The outside perception of your company culture and your employment brand drives job seekers to apply to your business. So, what do you do if one of your current or former employees posts negative comments about your employment brand on social media?

Although employees are cautioned from almost everyone about bashing their employers on social media, the practice unfortunately still occurs.

Here is a suggested process for overcoming negative social media comments adapted from the 5 step LAARC sales process for overcoming objections. 

1. Listen. Take a look at the negative social media comment and think about it before responding. Thinking about why that current or former employee is posting the negative social media comment will ensure that you don’t overreact and make the situation worse. Furthermore, a negative social media comment may be a blessing in disguise. For every 1 customer that complains, there are 26 other customers that .... As an employer, your employees are your internal customers. While your employees do work for you, they still need to have job satisfaction for your company to succeed. If you can pinpoint your employee’s pain points and fix them as soon as possible, then you can avoid a future crisis. Before responding to the negative social media comment you may want to also think about which non-public settings (private email, private message, or even a one on one meeting) are most appropriate to engage the negative commenter.

2. Acknowledge. Negative feedback, while sometimes untrue, occurs for a reason; a reason that may not be explicitly stated. The negative commenter may be having a bad day, may just habitually blame problems out of his or her control on others, or may be troubled by something totally unrelated to their employment. Nevertheless, if a person feels that they are or have been treated unfairly, he or she does have the right to express that feeling; a right you should acknowledge. While you would obviously prefer that your current or former employees do not express their dissatisfaction with your employment brand in a pubic setting, if you acknowledge that the negative commenter has the right to express his or her dissatisfaction and show that you actually care about his or her concerns will move you one step closer to overcoming dissatisfaction. ..   

Read the rest of the steps at how to respond to negative posts in 5 steps.