Social Networking: Can I Delete Comments I Don't Like?
One of the more frequent questions I hear come up in my discussions with Social Media virgins is the issue of commenting. People rightfully want to protect their business and their brand at any cost, but when is the cost too great?
How much abuse should you take? When is the customer wrong? How far should you go to make people happy? Is it worth all the headache to stay on top of these social networks?
We'll explore the top two social platforms here, but much of this can and does apply to social networking in general: blog posts, FourSquare, Flickr and more.
When it comes to Facebook, you can definitely delete comments you don't like or approve of. Facebook presents these comments in a threaded format on your Facebook wall and, as long as you kept the default commenting configuration, people can comment without any approval. However, just because you can delete comments, does NOT mean that you necessarily should.
Twitter, on the other hand, is a little less obvious. Your "timeline" on twitter can be thought of as your "wall" as it is the first thing people will see if they visit your twitter homepage. Comments (or "mentions) are not threaded in an obvious way, which works to your advantage. Why would this be an advantage, you ask?
Because you have no way to delete tweets of any kind.
That's right ... you cannot delete tweets. Don't fret, though ... no one will see any of your "mentions" unless they specifically look for them. This doesn't make them invisible, but it means someone would have to do some work to find disparraging comments about you or your business.
Why Shouldn't I Delete Comments?
The best part of Social Networking is the ability for you to engage your readers. Engagement can be something as simple as saying "thanks" for a retweet or a testimonial someone wrote on your Facebook Wall.
Engagement can also be customer service. Let's say some irate customer posts something nasty on your Wall. They are being completely unreasonable, never called you first to try and discuss their issue, and are making outrageous claims. Many people's first instinct would be to instantly delete the comment. What this should really be viewed as it an opportunity.
Opportunity
Now is your chance to shine. It's your chance to be the "better person" as your parents may have taught you. When someone is being a jerk and your instinct is to be calm and rational, it really highlights what a jerk they are being.
Instead of deleting, why not try and make some lemonade from those lemons? Try and appeal to their sensabilities ... by making sense. You will want to sympathize with their situation and acknowledge their problem. Even if you don't think they should have a problem, the fact is that their feelings are real. You have an opportunity to make a customer for life by simply addressing their problem and providing a real solution.
You Can't Win 'Em All
Some of you think this is all gumdrops and lollipops. You will say "I can't make everyone happy ... I'd rather just delete the comment in the first place". And you'd be right. There isn't some sort of magic wand that will instantly allow you to relate to everyone on the planet and change their mind. Fact is, sometimes you have to fire customers.
We aren't put on this earth to be a punching bag. Sometimes, people are so miserable and so determined to be unrealistic right about whatever they deserve as compensation for their problem. In these cases, all you can do is offer realistic refunds, returns or (in the case of a service) a complimentary visit to help resolve the issue.
When all of this banter is public, people can make their own decisions based on the content of the thread. If you've been helpful, reasonable, kind and proactive, there's no reason it can't work in your favor for any potential readers. People who don't see your valiant attempt to make things right, you probably don't want them as a customer as they are more likely to start a similar war fight argument.
You can't always be right, just try to be righteous. Try to use your moral compass and some small sounding board of friends and family to help you know for sure you're trying your best. You don't want to let people run all over you, nor do you want to anger people by invalidating their feelings. It's a delicate balance for sure and, just like the rest of business, there's nothing easy about it. It's clichè, but the best way to look at it is this topic:
"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty... I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led diffcult lives and led them well." -Theodore Roosevelt