We often hear that since there are so many places for social media customers to vent, there is no sense of urgency to build another with a .SUCKS platform.
There is an understandable anxiety over the rise of bad online behavior and its effect on social media networks. For instance, Twitter’s failure to manage online trolls has taken a toll on their platform, and any company in the midst of a PR blunder will know all-too-well the dangers of kicking a hornet’s nest online. It seems one bad Tweet can snowball into millions as users join the latest online trends (and witch-hunts).
People will always complain—there’s no way to avoid that. But if you’re looking to get a handle on the conversation around your company or brand, a .SUCKS platform might be the solution.
Where Our Social Media Platforms Fail Us
Perhaps economist and author, Umair Haque, summarized it best when he said: “We once glorified Twitter as a great global town square, a shining agora where everyone could come together to converse. But I’ve never been to a town square where people can shove, push, taunt, bully, shout, harass, threaten, stalk, creep and mob you…it’s more like a drunken, heaving mosh pit. And while there are people who love to dive into mosh pits, they’re probably not the audience you want to try to build a billion-dollar publicly listed company that changes the world upon.”
It’s not just Twitter—Facebook, too, can be precarious for individuals and brands. First off, it took Facebook forever to roll out a “dislike” button, meaning users were more likely to take to comments or their own newsfeeds to vent their frustrations. Now that Zuck is working on a “thumbs down” button for Facebook Messenger, users can sort of express themselves in full, but for brands wanting to gauge public opinion on their product, Facebook is still hard to navigate—privacy settings and newsfeed algorithms mean many users’ opinions are obscured from public view on the platform. Yelp, another popular go-to for consumers wanting to vent their troubles, may be tied up in lawsuits for the foreseeable future.
Where a .SUCKS Domain Comes In
If you’re thinking of using a .SUCKS platform for reputation management, you might be onto something. A .SUCKS platform can help companies curate or capture slippery data and online criticism, and keep it in a centralized customer service platform, rather than spread across the web. By referring your consumers or clients to a .SUCKS site, you can start to diminish the effect of unfounded or unfair comments made elsewhere.
Controlling a .SUCKS site can help eliminate the kind of abusive behavior that has characterized other social media platforms. For instance, a fast-food restaurant wanting to make sure their customer service is up-to-speed may register SlowService.Sucks to gather any customer complaints and reply to them in a conscientious manner, and use the site to subtly promote other positive aspects of their menu and business.
The Takeaway
A .SUCKS site can allow registrants to manage the feedback they receive while giving their consumers a voice. By controlling the site themselves, registrants can help monitor and eliminate the kind of abuse now common on social media platforms and help steer the conversation in a more positive direction.
The choice isn’t between moving to the .SUCKS platform and the status quo, the choice is between letting third-party apps erode your reputation or taking steps to enhance it.
Start the conversations you want to see online. Register a .SUCKS domain today.
Photos: Shutterstock / rawpixel, Shutterstock / weedezign, Shutterstock / Pressmaster
