As one of the editors at NAILS Magazine who converses with readers via our burgeoning Facebook page, I always find it useful to hear about how other brands (salons, product manufacturers, other magazines, etc.) handle social media — especially those negative comments that flourish in the online environment of greater accessibility and greater anonymity.  So I popped into a session at Cosmoprof North America called “Join the Social Media Democracy: How to Manage Customer Feedback in the Social Media Landscape” to hear from some experts. What I loved most was the positive attitude these panelists had about negative social media posts.

“The negativity existed all along [before social media]; it was just a cancer you didn’t know about,” said panelist Patrick McIvor, a hairstylist for Matrix. “I’d rather know who’s with us and who’s not.” I completely agree with Patrick. True, it may be embarrassing posted up for the world to see — but the facts are one, if one person posted it, many other people are probably thinking the same thing, and two, at least now the power is in your hands to do something about it.

Megan Segura from Dailymakeover.com encourages the brand to “fight it with positivity. Let them know you understand where they’re coming from.” I love this idea — plus, it has the bonus of potentially making the other person look like the bad guy!

The panelists encouraged brands not to delete any negative comments posted about your business, though some advised that if the attack is purely of a personal nature, then it may justify deleting it and either dealing with it privately or simply ignoring it. The problem with deleting posts though, Krystal Seidel of blog Polish Galore pointed out, is that sometimes comments on the internet can live forever. “Someone has already seen it and may have Instagramed it, re-Tweeted it, etc., already. Krystal advises that if you’re going to delete a comment, you should also explain on your page why you deleted it.

And, finally, as Patrick reminded the audience: “Respond to the positive comments too, not just the negative ones.” Luckily for the NAILS’ Facebook page — thanks in large part to all of the nail techs and nail artists who contribute to it — our comments are mostly of the positive variety.

—Sree