Someone I know personally posted a comment on Tampa, FL homebuilder, Inland Home's Facebook buisiness page regarding a problem they have with mold growth on wood fascia board. The home was built by Inland Homes in 2005 but for the past few years the homeowner has had to continually scrub off the growing mold on the wood boards. The builder, attached the roof tiles nearly flush with the wood fascia boards instead leaving the recommended overhang of one inch. Consequently, rainwater runs down the boards thus causing the mold. Despite yearly maintenance, the homeowner now has to replace all of the moldy fascia boards which have started to rot with new vinyl boards costing hundreds of dollars in repairs.

The homeowner’s comments on the builder's Facebook page was not composed in a rude manner; rather he asked Inland why the fascia boards used were wood while the other four new home builders in his small community used vinyl. Even with incorrectly installed roof tiles, vinyl fascia boards would have prevented mold and rot.

Within hours the homeowner's comments were removed from the Inland Homes Facebook business page.

As a virtual assistant who uses social media for clients and for my own business, I was rather shocked and disappointed that this company decided to do what is known as ‘sanitize’ negative comments. Sanitizing means that only positive comments are posted about the company’s products and services.

I believe that if you are going to participate in social networking, then companies should be social which means listening and conversing with both satified and dissatified consumers. Of course, companies can do whatever they choose with their social sites…afterall they do administer their own social sites but what is the purpose of maintaining a Facebook business page if the intention is not to build trust and loyalty amongst consumers?

Using my example, Inland Homes only wants potential consumers to see what they want us to see. Yet, sanitizing a site only leads to suspicion and skepticism which is the exact opposite of the positive image the company wishes to portray to the public. (A quick look at the site and you will see that it is only used to advertise new homes and not used effectively as a social venue to open discussion among potential homebuyers.)

Surely, if our homeowner’s problem could not be rectified, the least that the builder could have done was to respond in a positive manner to show that they were listening to their customers. If they are not listening on a basic level, I ask, will they listen to the buyer if he or she has a complaint during the actual build? That's the bad impression I received!

I came upon a well-written article on Mashable entitled, “HOW TO: Deal With Negative Feedback in Social Media", which helped to explain four types of negative comments that appear on social networking sites. According to the author, negative comments ranging in title from the Straight Problem to the Spammers known as Trolls. Sandwiched between, there is Constructive Criticism and a Merited Attack.

The wood fascia board complaint referenced here is categorized as a Straight Problem. “Someone has an issue with your product or service and has laid out exactly what went wrong. This type of feedback is negative in the sense that it paints your business in a poor light, but it can be helpful in exposing real problems that needs to be dealt with.” I believe the Straight Problem to be the most helpful type of complaint because it is an opportunity to turn a problem into a solution. Consumers understand there will be problems with products and services but it is the WAY that a problem is rectified that will build trust and ultimately future sales. A Straight Problem offers an opportunity to become a better company and afterall, companies want to be better than the next in this competitive environment; particularly in home building.

Constructive Criticism is also quite useful to the provider of services or products because the complaint will often accompany a solution. Again the response from the company bearing the complaint should be an acknowledgement of the problem with a thank you for the solution.

Straight Problem and Constructive Criticism should not be ignored or sanitized from a social website.

A Merited Attack is simply an angry comment usually accompanied by some name calling or choice words. It is my belief that these comments can also be useful in turning a problematic situation around perhaps by offering to contact the customer privately to discuss the situation. Anyone visiting a social networking site who sees Merited Attacks followed by a comment from the company to diffuse the volatile situation ‘off line’ will discern that this company cares and is willing to at least open up some discussion. A Merited Attack is also another trust-building consumer solution.

The author describes, Spammers/Trollers as such, “The difference between trolling and a merited attack are that trolls have no valid reason for being angry at you. Also in this category are spammers, who will use a negative comment about your product or service (whether true or not) to promote a competing service.”

The Spammers/Trollers are the comments I would certainly remove from any social networking site. They have no merit, no solution and are not helpful to promoting or building consumer trust.

Inland Homes should have replied to the consumer who was dissatisfied with the products used to build his home. Instead this home builder chose to sanitize the site leaving only positive comments which ACTUALLY makes the company’s reputation look suspiciously void of robust content.

Shame on Inland Homes who does not realize the full potential of customer feedback. Perhaps they might have switched to vinyl fascia board instead of wood to prevent mold and costly repairs by homeowners for future builds. Or better yet, install roof tile properly so water can drain away from the home.

We will never know the answer.

In this down real estate market, social networking consumer comments really do matter and can make or break future home sales.

How do you deal with negative comments on your social networking pages?