How to moderate your community on social networks in case of crisis?
By moderating your company’s social networks, you’ll quickly notice that on subjects that get a lot of people talking, each publication can become a bad buzz, leading to negative chain reactions that you hadn’t anticipated. Reacting correctly is then essential to maintain a good e-reputation and limit the effects of a bad buzz on your activities. This is called crisis management.
Why moderate your community?
When posting on your social networks on topics on which opinions differ, moderating your community allows you to react appropriately to your subscribers’ reactions to your posts on the topic of the day. This way you can keep control of your social media, your digital communication and control your e-reputation by limiting bad buzz through appropriate reactions. What are the golden rules of moderation in order not to make things worse? What communication plan should you adopt?
The golden rules of moderation
Following a few basic rules of moderation for your community will allow you to control what happens on your social networks, make strategic choices and thus be able to control public opinion about you.
Never delete
It is strongly recommended to delete negative comments or rumors left by your subscribers. It can lead to frustration when their opinions are neglected, it calls into question your credibility and honesty, and it does not maintain a necessary image of brand transparency. Unless the comments are insulting, pornographic content or self-promotion unrelated to your page, don’t delete your subscribers’ opinions, on the contrary.
Answer, always answer
As mentioned above, answer. Answer your subscribers, to show that you are listening, that there is someone behind your profile, behind your brand. A community manager (or social media manager) can for example take care of answering on your different social networks. On a topic on which opinions diverge, feelings are sometimes inexplicable, so take the time to respond to show your subscribers that despite your different opinions, you take the time to discuss and exchange without taking one side more than another. Anticipation will allow you to avoid a real crisis situation. It is also essential to stay in line with your brand values, to follow your editorial line so that your corporate communication remains coherent.
Respect
It is important to show empathy and respect when you respond to your opponents. It is important to empathize and show respect when responding to your opponents. Thinking about apologizing if you are at fault and trying to understand these reactions are important steps to take in crisis management. To do this, you must be careful not to rush and not respond in a hurry. Take the time to step back from the situation in order to make the most relevant response possible and not to inflame the debate on a subject where each person has a story that will influence his or her opinion on it.
«Don’t feed the troll»
And don’t start a debate, that’s following the mantra of moderation: “don’t feed the troll” and don’t want to have the last word at all costs. Do not enter into the debate and do not want to have the last word at all costs. Encourage a private message to clarify the situation without giving new opportunities for disagreement. Having an audience and a public gives power and importance to those who disagree, so you defuse the situation to prevent it from escalating too much.
Defuse
This brings us to the last point, it is important to defuse, and why not with humor, when appropriate. Humor is one of the communication techniques to exploit in your digital strategy.
The most important thing to moderate your social networks is to give consideration to your subscribers and not forget that everyone has an opinion and that everyone’s stories influence their reactions to what you say.