Mistakes are a part of the game, especially when you’re trying to sustain in a competitive world. However, the issues can be fixed by owning up to it instead of just reacting to them in a disdainful manner.
Bart (Photo Credits)Handling criticisms and coming over them as a respectable brand takes much more than building a reputation. More is on stake when you publish something that’s unacceptable or contains untruthful data or information.
Own Up and Let It Go
The audience has short attention span because they are bombarded with tons of information every day. People tend to forget things easily if you have handled the criticisms right. Yes, it may take little longer but readers will more likely believe that you’re making up for your mistake and are now giving an honest account of things.
However, by being condescending, you further spoil your image and lose a chance to make up with your audience. Why will they come back to you when there are several others businesses selling the same products? Communicating that you have committed a mistake and you’re ready to make up for it can save your image among your audience and you still are left with a scope to prove yourself once again.
In today’s world when companies use social media for strengthening their brand – it is more important than ever.
Let us understand this with the help of an example.
Nokia is a huge brand and has been the hot favorite of people across the world for years. With the emergence and popularity of other big brands like Blackberry, Samsung, Sony and Apple in the mobile market, the company has been facing challenges to reinforce their brand image. They have been coming up with new and more attractive handsets.
The company started experience real trouble since the time they have published a positive review of the Nokia Lumia 620 on their blog- Nokia Conversations. The review was written by Adam Fraser, a Nokia employee. Reviewing your own product, that too, in the form of an expert review of a smart phone did not go well with the influencers.
Mario Aguilar of Gizmodo raised a question if it is right to review a Nokia product by someone who works for Nokia. Later on, the mobile giant changed the title of the post and also added a note at the bottom of the post. According to experts, it was far more than making a foolish mistake because instead of accepting the mistake, they compounded it by changing the title of the post.
Lessons for Content Marketers
Don’t Write Review of Own Products
The first and foremost lesson that content marketers can learn from this is that don’t ever write review of your own products. It is considered that people won’t believe it when it comes from any of the employees for the company. Yes. They can reinforce the utility of the product and try to resolve any issues that users may face.
It’s better to avail services of an independent review writer if you’re really interested in reviewing your product. Select the influencers to try out your product and provide you with genuine opinion.
Don’t Be Offending When Someone Criticizes Your Move
You are not supposed to be offending when someone criticizes your move. Instead you can communicate with them, asking them to suggest a way to make things better. You may feel that you’re right in your approach; come up with an explanation giving reasons to justify your move. As a brand representative, being hostile is the last thing that people expect from you.
Making mistakes is a human nature but accepting it can break all the walls, giving you another chance to prove your worth.