The Moderation Dilemma: Hit Delete or Own It?

• Jul 13th, 2010
• Posted by Ron Schott
• Posted in apple, community management, iPhone, moderation, Uncategorized

For many companies, the thought of having negative conversations about their brand, particularly on their own branded forums , is about as off-putting as having someone stand in front of their stores with giant signs saying “don’t buy stuff here!”

We all know there’s a problem with the iPhone 4 antenna. Gizmodo, Engadget, Consumer Reports (and even Apple) have talked about the problem (although Apple has flip-flopped a number of times). The Web is fraught with commentary on the issue and users, case providers, and hobbyists are clamoring to get their opinions, fixes and hacks on the Web. Now, with judges giving the go ahead to class-action lawsuits, things could get a little dicey for the Cupertino company.

While the online forums arena is one that is often overlooked from a social media perspective (overshadowed by the glitz and glam of other SM properties), brands which are active in the space have seen positive returns on their investment when deploying outreach teams focused on delivering information and guiding users to resources managed by the brand. Sentiments have shifted and messages that previously went un-sent are now spread through linking and sharing – not to mention the fact that users have that general “this brand cares” feeling after interacting with the outreach teams.

Apple doesn’t seem to “get it”

In the latest dust up, TUAW reports that Apple has yet again pulled conversations about the iPhone 4 antenna issues from their official forums. That’d be all fine and dandy if it weren’t for a little thing called Bing. The Microsoft-owned search crawler cached the pages for the entire world to see, even after an Apple employee seemingly wiped them from the Web.

So, the question is: When is it OK to delete something on your branded sites?

We work with branded communities for a number of our larger clients, and the rules for moderation are usually set at the onset of the project, or when entering a new social property, but the general rule of “have a thick skin” remains, regardless of the arena. Not every user is going the brand, but it’s not the role of the community manager to play censor to negative commentary.

Yes, we pull stuff down. We’ll be the first to admit that. However, we’re not censoring for negative comments or criticisms of the brand or products, but rather for objectionable content (swear words, racial slurs, sexual content – basically if it was part of a George Carlin sketch, you can place a safe bet that we’ll delete it) as the brands we work with are often focused on a wide range of ages and we never want some 13 year old kid stumbling across something on one of our pages that his mom could get angry about. We also pull spam down, because who wants that crap anyway?

In the end…

Negative discussions can actually lead to chances for brands to own up and show that “human side” of their brands by listening, making changes and addressing users’ concerns. What might be an engineering mistake could quickly turn into a PR and customer service win in the course of a few months.

While the egos of some might take a few bumps and bruises, the positive effects on consumer confidence in the brand and positive brand sentiment can swing greatly when attention is paid to consumer concerns and disappointments.

Microsoft, the creator of Bing, is a client of Spring Creek Group.