Sideways Marketing’s founder, Louis Sideways, stopped by to introduce a new service from the marketing company. The service is called The Sideways Gardner and is intended to assist with a company’s online comment section. Sideways believes that we are opening ourselves up to undue criticism online. He explains how in the rest of the piece.
The comment section should exist to move the conversation forward for your community. You’ve probably seen this in effect if you’ve ever been in a great online group. People leave encouraging comments or questions, and a back-and-forth ensues.
However, if people not in your audience get into the comment section, they bring loud opinions, uninformed thoughts and rude behavior. They’re not your fans. They’re just contrarians. That’s where our gardeners come in.
The gardener ensures your fans get the best experience from the comment section. Not every comment section needs to be a review site. So, if that’s not what you’re looking for, the gardener goes in and fixes the problem.
Based on what you’re hoping to grow in the garden—perhaps it’s encouragement ideas, or a lovely rose bush—the gardener helps it flourish.
Our goal is that you can take your friends on a tour of your garden and never have to say, “Oh no, there’s a weed!”
Will the people whose comments we deleted be upset about our actions? Probably, but they were hurting the community’s goals. The gardener can also block them or pick a fight with them elsewhere on the internet so they forget to return to your site.
So make your comment section a part of your marketing strategy, not a place for people to hate your product. Hire a Sideways Gardener today!