Beware the lurkers.

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I think when company employees talk about their competitor’s products or services in social media like Twitter or Facebook in ways that are negative or back-handedly trying to point out what they deem deficiencies – they can ultimately be creating a negative portrayal of themselves and their company. People may not respond to you – but they may read what you write. There are many more lurkers in social media than there are people who are very engaged.

What company representatives say about their products will often be interpreted as advertising, marketing, sales. Because they’re biased. Most of us would be worried about saying something negative in social media about our own company for fear of being reprimanded.  It’s important to remember that social media became popular because people tend to favor inbound marketing and having a voice. We’ve grown tired of having marketing messages pushed at us. We love being able to communicate with other people about our experiences, our likes and dislikes. We trust the opinions of others more than we trust sales presentations or advertising.

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Save the negative points for sales calls and sales presentations and let the community hash out the pros and cons in social media. Of course freely talk about what you like about your company in social media – but don’t talk about the competition. When you abstain from the urge to pick on your competition you will seem more professional and graceful. Plus, if you really feel the need to use social media to point out things you think your company does better than the competition – it can come across as though you are threatened by the competition. But there’s little chance that dogging the competition will help you.