[FAQ]

Hi,

Looking for some advice on community management. We published a post recently that received a fairly critical comment from a former client. It’s not abusive or spammy, but it is negative.

My gut reaction is to delete it to protect our brand’s image, but I’m worried that might just make the person angrier and escalate the situation. What’s the professional way to handle this?

Do you have a rulebook for when to reply, when to delete, and when to just ignore? I want to be transparent but also need to manage our online reputation. Any frameworks or examples would be incredibly helpful.

Thanks.

[Jeff Bullas]

This is a situation where your response is more important than the original comment.

Short Answer: Respond publicly once with a polite, professional acknowledgement, then immediately move the conversation to a private channel. Never delete legitimate criticism.

A useful way to think about it is that your public reply is a text format for the audience, while your private message is a text format for the individual.

The worst things you can do are to either delete the comment or get into a public argument; both will damage your reputation more than the original comment ever could. First, your public reply should be a short, non-defensive text that validates their concern and takes control of the situation, such as ‘I’m sorry to hear about your experience, I’ll send you a direct message now to get the details and sort this out’. Second, you must then immediately move the conversation to a private message. This is a different format designed for problem-solving, not public performance, and it de-escalates the tension. Third, you need a clear rule to distinguish between genuine critics and trolls. Legitimate criticism deserves a response, but any comment that is abusive, spam, or clearly in bad faith should be deleted and the user blocked without any engagement.

Cheers,

Jeff

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