Social media plays an integral part in your company’s overall marketing and communication strategy. Having a social media presence helps you build brand awareness and acts as a gateway of communication that portrays your organization’s message. As your company grows its online presence, social engagement increases, and criticism and negative comments tend to be inevitable. Whether you’re dealing with an unsatisfied customer, a general misunderstanding, or intentional malice, how you respond determines your organization’s online credibility and online reputation.
When monitoring comments on a social media platform, it can be challenging to differentiate what you should and shouldn’t respond to and what comments warrant being deleted or hidden from a post.
Comments surrounding dissatisfaction about something your organization has announced or associated with should be responded to positively and professionally. If you can’t offer an immediate solution or bring a positive outcome into the comment thread, focus on taking the negativity out of the spotlight and resolving the issue privately.
If a comment is questionable and you’re unsure what the appropriate action to take is, some platforms like Facebook and Twitter give you the option to hide a comment from the post. Hiding a comment from your page allows you to evaluate the situation and gives you enough time to configure an appropriate response without making a rash decision. You can always hide comments first and unhide or delete them once you’ve decided what the right action for your organization is.
When comments on your page are offensive, discriminatory, target individuals, or undermine the integrity of your brand, deleting them is the best option. Hate speech should never be tolerated online, and neglecting to respond appropriately or delete comments surrounding these topics can quickly escalate to a social media crisis.
Adding comment moderation to your organization’s social media responsibilities can help you mitigate a negative situation quickly and avoid a potential social media crisis. When negative comments arise, your organization can maintain a positive brand image online by taking appropriate action.
