Don't be afraid to reply! How to moderate a Facebook Page well

Why is it worth replying?

A party. Someone, glass in hand, is telling a pretty good story. When they finish, you try to find out more – some of it genuinely caught your interest. But after your question the speaker walks out to another room without a word, and you're left standing where you are and, whatever anyone says, you just feel stupid. Nobody likes feeling awkward.

That short opener is an analogy for moderation on social media. Some people still work from the wrong assumption that a brand's activity on social ends the moment a post goes live. In reality that's only the beginning. A Facebook or Instagram profile is now the customer's first line of contact with a brand. The days of hotlines and trips to a branch are over – the natural reflex now is to pick up a phone and look the company up on the platform. Remember that the competition is alert, which is why one of the main differentiators is how you treat the customer. If social media is the main point of contact, you have to use it to win that edge.

Answering questions isn't the only way of showing an audience respect, though. Ongoing conversation under your posts matters too, as does drawing users into contact with the brand. Out of the thousands of things people run into on social media, only a handful get treated to a comment. Let's enjoy the fact that it was our Page that got noticed! At the same time, let's not treat every engaged participant as somebody we want to “push” something onto – relaxed, friendly communication has its own chance of turning into a relationship in which that person decides to take up our offer – now or later.

Moderation, LAMA style

Our social herd likes it when the internet is a place where everybody feels good. Brands and users alike. So we'd like to offer a mini-guide to moderation, so anyone can apply the most important parts of it in their own communication – whether what they're advertising on social is the family business, a blog they run, or simply a personal brand. To spare you the boredom, we've put together a set of core rules and packed them into the acronym with the nicest name under the sun: LAMA.

L – long-term relationship

Moderation is one part of a company's image. Remember that customers loyal to a brand become its ambassadors, and that the fan-brand relationship gets built on several levels at once. It's the quality of the product or service, the quality of the (after-)sales service, and the quality of the conversation on social media. Even when people land on our profile only once, our contact with them is the company's calling card. No reaction sends the signal “right, they're not going to care about me when something goes wrong”. Talking and reacting lets people draw a positive conclusion – “nice brand, open, we'll get along”. Whatever we do, remember – manners first. And don't be afraid of criticism either – it's still a kind of feedback, and the vast majority of it can be beaten with a kind word and a smile 🙂

A – awareness

Awareness in running profiles can be looked at from several angles. It's knowing what we're writing about and what we offer as a brand, but it's also being aware of who we're replying to and how far we can go. True, a brand's image should carry over into how it communicates – not only in posts, but in messages and comments too – whether we go for a more official or a looser register. The commenter's own language, though, will also tell us about the target audience – whether they use emoji, whether they prefer a casual “Hey!” or maybe a formal “Good morning”. Above all, though – let's not generalize! Every person is different, so in a conversation we should try to set the main frame of communication, and for the rest…

M – maybe? Let's experiment

A moderator has to have some character, play with conventions, try different references and styles. Ideally the fans say of us, as a brand, that “these guys really know how to internet”. Sometimes you can afford a barbed but polite comment; another time you can test whether more serious replies pull users into a bigger discussion. Falling into a formula is the worst thing that can happen. Let's not get to the point where fans know in advance what our answer will be, because a bot could do that job, and pretty much every one of us would rather talk to a real person 😉

A – award

A reaction is a reward! Someone who comments on a post or sends a message has, as we've already said, put in an “effort”. How often do we comment on something online, and how much more often do we just leave a reaction or do nothing at all and scroll on? So the willingness to interact with a brand has to be valued, and we have to show that every single person matters to us. Nine people in ten will tell their friends about bad practice; only one in ten will pass on praise. Let's look after our fans! The reward doesn't have to be a comment – if we're out of ideas, let's not force one, but let's at least react in some way, to acknowledge the engagement and show that we notice what customers think.

Offline we don't ignore people who want to get in touch – we answer when spoken to, we pick up the phone, we reply to texts. Remember that exactly the same rule applies to brands on social media. Not every fan is our customer, but let's make every customer our fan.