On Twitter we can find discussions and comments relevant either directly or indirectly to our industry to which we can choose to contribute our own thoughts. In the absence of any interesting conversations we can even start our own by asking a question or making a bold statement that some will agree with and others may not. Similarly on our own blogs or Facebooks or the blogs and Facebooks of others we can initiate and get involved in conversations and debates by inviting comments to our own posts or posting comments in response to the posts of others.
Several people I have spoken to in the course of my social media marketing workshops have articulated one particular concern regarding online conversation that I want to address.
Inviting comments by tweet, Facebook or blog can result in some comments that are slightly or entirely or violently at odds with our views and the ethos of our company. Should we block them? Remove them?
To answer this question it’s important to recognize that a useful conversation educates.
A conversation between parties with the exact same understanding and opinion isn’t going to educate anyone. A conversation where there is a clash of understanding and opinion, where we are forced to consider alternatives, is far more likely to result in interesting and useful insights; insights that ultimately may help steer your business toward greater success.
Rather than discourage alternative points of view you should encourage them.
Disclaimer
Regardless of whether you agree or do not agree with comments made on your blog or Facebook your readers should not assume that you automatically endorse any views other than your own.
To ensure that readers understand your policy on the free and frank exchange of views you can post a disclaimer on blogs and Facebook explaining that the inclusion of another persons views does not amount to an automatic endorsement of that view by you and your colleagues
Of course sometimes tweets and comment on blogs and Facebook can go beyond the merely contrary and expound ideas and views that are commonly considered unacceptable. Sexist, racist, violent and abusive comments contribute nothing of value to a discussion. Fortunately there are ways to tackle them.
Keeping the conversation civilised and constructive
Moderating blogs
WordPress and Blogger – two of the most popular blogging platforms, provide the administrator (that’s you) with several ‘comment’ settings to choose from. On both platforms you can elect to moderate all comments before letting them be published. On WordPress you can also choose, as I have done, to allow automatic publication of comments by authors whose first comments have been approved as shown here. There is also a ‘blacklist’ function in WordPress setting that allows you to filter messages for particular words.
Moderating Facebook Page posts
To rid yourself of the abusive comments of Facebook page ‘likers’ find the person in your “People who like this” list, click the X and then click the checkbox to ban permanently.. A banned person can still choose to like your page but they will be unable to post or comment on it.
Moderating Twitter
Creating a blog or Facebook Page you provide a venue for readers to comment on posts. This venue is your territory, your home, over which you have direct control.
On Twitter you are not providing the venue. You are electing to join a party, a party made up of the people who you follow and who follow you. The owners of the venue where you meet is Twitter headquarters, and only Twitter headquarters has the authority to banish people from the party.
Faced with abusive tweets you can choose to block the offending tweeter from becoming your follower. Similarly you can unfollow unpleasant characters.
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