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How to Handle Difficult Conversations on Social Media – The Social Media Monthly

How to Handle Difficult Conversations on Social Media

Have you ever noticed that crazy rumors spread much faster on social media than factual news? You’re not alone. The Chicago Tribune refers to a new study that found that false rumors are more likely to spread than true ones. The study involved a huge data set that looked at rumor “cascades” that spread on Twitter over 10-plus years. In general, rumors reached people six times more rapidly than the truth.

As a business owner, the way that social media can lead to a flurry of lies spreading faster than a wildfire is probably quite concerning, and with good reason. The last thing you want is for the rumor mill to take off on Facebook or Instagram about your company. But if it does, here’s how to discuss rumors on social media, have difficult conversations on social media, and stay as professional as possible through the entire ordeal.

Monitor What is Being Said

Unfortunately, it is probably inevitable that at some point, a cranky customer will head to social media to complain about your company with a post that may contain some nasty rumors. The first step to handling this type of situation is to constantly monitor what is being said about your company online. If you have not done so already, set up notifications on the social media sites that you use to alert you when a comment is made about your business. This way, you will know right away when someone has said something either positive or negative about your company.

Respond Right Away in a Professional Way

Seeing a negative comment that is also completely untrue will understandably cause you to be angry and go on the defensive. While you want to respond as quickly as you can to prevent the negative comment from spreading, you want to be sure you are as calm and collected as possible. If you need time to settle down, start with a short reply that acknowledges you have read the post, that you are truly sorry for any issues, and that you will reply again in more detail as soon as you can. The last thing you want to do is fire back with some “Oh yeah? Well your mother wears combat boots!” type of comment that will just backfire on you and your company.

Offer Tangible Solutions

When replying to a negative comment or rumor on social media that everyone, not just the crabby customer, can easily see, start by offering a sincere apology that the customer had a problem with your product or service, and provide them with a “real” solution. For example, if you are a restaurant owner and someone is complaining about your food, apologize that the person had an issue, assure him that you take this type of comment very seriously, and then invite him back in to get either a full refund or a free meal on the house. The customer will feel like he is being heard and respected, and other people who follow you on social media will appreciate the way you handled this difficult situation.

Tell the Truth

If you find that certain rumors or untruths about your company pop up over and over again on social media, you may want to confront this information in one fell swoop with a blog or social media post. One company that handled this situation well is Amway. When the company realized that many people were asking “Is Amway a pyramid scheme?”, they didn’t ignore the question or get defensive. Instead, the company released a full statement and blog post that addresses these rumors and explains how Amway’s direct sales model is definitely not a pyramid scheme.

You’ve Got This

Social media can be a positive thing for companies, but it can also come with some inherent challenges. By learning how to watch for and stop any social media rumors in their tracks, as well as how to handle difficult interactions on these sites with poise and honesty, your company should avoid being the target of unfair and untrue rumors.

