Can negative blog comments be good PR?

Some people don’t like your company or client, so invite them to comment on your blog

You launch a blog or social network. It looks good. People come, they read, they comment. Executives, maybe even the CEO, pat you on the back.

Then, offline, your organization somehow chafes its customers and they respond online with chains of angry comments. Suddenly the CEO is burned on the social network or blog you pioneered.

Sounds like a nightmare. The site you created is hosting angry remarks about—you! Don’t fret. You have the angry commenters on your home turf; that’s exactly where you want them.

Take a look at Barack Obama’s social network, MyBarackObama.com. More than 22,000 people have joined the largest group on the network, “Senator Obama-Please Vote No On Telecom Immunity-Get FISA right.” The group is angrily criticizing Obama for supporting the domestic spy (FISA) bill he vowed to block.

“Obama’s handling of the FISA issue began as outrageous and has proceeded to be so insulting that as of now I can’t vote for him,” said one commenter July 11.