Is it Time for Businesses and Brands to Fight Back with Social Media?

Here's the thing about social media for brands: it's unfair. Chalk it up to "keyboard courage", entitled mindsets or other societal flaws but social media doesn't really work the same way for businesses as it does for individuals. And that’s not fair.

Imagine if an unsatisfied grocery shopper jumped on top of a check-out stand and loudly voiced their opinion about that grocery store’s lacking selection of paper towels. The store would defend itself by calling security to escort this person out of the building and silence the negativity, right? Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way in the realm of social media. In the Twitterverse, that unhappy shopper can launch attack after attack against that grocery store, whose only option is to respond with kind Tweets in an attempt to smooth things over.

"Gurus" are quick to point out that social media allows companies to have a more personal approach when engaging with customers. This is very true and the general consensus when responding to negative comments is to be anything but defensive.

But how did we get to this point? In the real world, the grocery store doesn't have to tolerate that irate person. In a real-life scenario, that person may even be viewed by onlookers as a little nutty. But online, that same person is hailed as a trailblazing hero and often recruits others in her campaign against the poor grocery store.

The customer is always right but at what point do businesses and brands start their defense? Can businesses and brands ever do such a thing?

Let's look at a recent tweet from Spectrum (formerly Charter?). Cable companies in general are notorious for their customer service. But here's an example of a company trying to be friendly, only to have a keyboard warrior throw a wet blanket on the effort.

so you can tweet this shit but ya cn't tweet when your service is out? Get your priorities str8 and spare me the I'm sorry.

— NYCArmyVet (@NYCArmyVet2) June 28, 2017