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Trump’s 2020 attack strategy: Smear Biden over mental fitness By Eric Bradner, Ryan Nobles and Dan Merica, CNN President Donald Trump and his allies have zeroed-in on an attack against Joe Biden, going after the presumptive Democratic governmental nominee’s mental physical fitness in a coordinated effort using smears and innuendo to paint him as ill-quipped to be President of the United States. Trump for months has questioned the mental skill of the opponent he calls “Drowsy Joe.” Trump last week described Biden as “a sleepy person in a basement of a home,” and he has actually repeatedly recommended that Biden did not personally write declarations issued by his project criticizing Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. His project and the Republican National Committee have progressively focused its attacks on Biden’s tendency for on-camera verbal stumbles in recent weeks, as it looks for to define Biden after he emerged triumphant from the Democratic primary. One example came previously this month, when Trump’s campaign launched an ad comparing Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, which closed with the line: “At least Bernie remembers his positions.” https://twitter.com/parscale/status/1247928262036258816 The attacks are an early demonstration of how Trump will utilize the full Republican politician Celebration apparatus to run a scorched-earth campaign based upon personal insults and unwarranted insinuations– a heightened variation of his playbook from 2016, when Trump and his allies, without proof, called into question Hillary Clinton’s health. They have actually become a daily occurrence from Trump’s campaign, assistants and Republican allies throughout every medium possible– on social media, in campaign e-mail blasts and videos and on Trump-aligned media companies like Fox News. Biden’s advisers and Democratic allies mention that Trump is guilty of many of the same verbal tics he is attacking Biden over, and often lies and embraces conspiracy theories. As one Biden ally put it: “Has Trump taken his own guidance and downed a gallon of bleach yet?” The attacks weaponize Biden’s propensity to stumble over words, utilize the wrong word or interrupt himself in the middle of long answers by stating, “anyhow,” and altering course. To fans of a former vice president who in December 2018 called himself a “gaffe maker,” those long-time spoken tics have always belonged to Biden’s public persona. They are made more forgivable to his advocates by Biden’s openness about conquering a stutter. Aside from periodic jousts amongst assistants on Twitter, Biden’s project has mostly neglected the Trump project’s attacks. Biden-world’s view is that the political and media landscape has actually shifted because 2016, when every Trump attack on a rival was treated as novel and took command of the project narrative on social media and cable news. His consultants pointed to Trump’s stopped working efforts to guide the political discussion in the 2017 Virginia governor’s race, when he and his GOP allies cautioned of the MS-13 gang, in addition to the 2018 midterms, when Trump’s message concentrated on caravans of refugees approaching the US-Mexico border. ” The misapprehension that whatever Trump wishes to speak about is inherently efficient and that he gets to act as the media’s at-large task editor has actually been closed,” a Biden consultant said. As Biden has adapted to marketing in the age of coronavirus– knocked off the campaign path and rather transmitting occasions and interviews from a transformed rec room in his basement in Delaware– Trump’s project is seizing on every on-camera miscue, with conservative Trump allies such as Fox News host Sean Hannity then magnifying them. ” His sharpness, or absence thereof is on screen every day, every time he talks,” Trump project spokesperson Tim Murtaugh informed CNN in response to concerns about the technique. “His failure to keep a train of thought going is obvious.” Biden frequently looks down at his notes, which Trump’s allies have actually mischaracterized as Biden dropping off to sleep. Trump’s boy Eric Trump tweeted a seven-second video from Biden’s online broadcast with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, along with the hashtag “#SleepyJoe.”. https://twitter.com/EricTrump/status/1255213748811374596. Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign supervisor, said Trump “always projects his biggest weakens on his challenger in an attempt to deflect criticism from himself.”. ” What is very clear is the White Home thinks his presidency will be evaluated on how properly he is managing coronavirus, so it makes ideal sense that he is now attempting to accuse his challenger of incompetence, which is ridiculous.”. The attacks resemble how Trump’s campaign pursued Clinton in 2016, Mook noted. Trump and his campaign frequently cast the former secretary of state as sick or unhealthy, a technique that was further elevated after Clinton stumbled after a September 11 occasion in New York due to concealed pneumonia. ” I simply see a pattern regularly from 2016 all the way through now, which is, he attempts to predict his most significant issues onto his opponents so he gives the media a false equivalence to attempt to muddy the water,” Mook stated. “Part of the factor he was so obsessed with calling Hillary Clinton dishonest is because he is probably the most deceitful individual to win the White Home.”. Biden advisers argue that Trump’s efforts to caricature Biden won’t overcome the same qualities that insulated him in the Democratic primary: After 5 decades in the public eye and eight years as President Barack Obama’s No. 2, voters feel like they know him. Biden frequently expresses distaste for attacks on his rivals’ character. His aides say that by questioning Biden’s mental capability, the President is guiding the project toward concerns of character and fitness. ” This is asinine to tee up– since it’s 10,000 times even worse for him,” a Biden adviser stated. As an example of how easily Trump could be parodied, Biden’s assistants indicated a video from The Daily Show in which Fox News hosts and analysts’ comments about Biden’s mental skill were interspersed with videos of Trump’s own verbal flubs. Biden spokesman Andrew Bates tweeted The Daily Program’s video, which has been seen 3.6 million times on Twitter, on March 25, in action to Trump spokesperson Matt Wolking tweeting: “When is the last time Joe Biden was lucid?”. https://twitter.com/AndrewBatesNC/status/1242886701002960896. ” Triggering voters to assess prospects’ mental states is a devastating proposal for Donald Trump, so we’re never going to prevent him from going there,” Bates said. – CNNPolitics.

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Posted May 3, 2020