The Air Force Response Assessment provides “best practices” for dealing with online criticism to manage your brand reputation. The first step is identifying the type of person the website owner, blogger, reviewer, or forum poster is from among four choices defined by AFRA.  We have already covered the, the “troll,” the “rager,” and the “misguided individual.”

The final category is the “unhappy customer.”

No matter how much you devote to customer service for your business, or how well-received your book is, there will come a time when you have an unhappy customer, client, or reader. This inevitability grows in proportion to the size of your business or the popularity of your book.   It’s like the old saying goes, You can make most people happy most of the time, but you cannot make all people happy all of the time.

An “unhappy customer” is an individual who has personally had a negative experience with your company or has had a personal negative experience reading your book.  This differs from “trolls” or “ragers” who rarely are customers of the businesses they attack, or readers of the books they attack.

The AFRA recommends responding very specifically to the event that caused the unhappiness, and making efforts to reach a reasonable solution to improve the customer’s satisfaction.    An unhappy customer is sometimes a “misguided individual” that is not well-enough informed.  Keeping your customers or readers informed is your responsibility as a business owner or author. Therefore, the way to respond to an unhappy customer can often be the same as the way you would respond to a misguided individual, albeit with the option to “give” the customer something to acknowledge the negative experience.

The Internet has opened the doors to social interaction, exposing all of us to all personality types. While most people are logical enough to recognize “trolls” and “ragers” for what they are, misguided individuals and unhappy customers present an opportunity for proactive reputation management.

To see the full Air Force Response Assessment, click here.

According to the Air Force Response Assessment the first step toward dealing with online criticism is identifying the type of person the website owner, blogger, reviewer, or forum poster is from among four choices defined by AFRA.  We have already covered the first two categories, the “troll” and the “rager.”

The third category is the “Misguided Individual.”

Unlike trolls and ragers, misguided individuals do not necessarily have bad intentions at heart. They may simply lack enough information to clearly and accurately communicate their point of view. As a result, they end up jumping to false assumptions or conclusions.  Misguided individuals are often followers. Rather than taking their own vindictive course of action as the “troll” or “rager” does, misguided individuals often follow in the shadows of “trolls” or “ragers,” paraphrasing what they think they’ve heard, seen, or read.  As a result, their postings, reviews, or comments are often laced with inaccuracies.

The AFRA recommends responding with factual information to clarify the misguided individual’s misconceptions.  A response should be well formulated, not off-the-cuff, and should contain supporting links, videos, or information if possible.

Next we’ll discuss the last category in the AFRA, the unhappy customer.

According to the Air Force Response Assessment the first step toward dealing with online criticism is identifying the type of person the website owner, blogger, reviewer, or forum poster is from among four choices defined by AFRA.  We covered the first category yesterday, the Troll.

The second category is the “Rager.”

According to the AFRA, a “rager” is an individual who engages in online rants (often laced with profanity) or jokes, sometimes satirical in nature.

The characteristics that separate “ragers” from “trolls” are razor thin and, indeed, these individuals are often the same people, depending upon the tone of the post, review, response, or comment.  Ragers consider themselves “witty” and claim to use humor to justify their misanthropic ways.

If your business or book is the target of a “rager,” the AFRA recommends ignoring it, just as you ignore the Troll. Do not comment on specific postings or reviews, which are often censored, edited, or “used” in some manner by the rager to further perpetrate his mythos. Ragers, like trolls, thrive on attention. In fact, Ragers are the Internet’s version of spoiled brats throwing a tantrum — a lot of kicking, screaming, and profanity.  Steer clear or you’ll just encourage a bigger tantrum later.

Next we’ll discuss the “Misguided Individual.”

Responding to online criticism – Reputation Management Part 2

The Air Force Response Assessment provides “best practices” for dealing with online criticism to manage your brand reputation. The first step is identifying the type of person the website owner, blogger, reviewer, or forum poster is from among four choices defined by AFRA.

The first category is the Internet Troll, or “troll.”

An Internet Troll is an individual who operates a website or blog that is predominately dedicated toward bashing and degrading other people and/or businesses.  A “troll” also frequents forums, writes reviews, and “trolls” other channels to spread his wrath.

Trolls are easy to identify. They hate nearly everything, carry themselves with an air of self-importance, and appear to have an inordinate, perplexing even, amount of time to devote toward spreading their stink.

If a Troll is criticizing you, your business, or your book, the AFRA recommends ignoring the Troll completely. Trolls thrive on whatever attention they receive, and the amount of attention they are probably receiving is very minor, in the overall scheme of things.

Next we’ll discuss the Internet “Rager.”

Regardless of whether you are a for-profit business, a non-profit organization, an entrepreneur, or a published author, there will come a time when you are confronted with online criticism, poor reviews, April Fool’s Day jokes, or hoaxes from websites, bloggers, review sites, or forum postings.  The more successful you are, the more this inevitability grows.  Don’t believe me?  Just ask McDonald’s, which recently had to deal with the “Seriously McDonald’s” photo hoax, that suggested they were discriminating against African Americans.

Even our Armed Forces are not immune. In fact, the Air Force released a “Rules of Engagement” flow chart that can serve for “best practices” for dealing with online criticism and managing one’s brand reputation online. The Air Force Response Assessment recommends that once you identify online criticism, next you must identify the category in which the “critic” most closely falls from among these choices:

• “Trolls”
• “Ragers”
• “Misguided Individuals”
• “Unhappy Customers”

Identifying the appropriate category that describes the website owner, blogger, reviewer, or forum poster will help you arrive upon the most appropriate response.  Next time we will discuss the Internet Troll and what you should do if a “Troll” is criticizing you, your business, or your book online.