Today, RichardatDELL left a great comment on Todd Defren’s PR-Squared blog.
Lots of great shared insights there sprouting from a central theme of how to engage with the good and even bad comments made about you or your company.
We have a general rule at Intel — acknowledge the good, bad and not the ugly. The notion is that the ugly, defined more by the mean-spirited intent of a comment, is something we need to read but not feed. But this discussion on Todd’s blog even brings this rule of thumb into question. Social media really is about a cultural shift to being more open, sharing and engaging with thoughtful, timely and valuable information. This is something we’re all learning, individuals and companies alike.
So even acknoledging the ugly might be a way to build the big picture good karma. After all, we’re in this for the long haul so every engagement counts. But it’s not a karma sum game, it’s a new era of connecting, collecting, sharing, collaborating, learning, growing, making mistakes and correcting them quickly. These all sound like jargon, but at the core is positive energy. And the collective use of this is making the world better. It’s not eliminating bad, ugly or evil, it’s helping us understand it better, quicker so we can recoil and spring to the next enriching shared/sharing experience.
Back to the PR Squared post and my favorite comment by RichardatDELL. There was a link in the comment to a post called Three Dirty Little Blogging Secrets. It’s a great read. Richard strikes a cord that is at the core of what gave birth to social media and why more people are turning to it to open their minds, hearts and new relationships with destiny. Here are the three secrets, but read the whole post.
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Movin' Ahead 
Hi Ken – Interesting idea about “acknowledging the good and bad but not the ugly.”
On the face of it, not a bad approach.
But then you wonder: if you become known for responding to almost EVERYTHING (since most will fall into the good/bad buckets), but then conspicuously remain absent from “ugly” conversations, does that just give more power to the ugly?
Having said that, I don’t advocate engaging (for long) with folks who are clearly mean spirited and determined to only sling mud. Try once or twice, then let it go. Life is too short. You’re “on record” (for all the world, and GOOG, to see) as having made a game attempt.
The haters reveal themselves by rejecting a sane, diplomatic approach. The only ones left to side with the haters are other haters, eh?
Hi Ken
Apologies for the delay in getting to you. However, enjoyed the read and the idea of the good, bad and ugly. Agree with Todd on the ugly too…sometimes you just have to agree to disagree. More coming on that in blog post :-)…because there will always be not only the ugly but also people who fundamentally have a different point of view. Acknowledging different perspectives and moving on is OK…its something I learned in politics.
Thanks for the references