Consumers often use social media platforms like Twitter to air their grievances about companies. To show consideration for these individuals and their feedback, these companies respond directly back on the platform. However, this could be doing more harm than good to their value.

Taha Havakhor found that replying to these complaints on social media can result in more attention and visibility being brought to them. Continuing the discussion publicly through back and forth replies further perpetuates this attention, a phenomenon Havakhor calls “complaint publicization.” This in turn leads to a negative public perception that damages the company’s overall value, particularly those that rely on individual investors.