When it comes to brand identity and your online presence, social media are an important piece of the puzzle. You need to ensure you have a winning social media strategy which covers all the points it needs to cover. From running several social media accounts, engaging with your followers, and making this a part of our content marketing strategy, you need to keep everything under control. And that includes negative comments you may receive on Instagram.
Negative Instagram comments aren’t necessarily a nightmare. If you learn how to deal with them properly, you’ll have less reason to worry and more reason to be peaceful. In case you’re confused about handling negative Instagram comments, and you need help, just keep reading.
Here’s how to deal with negative comments you receive on Instagram.
1. Always Respond
Let’s start from scratch.
One thing needs to be clear before we move any further:
- You need to respond to every negative comment and you should never ignore them.
Ignoring a negative comment will show you’re weak and you’re:
- afraid of responding
- feeling guilty for whatever you’re accused of
- not interested in hearing out the problems of your followers
- trying to hide the issue addressed in the comment
To avoid coming across as a coward or as being careless towards your followers, you simply need to address every single negative comment you receive.
By doing this, you’ll show you’re professional, and you care about what your followers have to say.
(See also: 10 Tips to Become an Instagram Influencer)
2. Take Control
When people leave a negative comment, it’s never a good thing for your brand. However, if you let it get out of control it’s even worse. That’s why you need to take over control as soon as possible and try turning the tables.
There are two things you need to do to be able to take over control:
- Respond fast
Don’t let a negative comment hang in the air for too long. This may further anger the unsatisfied follower and cause additional negativity.
Keep track of everything your followers write to you and respond as quickly as possible.
- Stop the continuation of negative comments
When you respond to a negative comment, you should try putting an end to the public discussion.
You can do so by inviting the person to continue the conversation privately, after apologizing publically.
This will show how much you care and will most likely calm the situation down.
The negative comment needs to be addressed this way to ensure they’re under your control.
3. Stay Professional
Nobody likes a negative comment, especially if they carry a certain amount of provocation or rudeness.
However, you can’t let a negative comment kick you out of balance and provoke you to act unprofessionally. This means that, no matter how rude, insulting, untrue, or falsely accusing the comments are, you need to hold it together.
Your response to a negative comment needs to be:
- Polite
You mustn’t respond to an insult using another insult. Be polite regardless of the nature of the negative comment. - Professional
Remember you’re writing in the name of the brand, not your personal. Make sure you proofread before you post. Use Trust My Paper if you need help with writing.
“Trolls come with the territory of the online world. It is important to stay calm and not emotional so that you don’t get sucked into the negative cycle. Dealing with the comments promptly but not mindlessly engaging with the trolls helps an organization stay professional and neutral,” says Preeti Adhikary for Forbes.
Make sure you control your eagerness to fight back and explode. Just keep it calm, stay focused on your brand identity, and respond like a true professional.
4. Repost It
If the negative comment someone left you is truly caused by your mistake, and the person is right about complaining, you need to walk the extra mile to make things right.
A simple apology is a must, but sometimes, you need to step it up.
Therefore, use this negative comment as a way to let all your followers know you care about them and you’re working day and night to make them happy.
Here’s what you can do:
- print screen or repost the negative comment on your Instagram account
- apologize to the person leaving the comment
- write a longer explanation to all your followers who might be experiencing the same issue
- say you’ll fix it and make sure it never happens again
This will make people happy and give them a reason to continue staying loyal to you and your brand. Instead of ending their relationship with you, they’ll feel the need to continue nurturing it.
5. Don’t Delete
You might be thinking the easiest way to deal with a negative comment on Instagram is to delete it and pretend like it never happened.
However, this can and probably will backfire on you.
If you delete a comment, here’s what’s going to happen most likely:
- the person will post again
- they’ll be angrier
- they’ll accuse you of deleting their comments
This will make you seem weak and afraid, and that might ruin your reputation.
Still, there is an exception when you can consider deleting the comment. It’s when the person leaving the comments is:
- trolling
- insulting you or other users
- ignoring your kind request to stop
- cursing or using disturbing language
If this is the case and the person is obviously provoking you and trying to ruin everyone’s day, delete the comment and block them from your account.
You’ll be protecting the interests of your faithful followers.
6. Take Action
Finally, the last thing you need to do regarding the negative Instagram comments is to learn from them.
Negative comments can help you analyze the way you communicate with your followers, do business, provide services, and function globally.
That’s why you need to take notes and take action:
- work on improvement
- remove issues
- make things better
- solve problems
Be proactive and stick to your promises. Use negative comments to make things positive.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, a negative comment on Instagram is not the end of the world. You do need to be smart about the way you respond to it, but you don’t have to despair.
Use the advice above to handle all the negative comments you receive on Instagram. Stay professional and make sure you learn from them. Show your followers how much you care and appreciate their opinion.
Angela Baker
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- How to Deal with Negative Comments on Instagram - October 3, 2019
