Let me assure you that the criticism will still happen if you’re not there.You just won’t be around to do anything about it.

The best way to quash fear is to dismantle it into manageable chunks. Let’s assume that your product or service is criticised online.  You can have a contingency plan on how to react. Here are some suggestions:

Preemptive apology: 

If you know you’ve made a mistake but no one else has noticed it yet, you can soften any future criticism by apologising in advance. Whatever you do, don’t put your head in the sand. When Kryptonite’s bike locks were heavily criticised online, the company took a week to respond!  By then news organisation CNN was already reporting it. (1)

Full apology:

If you’re sure you’re in the wrong then please make a full public apology quickly and offer a full refund and/or something extra to those affected.

Non-apology:

Don’t go apologising every time someone criticises your business. If you’re not sure whether some criticism is fair let your audience know immediately that you’re aware of the comment and are looking into it. 

After the apology:

Once all apologies have been dished out you can ask for feedback from your audience.  Ask them if they thought you reacted promptly and effectively. Also, invite them to make any further suggestions on improving your market/services. They then get to engage with your business and you get market research for free!

I’m not advocating that you bow to every whim of your customers.  After all, you can’t please everyone. However, the way to triumph online is to develop trust amongst your followers.  With mass production, overseas call-centres and faceless corporations, customers really have time for you if you treat them like the distinct person that each of them is.

Good luck!

The list of reasons business give for not using social media is long. I have listed the ones I hear more often and ended with what I think is the main reason: fear.

MYTH: I don’t have the time.

Social media is only time consuming if you approach it without a solid marketing strategy. Engaging in social media need not take more than fifteen minutes a day.  That’s a very small investment of time for the marketing benefits that it can bring.  Plus, social media can be fun, informative and engaging so quarter of an hour is going to go by very quickly.

MYTH: I’m no good with technology.

Neither am I nor many of the millions of people engaging in social media.  You don’t worry about the amazing technology behind your phone every time you use it, do you? Technology only becomes used by the masses when people don’t have to think about it.

MYTH: If I do social media I’ll only hear about what people had for breakfast.

Without small talk there’d be no soap operas, friendships or social cohesion. Have you ever tried talking to someone you’ve just met without using small talk? Try it next time and you’ll feel like a robot! It’s the social niceties that oil the cogs of society. Also, by listening to the “small talk” you can even spot behavioural trends – a great marketing tool.

MYTH: I have nothing to say.

Many people think that social media is like broadcasting: You stand in your platform and shout what you did, feel or think.  Wrong.  Genuine social media is about conversations.  Once you engage with someone on conversation, there won’t be any silencing you.

Social media makes you want to join into this conversation so much that face-to-face meetings out of online interactions have sprung worldwide.  Tunbridge Wells, where I live, has at least two face-to-face networking events a week, one of them called Twuttle.

THE REAL FEAR: I’m afraid of my business being exposed.

There are many people who fear that if they join a social network for business, their product or service might receive negative comments.  This can happen, but if you’re present online then you can tackle any negatives swiftly. The negatives are not going to go away just because you’re not there.  However, social media can be quite forgiving if you react authentically and quickly. 

 ”By engaging with your customers/audiences their trust in your business/services will grow.” @kevinmcdougall1

Social media is not going to go away. It’s fun, informative and connective. Do give it a try.  After three weeks of using it you’ll wonder what the fuss was all about!

In Flamenco it’s the guitarist that follows the dancer, not the other way around. If the dancer is feeling thoughtful or full of melancholy, her steps are going to be slower, her dance rather mournful. If the dancer wants to celebrate life then her steps will be faster.  If real art is to be created then the guitarist has got to respect that rhythm.  

However, the guitarist will not remain in the background. A good dancer knows that without a guitarist there will be no performance so she will give him the space to shine.

The hidden communication between a flamenco dancer and a guitarist has parallels with how we communicate in social media:

• Listen:  A guitarist must listen to the mood of the dancer. Those who want to be successful using social media must learn to listen to their peers first.
• Listen & Empathise: The guitarist follows the mood of the dancer. He knows he mustn’t try to change it. When you enter social media try to join the conversation rather than impose your own agenda.
• Listen, Empathise and Shine: The guitarist does get to shine.  By respecting the dancer he becomes the linchpin of the performance and gets his just rewards.  In social media, if you’re a good listener, a relevant contributor and a trusted voice you will get your chance to shine.

A flamenco performance can also have singers, other guitarists and musicians and a public eager to clap and to cheer. If no one acknowledged each other then we’d have a cacophony of noise and not an art form.

It’s the same in social media. If we all just blow our own trumpet then no collaboration would be possible.  But if we listen to each other and respond accordingly then we really are the creators of a marvellous, open and creative form of communication. Ole!

Social media does different things for different people.  What it does for you depends on a myriad of factors such as your personality, your commitment to it and whether you’re using it for social or business purposes.

I’ve been using Twitter for business purposes for the past year and what it has done best for me is:

• Connect me with my local community:  Twitter has reconnected social communities with its “tweet-ups” – face-to-face meetings with fellow Twitterers. You get to know people as friends, as business people and as fellow Twitter pioneers.  I now have a much deeper sense of what’s going on in our town and what sort of fun characters inhabit it.
• Focus on my business identity: Because of Twitter I’m actually re-branding my business. When you only have 140 characters to explain yourself then you really need to know what your enterprise is all about.  I soon realised that I couldn’t market my business both to housewives and businesses using the same voice.
• Cross-fertilisation of ideas:  Social media helps you meet like-minded people and not so like-minded people as well.  It’s the not so like-minded persons that you should aim to talk to.  Those are the ones that help you see the world, and your business, in a different light and thus help you grow.

 So, what has social media done for you? Your experience will be different from mine so I’d  love to hear it.