Moderating comments on your blog

When you speak on the community website, one thing is certain, you may at one time or another will generate negative or inappropriate comments. This will happen on networks you control (Twitter, Facebook page, blog etc.) and those in which your brand exists (Other social networks, forums etc.).

Today, we are interested mainly in networks that you control, and on which you just attack other corporate blog, your Facebook page, or the content of your blog site’s comments. And first of all, a comment, even negative, indicates that the content you post are reacting and are read. That is a start, right?

That said, we understand you. Getting criticize, denigrated; it is never been a fun, especially in a space that you create and administer, and the issue of negative comments is always tricky.

Thus study the different categories of comments that annoys us:

Commentary advertising (spam)

Commentary advertising is by far the most common. Your page speaks of salmon production in Alaska, and yet some still think they will be able to promote their brand of chocolate praline to your visitors.

What to do?

• Delete comment: fast and efficient, removing avoids polluting your editorial and show everyone that you do moderate your page, not open the door to abuse.
• Separate comments from other reviews: if you have little time for moderation, for example, on Facebook, already thinking clearly separate the information in your feed that you post those published by your fans. This will avoid making too obvious spam messages posted on your page and you would put a few days to locate and remove.
• Report Spam: Facebook has tightened its policy against spam and lets you now have the ability to ban a fan of your page or to report his comments as spam.

The critical or negative comment

The critical remark annoys you. You are on your blog or Facebook page dedicated to the promotion of salmon in Alaska and we just criticize you on the prohibitive costs of your salmon negatively or we say we got a cockroach inside your package.

What to do?

• Delete Comment: Sounds great, does not it? But think, if you delete this comment of having cocroarch or cost, can you stop people’s opinion? Will you remove any comments that do not go your way eventually to the risk of annoying your fans and readers who just got lost? Come on, do you remember and go to the next point.
• Reply to comment: Whether you do it in public or in private (an email to the person may be a good way to defuse the criticism), the response is essential and will allow you to make a difference and show your community that you listen. And if unfortunately you had deleted the comment in an unguarded moment, a small mail to the author may also defuse the conflict. Any advice? Always remain professional, crop and do not answer the debate on the issues you want to forward on social networks. Remember that an open and positive response given as soon as possible will often allow you to defuse the crisis and ensure that your commentator did not get upset and annoyed and amplify his remarks, thereby generating a well known bad buzz.

The defamatory (broadly defined) comments

Sometimes the commentary, rather than criticism, wants defamatory or against you or to any third party (player, commentator). To continue the metaphor of Alaska salmon, they come on your page or blog that salmon are “all are ****”.

What to do?

• Delete comment: To prevent things from escalating, delete the comment may be desirable. To facilitate your work, maybe you can also include in the preamble to the comments section of your blog a message stating that the comments defamatory, racist, xenophobic, etc. will be automatically deleted. This will justify your actions without having to go then you justify to its author.
• Reply to comment: Apart from generating a sterile debate, responding to comments defamatory or irrelevant is not desirable. If however you do not want to delete the comment by principle and do not want to leave unanswered, adopt a response that does not detract from your editorial, remaining in a neutral, professional and non-inflamed, and redirecting the response on the subject of your post or your activity. The idea is not to enter into the debate, but to show that you do not let him or her.
• Adopt a legal response: Without going into legal details here, on the question of qualification for defamation, including that, in practice very complex exercise to conduct legal action for defamation. Are you sure that this is defamation and not free speech or free right to information, for example? Apart from some very specific cases, we can discuss in a future post, consider it better to try to resolve the problem before initiating a legal process.

And if we had one recommendation to you? Always consider the potential consequences of your action. Delete comment can cause troll. Defuse it by mail to the author of the commentary. Your answer might be misinterpreted in the thread. Beware, the danger is often to treat its contents and relax in the comments and get trapped there. Remember that the speaking community is first and foremost the ability to interact with your community, positive or negative!