Moderating comments on Facebook

How do you moderate a community on Facebook? Should the same policy exist as for a title's website moderation or do the disparate fans and friends it has there require different handling?
I use Facebook for content, for sharing information, for instant polls, news gathering and just taking the temperature of the public mood on an issue but wall comments can sometimes be horrific. From wildly inappropriate link-sharing to libelous comments to outrageous Anglo Saxon to attacks on other users or writers... I've seen these shoulder their way onto Facebook pages associated with newspaper titles at one time or another and have had to sort it out - sometimes with an un-friending and a block.

Stretched newsrooms with small digital teams have to juggle the management of website comments, as well as the importance of participating in conversations on Twitter and managing @ replies and Facebook wall posts. 

I've had a few Twitter mates DM-ing me recently for advice/thoughts/verbal chicken soup over dust-ups with members of the Online Community on Facebook (usually football or crime related, where emotions are running high), and I sympathised and offered some thoughts on what to do.
The new e-guide from Buddy Media: How Do I Respond To That? The Definitive Guide to Facebook Publishing and Moderation is useful; once you get past the corporate language and the fact that it's not written for newspapers but for business it contains some helpful advice. 

The Buddy Media report highlights, in a nutshell, are:  

Don't...

• Forget to check your Facebook page regularly - you have a space where users are commenting in all sorts of language and ways that may or may not be appropriate
• Turn a volatile thread into a back-and-forth argument with someone
• Respond to one person but not others
• Ignore requests for information 
• Automatically get rid of negative comments - respond and give the community a chance to engage as well

Do... 

• Respond to comments on accuracy/ability of journalist 
• Take advice on brand value/stance before you respond on issues (eg. political) 
• Block haters; life's too short 
• Moderate by communication; encourage the Facebook community to flag inappropriate posts
• Have a clear strategy so all page admin know how to respond in situations 
• Create a written policy about what types of posts you don’t want to receive, and place it prominently on your wall or page 

To which I'd add

• Turning Facebook chat on gets you lots of interaction
• There's nothing wrong with auto-posting links but do also show there's a human, not a bot, behind status updates
• Indulge in a little curation and share things from other media
• If you have breaking news in your status update, FBers will expect you to update them there too as it progresses 

Related articles

• Facebook Fan Page Best Practices with Mari Smith [@InboundNow #18] (hubspot.com)
• How to create effective Facebook Wall posts (jagdidit.com)
• Avoid Monday, URL Shorteners on Facebook (lockergnome.com)

A tale of one, possibly two, stabbings and maybe a glassing. Or not.

I was working as editor on the Post and the Echo newspapers on the day of the Liverpool FC v Everton FC derby match, when there was an announcement during the match that Anfield Road was closed because of 'an incident', and people should avoid that area when the left.

Soon after the rumours started: A man was stabbed...a man was dead... an Everton fan had been stabbed by a Liverpool fan... two Everton fans had been stabbed... one Everton fan was dead, another fighting for life..you get the picture*.
I was tracking the story across Twitter and Facebook, and I couldn't believe what some people were posting - without a shred of evidence that anyone was stabbed, let alone dead.
I thought Storify might be a good way to illustrate bow what started out as a crowd announcement became - in the space of around 30 minutes - a massive swirl of misinformation culminating in an RIP tribute page on Facebook.(Update: The Storify embedded in this post doesn't seem to show up in rss readers)
Interestingly, we were tweeting the official police confirmation that a man had been assaulted at the King Harry pub, but the noise of the networks swept the grains of truth away without regard. I also found a Mirror journalist at the game had asked a policeman, who was refreshingly off-message, but still rumours flew back and forth. 'Everton fan stabbed to death' tweets were still being posted after 11pm and no doubt they will continue tomorrow.



* This was what happened

Police appeal for witnesses after fan suffers broken jaw in attack before Merseyside derby http://bit.ly/fRsKr9less than a minute ago via twitterfeedLiverpool Echo
LivEchonews

And how the next day's Echo carried the story on the front  page:

Related articles

• How Storify Helps Integrate Social Streams Into Articles (pbs.org)
• You're seeing more and more Storify links around the web. The Washington Post has used it. So have many other journalists and curators. Why do we need Storify?... (scobleizer.com)
• Storify Beta Preview - Viewer Count (toddrjordan.com)
• 4 Promising Curation Tools That Help Make Sense of the Web (mashable.com)

Some conflicting thoughts on Facebook

Facebook has been on my mind this week.
 First of all it published some advice to the Meeja on how journalists can get the most out of using the social network which, while a little heavy on the exclaimation marks, seems useful and has some good pointers. It's a best practice guide for reporters who want to know more about using Facebook in a professional capacity, to promote their work, seek feedback, guage public opinion, crowdsource ideas and more. Plus it allows them keep their personal/professional networking somewhat separate (we've all seen examples of what happens when Facebook Status Goes Bad).

Then, via Paul Bradshaw's OJB, I came across a blog post on the BBC College of Journalism site that made me reconsider all of the above.