Content creation and curation can be incredibly time-consuming for small and mid-sized nonprofit organizations. In a work environment with time constraints, it can be challenging to carve out time to manage the ensuing conversation once you click publish.
Who is commenting on your blog or social media posts? What is their intent? Is it aligned with your communication goals? When should you delete comments? These are all questions that community managers encounter when monitoring responses to published content.
Deleting Comments
There are challenges with deleting comments – depending on the person/comment it may only exacerbate the issue. Holding an internal discussion about what will prompt your organization to delete a comment and publically stating that on your platform is important to maintaining a cohesive and supportive community.
Any comments that are clearly spam and trying to get your readers to click on their link, which is not related to the blog piece or social media post can be deleted. This action helps ensure that your readers don’t accidentally download a virus and get caught in a phishing scam.
There are also subtler forms of spam that can be challenging to determine if they’re legitimate or not. For some blog posts or social media content, people may post a comment that seems related to our content but is driving readers to a link that is potentially harmful. An example may read, “This post is great and really helpful for me. I recently read this which relates to it too: ” These may need to be decided on a case-by-case basis. If you delete something that a legitimate commenter wrote and they contact you, often a simple explanation of why you thought it was spam could help defuse hostility they may be feeling.
Open hostility is something that you can face from other commenters. It is essential to determine what is acceptable and what will be automatically deleted. Your moderator should delete any comments that are offensive, bigoted, or contains inappropriate language.
Negative but non-offensive comments or individuals attempting to “troll” your organization are harder to deal with. Deleting these comments will make an issue worse. And the commenters are often not interested in using these conversations to create a healthy dialogue about the issue.
If a reader seems to be purposefully antagonizing your organization there are three options that cover most situations:
1) Your online community and supporters may step in and attempt to deal with the trolling behavior.
2) You can reply to the individual. It is critical to always remain positive and optimistic in your communication. While responding with an amusing insult or quip is very tempting – it will make the situation worse. You are responsible for maintaining civility even in the wake of overwhelming negativity.
3) Mute or block the user. Muting is always preferable to blocking as antagonistic individuals often think that blocks are a medal. If blocking is the only option and the amount of content coming in is affecting your online community, it is necessary to take that step.
Rewarding Good Behavior
A great way to encourage your community to develop is to reward positive comments or communication. The following are ways in which you can support the readers who took the time to promote your content:
Facebook – Like their comment. While this can set up a precedent, as you have to decide if any comments are not worthy of being liked, it an incredibly helpful way to reward the people that leave positive comments on your Facebook Posts.
Twitter – Favorite and/or ReTweet. Retweeting is the best way to highlight someone’s positive response to something you shared on Twitter. If you’re concerned that the number of tweets that you’re posting is too high then you can just favorite their tweet.
Instagram and Blog – Respond to comments. If someone asks a question or provides a thoughtful comment to a blog post, be sure to reply to the comment. It helps your community understand that you support this discussion and subtly encourages people to take a more active role in commenting on your blog.
All platforms –Thank your supporters. And thank them often. If a Facebook post generates a lot of positive comments, likes, and shares than post a comment that thanks everyone for their thoughts and shares. Some nonprofits thank their followers that retweet content with a special message at the end of the day/week. People like to be thanked, and it always helps to ensure that users know you’re paying attention to the conversation.
These are some of the ways to handle the negative and positive aspects of managing your community. This seems like an excellent time to thank all of the readers who share our content on social media platforms. We greatly enjoy our work and being supported by our friends, colleagues, and strangers has been an amazing and rewarding experience.
Justin (he, him) is a Principal and Co-Founder of Social Change Consulting. He has over fifteen years of nonprofit experience, with expertise in online fundraising, digital communications, and data management. Justin helps organizations connect their communication strategy to their income development needs. When he’s not on the clock, Justin is exploring Berlin, running, listening to too many podcasts, and drinking too much coffee.