In my last weekly update (here) I mentioned that my new site had received a huge surge in traffic by a single post on a forum by someone who found my site.
What I didn’t mention was that it was a negative post.
When I saw the surge of traffic in my logs naturally I looked into why and I found a site sending me a lot of traffic, so of course I went and had a look. It was a forum on my exact subject.
When I read the post about my site at first I was very annoyed, these people were picking on what I was doing, they were LAUGHING at me. So I registered on their forum with a username that was close enough to my domain name to make it obvious who I was. Now for my revenge, they were going to get the rollicking they deserved.
Fortunately for me, I decided to stop and think about what I was doing. I was about to start a flame war with my target audience. Why? because they had hurt my feelings. That just wasn’t the right thing to do, so I wrote a different message instead, just 3 little words:
Amused, are we?
I checked back later and there were a few more nasty posts, and one that asked for an explanation about my site, perfect just what I wanted.
I proceeded to explain the purpose and aim of the site and after some further discussions the people from the forum now support me, in fact the guy who started it all sent me a personal email and apologised.
Tip Summary: Do not abuse your target audience if they hurt your feelings, instead try and find a way to get them onside. Be polite, stay calm, and respectful.
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[...] Drew submitted - Turn a negative situation into a positive one Filed under 31 Days to Building a Better Blog | Get the Free ProBlogger Newsletter [...]
I think you did the right thing. I have often wondered what it would be like to get negative feedback in my comments or on a forum - no doubt I’ll find out one day as I’ve only been blogging for a month so far. I think you did the right thing.
Also, I hear that “There’s no such thing as Bad Publicity”!
Cheers
Dominic.
Nicely done, you turned that around well and created a positive outcome. Initial emotional responses are often misguided and, well, emotional. If you stop and think you can overcome the anger and instead react with patience and purpose.
Good job, Drew. It’s always wiser not to react in the moment and instead, stop and think. That bit of advice has saved me many a headache and, even made me a friend or two along the way. For it is certain that if someone has taken the time to speak (or write) passionately about something you’ve done or are interested in, that this person has similar interests and with a little bit of understanding and communication may become an ally rather than an enemy.
This is something we should do always, not only online, shouldn’t we? Well done.