Be afraid, be very afraid- Off the social media

Nowdays most marketing gurus recommend the use of the social media like facebook, twitter to promote your product. While this is very true, the social media can also hurt us back. As anyone can put up something on the World Wide Web, we should be very vigilant in locating what people are saying about our product. One fine example just happen about a month ago. A hotel in Melaka, Malaysia had a few unfavorable comments about cleanlines in a tripadvisor website. Another person used that comments and put up a blog of the top 10 dirtiest hotels in the world. He put that hotel in the the list of the top 10 dirtiest hotel in Asia. I received that blog in my mail, already five times to date. I have stayed there on one occasion and found the cleanlines to be acceptable. Imagine what would happen if you would search the net for this hotel and find this blog, I'm sure you wouldn't think of staying there. Formerly we are always told to be careful of the word of mouth. Now the word of mouth is even bigger with the social media. My suggestion is to have a few staff dedicated to surfing the social sites looking for comments both good and bad. Improve on the bad and highlight the good. Replying the comments will show peple that you care about their feedback,never hit back or discredit the person. By doing this you will build lasting business.