In general, negative comments and PR rarely escalate when it comes to smaller organizations’ and nonprofits’ video marketing campaigns. In our experience, people generally stay positive and supportive when these local organizations invest in video marketing to spread a message of goodwill and service to their communities.
On the off chance that a video you’ve distributed begins accumulating negative feedback, or if you’re worried about potential criticism, there are some ways to approach the issue.
Mitigate the Risk During Pre-Production
Most potential negative feedback can be avoided in the pre-production phase. Sometimes, a video might be shot in bad taste, causing social controversy. These issues go back to the pre-production, collaboration, and editing sides of the video production process. Having a team of professionals who help strategize, plan, and execute will offer several eyes that can catch any potential issues before they become public.
If you’re especially nervous, ask your team to stay vigilant and identify anything that could hurt your brand or offend someone. Above all else, be confident in your planning process so that your finished video is the best it can be.
Pinpoint the Problem
In the case that your video has escalated into controversy or is attracting negative feedback, take a step back to analyze the situation objectively. Is there truly a problem to address? Less serious mistakes could be typos or black spaces between clips. More serious mistakes could be misinformation or poorly chosen words. Many times, however, negative feedback is subjective and more hurtful and unhelpful than it is genuine.
Once you know the issue – if it exists – you can determine if there’s an option to fix it. Issues like typos and editing errors can be quickly fixed so that the video can be redistributed. If there is an issue with a certain shot, determine if you can reshoot the scene, replace it with something different, or leave it out of the video entirely.
Only Cater to Your Target Audience
Video is a subjective medium because it is an art form, so there are people who will connect with your video and those who won’t. For example, your student athlete interview could be a masterpiece, but if your only viewers are people who are uninterested in sports, it’s worthless and boring. Keep this principle in mind when making your video: It’s best to think about your target audience and produce a video that engages with that audience the best – don’t worry about what anyone else will think.
This principle is also important in the face of negative feedback. Think about whether your critics are people included in your target audience, then consider whether their opinion matters. In other words, if a corporate professional is giving negative feedback about a video that was meant for a school board, then you might not worry about that negative feedback.
Approach Negative Feedback With Confidence
Unfortunately, some people are constantly looking for problems, and they’ll find them even when they don’t exist. It’s up to you to determine whether their criticism is relevant, helpful, and worth considering. Overall, be systematic about your process from beginning to end. If you get negative feedback in the public square, think about whether you’ll respond and how. If the client and the target audience are happy, you have nothing to worry about.
If you have further concerns about negative feedback about your videos, contact Monzo Media Productions.
