Since I started my new role, I have spent time looking at how companies are utilising the digital space it has thrown up as many questions as answers.
A recurring theme for me has been the amount of interaction a brand has on its own Facebook Page. I have my own views on it as I like to champion interaction and personalisation but this does not necessarily mean I am right (it’s not a black + white topic).
With so many sports brands on Facebook, ranging from professional sports teams, leisure brands, leisure centres and sports shops. It is sometimes more of a case of test and measure to see what works and how receptive your audience is to different techniques.
Your business goals will also have a large bearing on your approach. If you have a lot of ‘likes’ then maybe a mix of product information, marketing messages and customer care is the answer. For an amateur football team then giving updates on training, results of matches, photos, etc will be more apt as it is a team communication tool.
There is also the question of moderation… and this appears to be a touchy subject. When should the brand step in and delete comments or give warnings?
For the most part it appears that they are happy allow almost any kind of comment. This will usually be a mix of queries, messages stating their love for the brand/team/player mixed in with unrelated spam links, abuse and general unsavoury comments. Would you want to regularly visit a page like this?
As I said before, there is no industry guideline or right/wrong answer but I think there is room for a degree of moderation and interaction that will enhance the experience without becoming overbearing or protective (you have to allow criticism if it is warranted, it can be used as an example of customer care if dealt with).
Here’s a very indepth article on the do’s and don’ts of social media moderation that is a good read if you want to get another view on the subject.
What are your thoughts on involvement and do you have any great examples you can share?
Php Web DevelopersI read this article and I was very satisfied with the explanation that you gave. I save my site not forget your steps to be followed. Very interesting your site
Thanks so much for the very nice write up! http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/stuart-do…
Protecting your community should be job one. They need to feel that you will stand up against a commenter whose only intention is to hurt them. In some cases, particularly with passionate communities, you might let other fans deal with the commenter. However, if the commenter crosses a line, you should delete the comment and/or remove them as a fan. Thanks.
agreed!
Moderation is important, but it is important to think of it all through a customer relations POV.
When you first establish the page you should state in the site description that you encourage participation, but no slandor is appreciated. Then give some type of warning that if there is any you will delete their comment, and the next time they will be removed from the group.
When the followers leave negative criticism you are getting an opportunity to maybe identify a weakness and convert it into a strength (constructive criticism), and in turn you may be getting another fan or group of fans.
Totally agree Cameron. If you use the page description are on the left of the wall or the info area to set out the rules of what will be tolerated and what wont be then you are covering yourself. Many teams/companies still dont do this and is something that makes basic sense.
I've had to delete multiple comments when they are blatant spam or abusive. When it comes to sport the discussion can become very passionate and many stay anonymous despite it being their Facebook/YouTube profile (I think YouTube is worse sometimes for abuse and spam).
If it is a negative comment then I leave them, everyone is entitled to their view whether it is good or bad, as long as it put in the right way. It is educating the group and you hope that a certain amount of self regulation will take place once the group is established and know the rules.
Thanks for your adding thoughts.
Dan
Facebook pages do need to be moderated due to the large amounts of spammers present on the internet. bad language and nasty comments make people change the page and the content posted on the page goes unappreciated.
interestingly, Facebook have just introduced new powers to page administrators to help with the problems of spam and hate messgaes.
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6668/…
what do you think?
Dan
Agree completely with Shane above. Spam shouldnt be tolerated…. and it'd happen a lot less if that was the universal approach. On http://www.facebook.com/paulozartist I've only had to moderate a couple of times – and only had to expel one person from the page who was blatantly nuts.
What I'm not impressed with – is that there is no easy way to find a 'fan' in the listing if you did want to eject anyone. Or make admin for that matter. You have to manually scroll through the list which is last 'liked' at the top. Unless theyre a recent like, it could take hours.
What the reverse order listing is good for though is to send recent fans a welcome message. But don't tell everyone about that ;o) Works wonders.
For Rugby World Cup 2011 we generally only delete spam or if a comment is racist/homophobic etc. We accept criticism even if it gets vitriolic or involves bad language. If there is an over the top attack on a fan we will sometimes post a comment to cool it, and only delete if it is impacting the rest of the community.
With 600k facebook community this means 2-4 spam deletions per day, and only 1-2 topic moderations per week.
We also respond to every question, complaint or praise.
It is really relevant topic, because not just in sports but all brands have the same issue. I think this is the question how you educate your customers, fans etc. Why there are club fans that they don't ruin half of the stadium when their team loses and why some fans go crazy when they just hear that the most popular player maybe won't play because of bad-hair-day? I think that as you educate your customers how to use your product (if your product is for example special shampoo
), you have to put a lot of energy to learn your fans to support you and to tell you when you are wrong in a polite way.
After you solve the problem of cooperative relationship between club/team and fans, I think you just know then how to react when you get a negative comment.
Good subject to talk about. At the NSCAA if someone wants to have a negative comment, it's okay. I want to know about that. There are ways to deal with the comment and take the negativity "offline". As long as the comments aren't absolutely full of swearing and vitriol, we leave them.
My thought is nothing is rainbows and butterflies all the time, so we might as well embrace that with the good comes the bad.