This document provides guidance for B2B social media managers on how to deal with detractors. There are three main responses: respond, block, or ignore. The appropriate response depends on whether the detractor is a potential customer and has relevant followers. For potential customers, a response is generally warranted even if it brings negative issues to light. For non-customers without relevant followers, ignoring or blocking may be best. The document outlines examples of when each response type was used and why. It also provides tips on monitoring follower quality and guidelines for engaging with competitors and posting content on social media.

1. How to deal with
detractors on social
media:
A Guide for B2B Social Media
Community Managers
1

2. Learnings about social media:
1. As B2B marketers begin to create and curate more content and post it on social media sites,
there is a much greater chance that you will come into contact with individuals who, for whatever
reason, may be detractors of your brand.
2. Each individual situation is different, however they can be placed into two categories to elicit
proper response: responding to potential customers vs. non-customers. Response should be
according to the type of individual who detracts from the brand: for example, someone
complaining about your product may be deserving of a response even if it brings attention to the
problem, while a person who appears to have no relationship to you but calls out your Twitter
handle or brand with a negative opinion should potentially be blocked and/or ignored.
3. For the purposes of maintaining a clear policy across the board, this presentation is an attempt
to show examples of potential detractors or brand damagers along with what I would consider to
be appropriate (and often successful) responses. Your company’s template for responses should
ultimately be looked over by a legal professional.

3. Table of Contents:
Responding to detractors: respond, block or ignore – page 3
Monitor the quality of your followers – page 11
Best practices for engaging with competitors – page 13
Best practices for posting on social media – page 14

4. Respond, Block or Ignore?
There are basically three ways you can respond to a person who may potentially harm your brand
on social media. You can respond to comments – either privately or publicly, block or delete
comments, or completely ignore comments. With Twitter, ignoring a comment is a lot easier to do
than with say Facebook or Linkedin as a Tweet is ephemeral while a Facebook or Linkedin post will
remain very visible. But with ANY social media channel, you should make sure you are continually
monitoring as a post can be potentially damaging.
In the slides that follow, I will show how and why I chose to “respond, block or ignore” social
media posts.

5. A person who responds to some news I have curated is very opinionated. This person called out
some content I posted on 2 occasions, and although this person was a little brusque, I actually
found their insight potentially valuable to my audience.
There are a couple things you should do when someone sets off a red flag:
1. See if he or she has any followers that you know.
2. See if he or she is relevant, and if blocking her account from Tweeting to you could
potentially hurt more than help your brand.
3. Check to see who the person is on Linkedin! If they are not on LinkedIn, this is a red flag, for
many reasons.
Respond - Example

6. Two people on Twitter take offense to some B2B news content that I had posted.
I chose to ignore the debate as it was between the two people and the news organization
who originally created the content. In this case, it could be an interesting thing to follow
up and research just what this controversy is for future content.
I flagged them both and kept an eye on them. Since that incident one of them followed
the account I was managing - and has been fairly quiet. It is very common for this person
to raise issue with organizations, their Twitter feed is full of complaints. I am sure this
person is blocked by many of the organizations they criticize.
Ignore - Example

7. I chose to block a particular individual who tagged my account and criticized an
organization I was promoting content about. Why?
1. Not a legitimate lead (I saw the person’s Linkedin status)
2. Does not have any followers the account I was managing knows
Everyone has a right to their opinion, but under the circumstances, I decided this
particular person and their content were not valuable to my audience.
Block - example

8. I chose to respond to a customer complaint. Why?
1. She was a legitimate lead
2. She had 11 followers the account I was managing knew
3. I took her word for it on the complaint and address it.
Under the circumstances I decided to Tweet to her that I would bring her issue to the
appropriate person’s attention. She responded by following the account I managed and
continuing to engage using one of my organization’s hashtags. Although acknowledging a
negative Tweet may bring it to the surface (which can be embarrassing) I believe it is
damaging to a brand to ignore legitimate customer service concerns.
Respond - Example

