7 ways hospitals can address criticism voiced on Facebook

The head-in-the-sand approach is no longer a viable option

Honesty may be the best policy—but sometimes it can hurt.

Although social media allows organizations to engage in honest conversations with their customers, it can also provide a forum for angry customers to voice their concerns. How you respond to these comments says a lot about you and your organization.

Online comments don’t just impact organizations—newspapers are learning how to handle them as well. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently wrote a story about how people are hesitant to be quoted in articles because they’re afraid of negative online comments. To be honest, I don’t blame them.

Corporate brands such as Gatorade and Domino’s have seen firsthand how people can hijack their Facebook pages to air their grievances. Rather than respond, they just turned the other cheek.