Smart Company recently published an 'Ultimate Guide to Facebook Moderation'. In it, Patrick Stafford raises many issues that businesses using Facebook now face that they didn't just a short time ago.
"The concept of monitoring and moderating the messages made on Facebook walls is odd. The practice didn’t even exist three or four years ago. But recent legal tussles show Facebook moderation isn’t just something you should do because it’s good business. It’s a legal obligation. Smart businesses will be aware of a finding by the Advertising Standards Board, and a subsequent affirmation from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, that small businesses have an obligation to take down misleading or deceptive posts on their wall. These messages can constitute ads, and if you don’t take care of them, it could result in massive fines. Businesses have been irate about this, suggesting it’s even more work for them to keep track of. But James Griffin, co-founder of reputation management company SR7, says this should have been the case for many businesses when they first set up their pages – and it exposes some laziness (emphasis added)."
In the article, Stafford raises key points about setting up an online community on Facebook, key points that I think a lot of businesses have not heeded in the rush to be on Facebook simply for the purpose of being 'on' Facebook. The role of moderator would be a lot easier if these companies had spent time developing a strategy before simply jumping on one of the latest social media bandwagons.
Some of the key points raised in the article include:
- Asking yourself what you want a Facebook page for. Have a strategy and envisage what feedback/interaction you would like to create;
- Setting standards and having clear guidelines for posts;
- Warning against misleading comments - even if a comment is positive it may not be accurate;
- Don't delete controversial comments.
Interestingly he warns against regarding 'likes' as feedback, a point I brought up in our tutorial discussion last week. A lot of likes doesn't always correlate to engagement. Similarly, negative posts by consumers that garner alot of 'likes' may not be the death by social media or translate to loss of business that many may expect. As in the case of the Target social media story I mentioned in my last post, 44,000 'likes' of a mother's negative feedback to Target obviously demonstrates that a lot of Facebook users also share a similar point of view, however it could also simply be fellow consumers having an easy dig at a corporate entity. Sure it isn't one to ignore complelely, as 44,000 likes has spread one consumer's feedback much further than it would have ten years ago through 'Word of Mouse' and brought coverage of the issue to traditional media, but if I were moderating a page I'd be more inclined to analyse comments rather than the simplistic 'like'.
But back to the point I emphasised in the first section of Smart Company's 'Ultimate Guide to Facebook Moderation': Have companies become lazy in their Facebook moderation? Has the proverbial horse bolted and now companies must play catch up to avoid or better manage their own potential social media #Fail? Should companies re-assess their presence on Facebook and perhaps opt for another platform for social engagement?
I think setting up a Facebook page is the easy part, but constant vigilance is the price to be paid for wanting to be in that space. Laziness has crept into multi-national companies AND small businesses. Social media moderators must access their platforms daily, respond, and if a response can't be supplied, as at least an acknowledgement that the post or comment will be assessed and responded to as soon as possible.
