Yesterday while reading my news sites I came across yet another article about a company that had a PR disaster. It was a tweet on Twitter. The company got a backlash and soon after the tweet was removed and an apology was made. Grant it the tweet wasn’t in the best taste, it wasn’t awful, however it could have been executed differently. But the reaction to the tweet is what got me thinking. Not about poorly thought-out tweet but more about backlash over any change a company does or says.
There are some understandable backlashes like Facebook and their privacy policy changes. Microsoft’s Xbox One and DRM. There are other sound business changes like Amazon.com changing their free shipping to $35. Shipping isn’t cheap and it was a move that probably had to be done to offset cost. Backlash isn’t just for big companies either. I’ve seen small businesses suffer because they changed one small thing, like a menu item, created a new policy, updated their logo or changed their hours.
That’s the problem, any thing a company does or says will probably have backlash in some form or another even if that change is for the better. It is one of those things that no matter what you as a business do, you aren’t going to please everyone. Sometimes you are going to make a lot of people mad, but on the opposite side of that a lot of people will probably be happy, or maybe not even care. It is one of those things, you will hear people complain 10x more than you will hear praise. Just because someone complains does it mean you have to change? No. But you should evaluate the complaint.
Now that we live in an internet age, what goes out on the internet is there forever. Anything from a tweet to a video to a blog post can be seen by millions of people in a matter of minutes this can be good or bad. Either way because of the internet we as a society are hyper aware of what a business does. Criticism will be swift and harsh but it is about how you handle it that will make all the difference. Don’t ignore it, don’t fight it. Accept it and respond in a positive and respectful way. If you need to make a change, make a change. Just don’t beat yourself up over a little criticism.
