Connecting With Those Who Detest Your Brand

When it comes to building relationships with others, there is no better place to do this than the Internet. While there is a good chance that you’ll be able to build up quite a following without using the Internet, how much success could you have sending out flyers and leaving messages for people to continue purchasing from your company or visiting your website? Not very successful, at least compared to all the various methods online.

For most of us, Twitter and Facebook are the two primary methods of connecting with our followers and friends online. Considering that these two networks have some of the largest communities, there is very little reason to stop using them, or move to a different service. However, they can also be great for developing a friendship with the people who have doubted you for years.

Reasons Behind Doing This

Moderately successful blogs have several thousand Twitter followers and daily readers. These blogs are obviously doing something right, but you can also leverage the visitors who are staying at your blog, but willing to leave “hateful” comments. These comments range from “your blog sucks” to “I’ve seen the same thing written hundreds of times before on your blog and elsewhere.” We’ve all seen these comments, but few are able to leverage these visitors.

In the long-term success of your blog, each of these individual readers might not mean too much, but in the immediate future, and in the beginning stages of building your blog, these are extremely important visitors. While you can never achieve a 100% success rate of turning these commenters into long-term readers, there is something you can do to leverage them back.

• The people who are negative about your blog or brand are often the people spreading misinformation around. Capturing their attention may reverse their opinion of you.
• Building your brand takes time, so why not take an approach that cements into a proven brand that’ll last more than a few days?
• Anyone you are able to convince to subscribe, follow, or continue visiting your blog will likely promote it through their own blog, or mention it on Facebook or Twitter.

How to Connect with those Who Detest You/Your Brand (Blog)

One of the best ways to connect with those who feel as though you don’t provide any value (unless you really don’t) is to communicate with them. Assuming they’ve left a legitimate email or web address, you’ll be able to address them through this method.

The second best way to address them is by simply replying to the comment. There is a small chance they will return, but it is better than simply avoiding the comment or deleting it. Other readers will see that you are committed to developing relationships with everyone who visits your blog, instead of just the people who have blogs and regularly promote you.

Often, we focus solely on keeping the regular readers. There is a good chance that they will visit the blog daily for regular updates, so there really isn’t a need to keep doing this. The main point is that you extend your reach and connect with the community you are missing – the people who have written off your blog.