Often times when talking with clients and potential clients, I’m asked the question: “What if someone leaves a negative comment?”
It continues with the admission “We don’t have the resources to monitor our [Facebook Page/Twitter account/Etc] everyday.”
This seems to be a major barrier for many organizations when deciding how to participate in “all this Social Media stuff.”
It’s at times like this that I’m reminded of the Philosophical riddle:
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
- Whether you have a Facebook Page or not, Facebook still exists and so do its status updates.
- Whether you have a Twitter account or not, people are tweeting.
- Whether you know what Yelp is, or not, won’t change any 1-2 star reviews.
- Whether you created your location on Foursquare or not, is irrelevant to it’s creation by someone else.
All of these channels exist, regardless of any single organization’s participation. The conversation has been made public. Yes, it’s true, no one asked if that was ok with you but it’s already happened.
What’s gained in forgoing participation is the false peace of mind that comes with ignoring a problem.
What’s gained by participating is the opportunity to fix a problem.
So what’s next? A shift in mindset. That’s all that is needed to understand the opportunity vs the liability. Embrace this whole-heartedly, because the alternative is to pretend it doesn’t exist or take steps to make it worse.
There is a well-known story of Hui-neng, a well-respected Buddhist monk who later became known as the founder of the Zen school, who one day happened to be passing by two monks.
- “Two monks were arguing about the temple flag waving in the wind.
One said, “The flag moves.”
The other said, “The wind moves.”
They argued back and forth but could not agree.- The Sixth Ancestor said, “Gentlemen! It is not the wind that moves;
it is not the flag that moves; it is your mind that moves.”
The two monks were struck with awe.”- – The Mumonkan Case 29, translation by Robert Aitken
- (Thanks to Wikipedia for this story)