Online Comment Boards: Handling Negative Comments, How to Engage and Live to Tell About It

The second of two parts on how best to deal with online comments. Today: How to get involved and set the record straight. Previously: How to be prepared before the comments start.

For years, as The Plain Dealer’s Online Editor, John Kroll spent time in the online comment boards attached to most news stories. He participated, he moderated and he was frequently the heavy when a comment had to be removed or a commenter had to be banned for defying the website’s rules of engagement.

Even now, a couple of years after Kroll left the newspaper and website, cleveland.com commenters will bring up his name, sometimes not endearingly.

Which prompts Kroll to shake his head, chuckle – and continue to be firmly on the side that says online story comments have real value.

That value can be hard to see if you’re running a business, government agency, school or other organization thrust into the news and onto the online comment boards. What do you do about misperceptions, personal attacks and serious misstatements of fact about your company or you in the story comments?

Kroll, who now teaches at Kent State University when not writing his blog about online journalism advice and opinion, offers a four-part game plan:

• Know the territory before entering.
• Know who to work with at that online outlet for the most serious problems.
• Get involved and set the record straight about your organization – calmly and professionally.
• Use your own online and social media tools to fight back.

In Part 1 on this subject, we talked about what to do before the comments start. Now, let’s take a closer look at how to get involved and how to use your own social media tools.

Be part of the commenting community

Ideally, and especially if you represent an organization that is frequently in the news, you’ve already been involved in the comments about your stories, or stories in related fields – answering questions, for example, or providing links to related material.

You’ve established registration or an account on the site, if it’s offered. Many sites require commenters to register, providing a name to be used with the comments and other information. Other sites might offer registration through Facebook. Kroll advises in all cases registering using your organizational, not personal, information, such as emails and phone if required. And use your real name. The debate over anonymity on comment boards rages. I don’t like it. Kroll defends it, saying some commenters need that protection to speak freely. (Does anonymity matter when it comes to the quality of the comments? For an idea of the differing views, consider these two stories, published two days apart in July of 2012: Surprisingly Good Evidence That Real Name Policies Fail To Improve Comments and New study: Real names improve quality of website comments.)

But there’s no debate if you’re representing an organization in the comments. Real names only.

Previous participation in comment boards can be crucial when a crisis hits or the criticism starts because you’re already a part of that community, Kroll says, and you may well attract defenders among the commenters.

“If you only show up when, oh my God, we’ve been called idiots and we’re not idiots, the people in that commenting community are going to notice,” he says.

There are pragmatic reasons as well. The website software may take into account whether you’re an “approved” user in determining whether to display your comment and how it’s displayed. And a crucial part of approval frequently is prior participation.

So, now how do you jump in and set the record straight about your organization?

Remember to learn the commenting rules for that site. Most sites offer a way to “flag” or note comments that you think violate these rules. Flagging a comment alerts the folks running the website, and if they determine it’s a rules violation, the comment will be removed.

If the comments about you or your organization are obscene, vile, personal forms of attack or otherwise seem a clear violation of the rules, by all means, flag them, Kroll says. But be judicious. Flagging critical comments that clearly don’t violate the rules won’t make you popular with the site administrators and could lead to your account on the site being revoked.

If the comments in question are within the rules – and one reader’s personal attack can be another’s fair criticism – but have you concerned, now what?

First, evaluate the potential damage. “Don’t throw gasoline on a small fire,” Kroll says. Correct serious factual errors. Don’t let misperceptions that could hurt your reputation go unchallenged. Don’t leave damaging questions unanswered. But if a commenter calls you a vice president and you’re an executive vice president? Keep your powder dry.

Second, identify yourself. Besides using your real name, work your title and organization into the comment. “Hi. As a vice president at Hennes Communications, I’d like to correct the record on this…” Lots of commenters seem to have lots of time. They’ll figure out who you are. So, tell them up front.

Third, respond to the content of the comment, not the tone. Be firm but respectful. Be straightforward but not insulting. Resist the urge to take down the troll. Kroll advises remembering that you’re not responding to that particular commenter. You’re responding to everyone who is reading these comments. You probably won’t win over that critical commenter anyway. Make all the people reading comments think that you’re representing your organization in a reasonable, professional and respectful manner.

Fourth, don’t get caught up in a debate. Make your point. Fight falsehood with fact. Correct the misperception. But resist the urge to keep doing it. For some commenters, engaging the head of an organization in an extended back-and-forth is the stuff of dreams. If the commenter replies to your reply by repeating or rephrasing the original misstatement, grit your teeth and let it go. Remember: You’re speaking to the whole commenting community, not this individual.

You have tools, too. Use them.

What if the error about your company is being sprinkled through a comment string or is in comments on different websites? Use your own website, Facebook page or other social media tool to fix it. Put up a post laying out your side of the story. Then go on the news story comment boards and add a brief comment saying that there’s more to this story and interested readers can find it by clicking this link. Repeat on your Twitter account, with the link.

This will help you avoid posting lengthy responses on news comment boards, where the norm is a couple of lines or less.

And it can help with Google and other search engine driven inquiries into your story.

What about recruiting staffers, loved ones, or your many admirers to go into that comment board and fill it with positive comments about you and your organization?

“That’s terrible,” Kroll says.

Well, wait a minute. Why? The critics in the comment boards are taking liberties with your organization. They may not know what they’re talking about. They may even be doing it for giggles. Why not ask some folks who do know what they’re talking about and whose reputations along with yours are being besmirched, to take action?

“If it’s organic and it’s a real defense, that’s great,” Kroll says. Even better, he says, if it’s people who already are part of that commenting community.

But an organization that tells its staffers, get on that site and post some positive stuff, or, even worse, hires someone to post positive comments? The commenting community will smell a rat.

“Some commenter will figure it out,” Kroll says, “and say, these four commenters defending the company….oh, what a coincidence, they all created accounts today.”

Now how does your reputation look on the comment board?

We can debate the value of news story online comment boards. We can debate whether commenters should be anonymous. There is no debate as to whether they’re part of the communications landscape. Depending on the website, thousands of people are commenting. And hundreds of thousands are reading the comments. Somewhere in there, one day, they may be commenting about you.

Thom Fladung is a vice president for Hennes Communications and a 33-year veteran of newspapers.

Photo Credit:  Judit Klein, via Flickr (Creative Commons License)