When I first started my business I was a train wreck and that is putting it nicely. Over the years, I have truly refine who I am a business owner who owns a company during the height of the internet. Let’s just say back in the day, I would hop on twitter and provide you with a 140 character rant about how customers were acting. Now, I cringe thinking about this and it pisses me off more than anything when I see small business owners do this.
We live in the day and age that any moment the words, video or content you share on social media can go viral. Most people want their business to go viral in a positive light verse a toxic negative light that is happening more and more. There have been numerous times I have told clients to remove tweets or post they have made. Let me break something down for you. Since, my audience is business owners first you are about to understand this. My company focuses on business to business market. Most small businesses focus on business to consumer market. Even when you are a service based company those companies are consider consumers.
Not Everything Is Common Sense
Your reputation as a business owner can be destroyed with one screen shot of you saying how annoying your clients are. Let me tell you something that I have thought but only voiced to friends not social media
- why don’t they read
- OMG how hard is it to do xyz
- If they had read the FAQ page first
- No, girl I don’t (insert blank)
- Did she just leave a comment for me to check my email, like I don’t see my notification
Yes, we have all been annoyed by our customers and their actions. This is very normal action to occur. We feel that all answers are on our website and all other questions have common sense questions. However, what is common sense to you is not to someone else. This is something that I keep in mind all the time.
Screen Shot Takes 2.5 Seconds
Your words can be screen shot soon as you tweet them. This is something we as small business owners do not think about. To be honest, I watch everything I posted on social media. Mainly because within seconds people like or RT my post. Things I think are just core about me my audience deems relevant to them. Let me share a story about a beauty product company. I had been following this business for some time actually. Even buying a couple things from them. Then I noticed influx of them talking shit about their customers. One day, when she went on a rant about her customers. So, I screen shot and sent it to a friend. Unbeknownst to me my friend was actually about to checkout on this company’s site. That beauty company lost a $200 order because of their words.
Vent Buddy
If you run a business find another business owner who is your business bestie, that you can vent to. Someone who will not judge you but understand. That person can help provide valuable insight and more. A majority of my close friends own their own companies. When I first launched my company almost seven years ago it wasn’t like that. When I shared my opinions regarding customers my friends were very compassionate towards the customer side. Once, they joined my side they realized how your mind can be blown that quickly, lol. Recently, one of my good friends launched a company I had to reminder even though one customer upsets you the rest do not need to see that. They might take your words and apply it to them, even though its not about them.
When you bad mouth your customers on social media you are setting yourself up to alienate your audience. Find someone you can be completely honest with and share your frustrations with them.
Images by The Every Girl and Katey McFarlan
