Online communities can be rich sources of information for small business owners. Companies like Harley Davidson, Sephora, and Lego have cultivated vibrant communities of loyal fans that provide product feedback, marketing inspiration, and invaluable customer insights.
However, communities must be moderated to succeed. As any online user knows, discussion boards and forums can easily be derailed by trolls or even well-intentioned community members who disagree. Brands need to balance moderation and management to create the best possible experience for their online community.
“By managing their communities with a light, open touch—and sustaining them with corporate-level commitment—firms can build fierce customer loyalty, increase marketing efficiency, and enhance their brand,” wrote Susan Fournier, a Researcher and Professor at Boston University.
How do you ensure your community is a safe, supportive place for fans of your business to gather? These tips will help you foster an active, autonomous community while maintaining some degree of oversight to protect your brand.
Create community guidelines
Transparency is key when it comes to moderating conversations within your community. A set of community guidelines that sets guardrails around what can be shared is the first step to getting everyone on the same page.
“Layout rules on what types of content will be allowed in your comment sections and closed communities, and define consequences for violations. You can have different consequences depending on the channel or situation, and specify what you have zero tolerance for,” wrote Sprout Social.
Check out Reddit’s approach to content moderation for inspiration. While Reddit enforces platform-wide rules, each subreddit sets its own community-specific rules enforced by community moderators. For example, on the r/lifehacks page, users aren’t permitted to post memes, Amazon links, polls or surveys, or food tips. Publishing these rules on each page informs everyone what to expect and how to behave.
It’s just as important to lay out the consequences if someone doesn’t follow the rules. Empower your team to take action by setting up a reporting process that considers different types of situations and how to resolve them.
Make your audience feel like they’re talking to a real person in every interaction (because, usually, they are).
Alana Chinn, HubSpot
“Any one or more of the following actions could be the outcome of content moderation: content deletion; banning; temporary suspension; feature blocking; reducing visibility; labeling; demonetization; withholding payments; referral to law enforcement,” wrote the Trust & Safety Professional Association.
Set up monitoring tools
Content monitoring tools, like spam filters and automatic alerts, can help your team focus on responding to real conversations and questions. Social media networks often have monitoring tools built in. For example, Instagram offers comment filters that remove comments containing common offensive words, phrases, or emojis. There are also third-party content moderation tools that have more sophisticated filters for offensive phrases in multiple languages, bots, and hate speech.
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Monitoring tools also help your team respond to questions quickly. Social listening tools like Hootsuite, BuzzSumo, and Brandwatch help you keep tabs on conversations about your brand and respond promptly when appropriate. “[Create] a social media customer response matrix that provides your customer care team with on-brand responses for praise, critique and everything in between,” wrote Sprout Social. “A generative AI tool can help you come up with a variety of responses so you can avoid sounding repetitive.”
Get your members involved
Remember, the goal is community moderation—not management. Fournier’s research found that communities are strongest when members are in charge. “Robust communities establish cultural bedrock by enabling everyone to play a valuable role,” she wrote.
Your loyal customers, active followers, and best brand ambassadors should be involved from the beginning as you get your community’s platform up and running. Recognize those who have helped your business grow to this point by rewarding them with specific roles in your community (such as moderator or recruiter). Use loyalty rewards to show your appreciation for consistent engagement with your program.
“Show your members that you care about their time and commitment to your brand with regular tokens of appreciation,” wrote HubSpot. “Make your audience feel like they’re talking to a real person in every interaction (because, usually, they are).”
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