9. Although you can only block Twitter users when they say things about your or something you posted (you
can’t delete their Tweets) it is possible to delete LinkedIn comments. Whether I am dealing with a
comment on my personal post, or a comment in a group I manage, my policy is simple – do not delete
unless they detract others. The key here is vigilance, as once a comment is there, everyone can see it.
Be ready for the world to respond when you post, and never take things personally, in fact, embrace
comments. Comments are the holy grail of marketing, rare and difficult to achieve. Comments beget
more likes and comments! Here are a few examples of how I dealt with negative comments.
1. Someone commented negatively on individuals who were interviewed in content I posted, I
immediately deleted the comment and took off the option to comment. Two people were compelled
to email me personally and critique me, and I invited them both to connect.
2. Someone commented negatively on some content I posted in a LinkedIn group, I commented that
indeed I did not write the post and thanked them for the comment.
3. Someone commented negatively on a post (not mine) in a LinkedIn group I managed. I deleted their
comment, but kept an eye on them. I didn’t mind their frequent and opinionated posts, however in
this case the person used a word to insult the poster. I made sure to update the group rules to say no
insulting others. Another thing you could do is email them with group rules (nicely).
4. Someone commented a bit patronizingly on one of my LinkedIn Pulse posts. I found it more positive
to thank them for the comment and ask them to be a colleague, than to point out how I felt (which
was annoyed). Since then relationships with that colleague have been great, that person even likes
my posts once in a while.
As you may have noticed, managing negative comments on LinkedIn really needs to be a case by case
basis. In every case that I allowed opinions to be heard, I reaped positive benefits. The cardinal rule is
that comments are good, however there is a time and a place for discussion and debate and sometimes
it’s best to bring conversations offline. Also, a clear policy on any LinkedIn group you manage is key.
Delete (LinkedIn specific)

10. In closing, whether you respond, block or ignore should
rely on two things:
1. The detractor is a customer, or potential customer and has relevant
followers - NEVER IGNORE or BLOCK
2. The detractor is unlikely to be a customer and has no relevant
followers – IGNORE and BLOCK if necessary
If it is a customer service issue – if possible ask the poster to email your
dedicated complaints team, giving the opportunity to remove the
situation from the public forum and deal with it in private.
When is blocking/deleting absolutely necessary? See next slide

11. 1. Defamation, slander or libel
2. The promotion of violence
3. The promotion of religious hatred
4. The promotion of racial hatred
5. The promotion of or engagement in illegal activity
6. Discrimination (based on, for example, but not limited to, race, sex, religion, nationality, disability,
sexual orientation, age)
7. Threatening or victimising behaviour
8. Harassment or abuse
9. Invasion of privacy
10. Material that breaches the rights of others (for example, copyright)
11. Obscene, sexually explicit or otherwise offensive material
12. Impersonation of others
13. Misrepresentation (of the user's affiliation with another person or organisation, for example)
14. The needless upset or embarrassment of others
15. Personal attacks
16. Comments that are not related to or don't add value to the contextual article or debate
17. Trolling (posting with the intention simply to provoke a reaction rather than to add value to a debate)
18. Blatant promotion for commercial purposes and/or of no value to the contextual article or debate
19. Spamming (posting the same or very similar material in multiple comments)
Taken from chemistanddruggist.co.uk social media policy, these are good
reasons for blocking social media accounts or deleting comments:

12. Having poor quality followers can damage your reputation and hurt the
quality of the interactions on your social account, whether it be Linkedin
or Twitter. Many organizations use automated social media tools to
manage their accounts. The issue with this is that the human element,
and common sense can sometimes be overlooked. I advocate that
marketers actually look at their Twitter accounts once in a while. Who’s
following you on Twitter should monitored and spot checked, even if they
are not engaging, people can see that they are following you and may
identify them with your brand.
Monitoring the Quality of Your Followers

13. It is an unwritten rule for many companies to not to allow competitors to join
their Linkedin groups. I think we need to accept the fact that transparency is
the best policy when it comes to competition. Unless a competitor is doing
something on slide 10, I think we need to embrace them socially. Today’s
competitor could be tomorrow’s customer, partner or employee. It’s not like
the pre-digital days, we can’t pretend they’re not there, the internet is open.
Competitors should be seen as potential resources for content to appeal to and
entice our customers. Unless they exhibit behaviors from Slide 10, competitors
should be openly invited to engage in social media conversations and
mentioned where it is beneficial to your organization.
Competitors

14. It should be obvious that we should not be posting anything offensive
(see slide 10) on social media. However, we have much more
responsibility when posting on social than not being offensive. So here’s
a golden rule: be positive. Avoid news about scandal, lawsuits and
people stealing each others’ CEOs and focus on innovation, discoveries
and other interesting news. Controversy is a good thing – but let the
experts handle it. Curate an open forum, cultivate bloggers with strong
opinions – but avoid throwing out open ended, controversial questions
unless you feel 100% comfortable responding to answers!
The last word - Posting on Social Media:
Be Positive