Many small businesses use their social media pages, Substack, or a dedicated landing page to host discussion boards and conversations with their brand communities. These platforms are great places to engage with customers, gather insights and feedback, and ask for user-generated content that can help build your brand.
However, any online discussion platform can be hijacked by trolls or derailed by members with conflicting viewpoints. It's helpful to establish community guidelines for any of your owned media, such as your social media, blog comments section, and discussion boards. By balancing moderation and management, your online community can serve its members and your brand in positive and productive ways.
Why should you monitor your online community?
Online communities often form organically as fans of your brand or product find each other on social media, at events, or through your owned media. Whether your community grows naturally or through a concerted effort by your marketing team, at some point, it will need attention.
Monitoring your online community can help mitigate risks to your brand reputation. More than 90% of consumers think brands need to combat misinformation more than what they are currently doing. Following conversations about your business can give you early warning that a public relations issue might be forming. "[It's] important for brands to thoughtfully approach crises that affect customer sentiment, safety and loyalty," wrote Sprout Social.
Setting guidelines for your online community also allows members to participate without fear of online bullying, harassment, or offensive comments. These rules put everyone on the same page as far as what kind of content is acceptable to share, creating a safe environment.
Community guidelines can also protect your brand from potential privacy concerns. Detail if and how your brand may survey community members, ask for feedback, and get permission to repost user-generated content. If you work in a highly regulated industry, like healthcare, make sure you cover all compliance regulations members need to know.
[Read more: Connection and Trust: How to Build Customer and Community Loyalty]
Monitoring your online community can help mitigate risks to your brand reputation. More than 90% of consumers think brands need to combat misinformation more than what they are currently doing.
Start with your brand values
When you write your community guidelines, refer back to your brand values and your mission. Consider the principles and beliefs that are fundamental to your brand and company culture. These values should form the core of your community guidelines.
Follow tried-and-true best practices
Every brand will have different rules for its online community, but you can find inspiration from plenty of sources. Reddit is a good starting point; the platform depends on each individual community setting its own rules with moderators to enforce them. Social media management platform Later also offers a free community guidelines template to help you get started.
Make rules that are clear, easy, and transparent
Ideally, your community guidelines should succinctly cover:
- Any inacceptable language and speech.
- Any behavior that isn't allowed, such as bullying, spamming, or trolling.
- Examples of how members can respond to each other with respect.
- Any topics that won't be allowed, such as political topics, religion, or sales posts.
- The consequences for breaking these guidelines.
Make sure you include the process your team takes to review posts, as well as the next steps if someone violates community guidelines.
Practice moderation, not management
Communities offer the biggest benefit to your company when they're secure, supportive, and autonomous. As soon as members start to feel censored or tracked, they’re less likely to engage, and they could blast your brand for being inauthentic.
"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.
Moderation means filtering out spam, deleting hate speech, and generally enforcing guardrails according to your guidelines. Management, however, is a more heavy-handed approach that might include deleting unfavorable reviews and posts that overpromote products, or removing inactive members.
[Read more: Faire Report Reveals How Embracing 'Love for Local' Can Build Community Around Your Retail Business]
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