Welcome to SocMedMod, initiated as part of Rethinking Media, my final subject of my Communication Management Masters degree at UTS.
Although being quite an active blogger for the past 6 years, I have never been a 'moderator' of a social media site or community, however recent discussions in our tutorials have focused on social media gaffes by moderators triggered my interest in the role of the online community moderator. The two incidents were the deletion of a post written by a distraught mother on Channel 7's Facebook page and the feedback Target received on its Facebook page from a parent requesting they stock clothes that are age-appropriate for her daughter.
A moderator's daily work is frought with potential issues such as when to comment, if to comment at all, to delete abusive comments/feedback or maintain a transparent site. With the Advertising Standards Bureau recently deciding that brands are responsible for all comments on Facebook, the role of moderation has become a position of responsibility (especially for those brands using Facebook as their primary platform), with some questioning whether social media is worth it.
Through this blog I seek to share and generate conversation about the role of moderators and, in a way, have this blog become a live case study for creating and building an online community.
This blog will focus on:
- the role of moderators and how their role is increasingly considered (correctly or incorrectly) as being like that of the traditional media's 'gatekeepers';
- the issues moderators face;
- best practice for setting-up and maintaining a community.
So to get started, what do you think is the biggest mistake a moderator can make?
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Too much moderating. The best blogs have very lively arguments. If the moderator is too censorious the blog becomes uninteresting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback Lachie. A good point raised regarding blogs and lively arguments. I guess the content and style of the blog should dictate the liveliness of the argument. Attracting and retaining blog readers is also a factor. Creating a fanbase while managing current readers responses is something I'm keen discuss on this blog. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteGood work Sam! Social media moderation is a really interesting topic, one element that call my attention from the two case studies ( Target and Channel 7) is the tardiness of the brand in responding, Target took 3 days to respond.It seems a good point for PR strategy? Consuelo Ferrada
ReplyDeleteThanks Consuelo, Hopefully through SocMedMod I'll come across the best time to respond to a comment/posting in. However I agree with you that 3 days is far too long. A bit like email really, even if you can't respond in full, at least acknowledge receipt of the email and that you will get back to them.
ReplyDeleteThanks
I agree with Lachie's response, over-moderating detracts from what a social media site or online community is really there for. Additionally, I think there needs to be a clear plan in place as to what should/shouldn't be censored or monitored - consistency is important - if you're taking part in online conversations, the key things for me are to a) respond in a timely manner, b) be prepared for negative feedback/comments and have a guide to dealing with it.
ReplyDeleteIts important to not equte moderation with censorship.If you are using social media to engage with publics, then you need to listen to those publics – whether what have something good or bad to say.Social media is about listening and engaging, and negative feedback should not be censored as publics do not respond well to censorship, and you could be creating an even bigger problem. Nestle found this out the hard way, when it removed negative posts from its Facebook page during the Greenpeace campaign against its use of Palm Oil. The result was of which was to fan the flames of an already damaging campaign against the company.
ReplyDeleteSam, I think you have raised a good point here. The question of moderation is definately not black and white. An interesting thought raised in the tutorial last night was the extent of moderation on anonymous feedback and whether or not this type of feedback is more or less credible. Do you have any thoughts on that? Sarah Hanniffy
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments Anita and Sarah. I think you both raise two points that I will dedicate individual posts; namely that censoring feedback can create an even bigger issue, and the credibility of anonymous posting.
ReplyDeleteThanks!