E-mail them and start a conversation.
This happened to me just yesterday (and it isn’t the first time). As I was reading back through comments left by readers of the NancyHendrickson.com blog, one comment stood out because of its "aggressive tone". I actually thought the reader had a good point, so I e-mailed him and started a conversation about his concerns. My initiating contact wasn’t some BS marketing strategy (if that’s what you’re thinking) – - it was just me wanting to understand why my reader was upset, and what I could do to fix the issue.
In the end, the issue was fixed, I learned something new, and hopefully a friendly relationship began.
Interacting with blog readers or Twitter followers, or Facebook fans is really nothing more complex than what we all do out here in real life. If I step on someone’s toes, either metaphorically or physically, I’m going to apologize and do my best to make it right. And sure, mabe it’s impossible to defuse all confrontational moments.
Insead of just blowing off someone’s concerns, why not see if the enmity can be switched off, and a little relationship building turned on.
Thanks for reading another of Nancy’s musings . . .
I totally agree – - time to get back to solid customer service.
Contacting them is a excellent idea. Too often bloggers only hit the delete key instead of having a discussion to see what it is the other person is disagreeing with. It is a shame though that the conversation was in email form so that other readers were not in on it.
I had a fight with one of my readers on my blog, the next day my server was hacked, he got the root password.
It’s a bit of a pain – all this adversarial stuff. Unfortunately some people thrive on it. Glad to see you are making a positive out of a negative.