How to Manage Social Media Comments

Social media is a fun way to keep up with friends and family. It can be a powerful tool for advancing your brand and image and engaging with customers. It can also be a source of some severe headaches.

The idea for this primer followed a recent discussion with a Facebook friend who was having some difficulties moderating the divisive comments showing up in her social media posts. She did not know that Facebook offers users the ability to hide or delete comments. That got me to thinking that there are probably a lot of people out there who do not know how to do this and even more who are likely at a loss as to best practices for moderating social media discussions.

The instructions for hiding and deleting comments on Facebook will be provided later but let us first explore the situations that might create the need for using those options.

Off-Topic Comments

There will be times when a negative or totally irrelevant comment winds up in your discussion thread. It could be from someone who has a legitimate bone to pick about something, or it could be a troll. How do you know which is which? Some sleuthing is necessary to answer that question. Check out the person’s profile. Do they have friends and followers? How many? Do they post regularly? What about? Is their account relatively new and with no photos or posts? You can also look for any accounts they have on other social media platforms.

Once you figure out if they are legit, then craft and post a response that addresses their concerns.

If your detective work uncovers a potential troll, proceed with caution. Offer a gentle reminder about the importance of staying on topic and then watch the discussion for a while to see where it goes. Trolls are itching to get a rise out of you. They want you and others to engage. If you do not give them what they want, they may just slither away to their next target. If, on the other hand, your bully persists, then you will need to consider hiding or deleting their comments. The former is a much more attractive choice because the poster does not know you have hidden them from your feed. Their comments are still visible to them and their friends, just not on your page. Deleting a comment is reserved for those trolls who repeatedly infiltrate your posts to…