preventing a mass negative buzz in the process.