This is a quick look at a common problem in digital marketing, the negative turn of comments on sponsored social media.

What do you do when a sponsored post goes wrong?

In the below example, a sponsored post from GE on LinkedIn takes some heat in the comments.

What would you do, if you represented a brand like GE?

An Ounce of Prevention…

First, don’t sponsor a post that has possible inflammatory issues. For instance, BP should probably avoid mentioning oil spills or the Gulf of Mexico when they buy ads to draw attention to themselves.

Likewise, GE should steer clear of food advertising unless necessary. They should let their subsidies promote their food offerings. Food is an issue near and dear to people’s hearts, and promoting this topic is actually not necessary to their goals on LinkedIn (recruitment most likely, perhaps Business Development). If you take a look at their page on LinkedIn, the rest of their posts have good feedback. Most of them are much better choices for a sponsored post.

If you insist…

But, not posting it is no longer an option, so here’s where you define your reaction. Response vs. No Response

Can you respond?

Yes, if you have a response that will clarify and appease. If you can show that the commenter is uninformed and their issue is nonexistant, in a kind and respectful way, you can respond. If you can get contact details and attempt to work with them to solve a problem they bring up, you can respond. Response is the ideal reaction.

But, in some cases, response will not help the situation. If you do not have an appropriate answer, you can not respond.. GE does not have an appropriate response.

Take Down

In this case, no response is better, so the best thing to do is pull the spotlight. Take it down if you can not respond. Don’t delete the post. That, again, has the potential of highlighting your initial issue and adding bad behavior which makes you look incredibly guilty. Let’s just remove the sponsorship of that post, and the eyeballs on it will cease.

This should happen sooner, rather than later. Once tons of people have piled on, they’ll get updates on each response, so the sooner you pull the sponsorship, the better.

And, that’s how I’d handle this individual instance of reactive community management. I hope you enjoyed this quick look! Let me know if you have any questions!