I recently did a interview with Ragan.com about how to deal with a “flamer” online. Much of what I talked about comes from experience managing fan communities for bands. The article was posted today.<\/p>\n
You wake up, flip open your laptop and try to ease into another workday. But when you check pending blog comments and your Twitter feed, what greets you isn’t a friendly \u201cGood morning,\u201d but rather a steady stream of diatribes and variations of \u201cYou suck!\u201d<\/p>\n
Though your first reaction may be to fight fire with fire, throwing gas on a blaze set by such Internet scourges, known as \u201cflamers,\u201d is a no-win situation for you and your brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe base piece of information to remember is that when there\u2019s a conflict, try to remember that they\u2019re not necessarily against you\u2014they\u2019re for themselves,\u201d explains Vivian Scott, a certified mediator and author of the book \u201cConflict Resolution at Work for Dummies.\u201d<\/p>\n
When dealing with inflammatory posts, she says, remove yourself from the equation. \u201cIf an airline has this person who regularly writes, \u2018I hate you. You suck\u2019\u2014if they\u2019re that hateful or that aggressive toward your brand, something hasn\u2019t been met for them. So until they get that need met, they\u2019re not going to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Often the motivation behind flaming a site isn\u2019t rational, says entertainment marketer Michael Brandvold. Rather, it\u2019s a call for attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough the years of having to deal with it, my experience has been that almost all the time [the poster] is looking for attention,\u201d Brandvold says. \u201cThey\u2019re posting because somebody wants attention or to get people riled up.\u201d<\/p>\n