mediasalt

Near the end of July, I discussed some of the paranoia that comes along with opening up your brand/ministry to social communities. I openly advocate stepping out of your comfort zone and trusting your audience instead of heavily moderating your conversations with a finger on the delete key.

However, there are times when some form of moderation is a necessary precaution. When is the appropriate time to intervene? Here are some guidelines I’m developing as I continue to monitor our communities:

• Remove all advertising, unless it’s appropriate. There’s a time and a place to advertise your business/service. If someone in your community posts an open question asking for a good mechanic, it’s okay to allow responses from mechanics within the church. However, posts advertising a service/item are inappropriate on something like a prayer wall (”Please pray that my house would sell… It’s a beautiful lakeview property that’s just been reduced! Call 555-5555 if you feel led to purchase it!”).
• Contain duplicate postings to one conversation. Sometimes folks will be passionate about sharing an opinion, and sort of fire bomb every possible place they can with an identical post. I leave their comment on the most relevant post, and delete all of the duplicates. This keeps the conversation all on one relevant location.
• Genuine discussion is okay, even if negative. It’s my gut instinct to want to delete negative comments, but if they’re relevant and respectful, I think it’s healthy to leave them up. Many times people may have a legitimate concern or desire to have constructive dialog with the online community.
• “Drive-by” grudges can be deleted. On the flip-side, sometimes conversations can become sour/unproductive/hateful, which is when I will step in and end the conversation. You’ll also have folks with a bone to pick that merely want to blast out some negative remarks with no intent on discussion or interaction (I call these “drive-by” grudges). Those folks just want to stir the pot on an issue or cause controversy; comments like this detract from the core Gospel message of so many ministry efforts, and are better off removed from the record (in my opinion).

Again, I recommend that you moderate your audience sparingly; closed communication outlets are stuffy and feel artificial. Allow your social efforts to grow and flourish naturally… Just keep a watchful eye out for the occasional weed.