Behind The Blog: Monitoring Social Media

Posted June 6, 2023 by Prairie Wife -

Many bloggers/business owners can get stuck focusing on how often they post on social media and forget that monitoring social media is just as important!

What do I mean by monitoring social media?

I mean ensuring you respond to comments promptly and taking time to maintain a safe social media space for your followers.

Everyone’s definition of a “safe social media space” is different. Let’s first talk about what that means to me, and perhaps that will help you decide what you want your social media space to look like.

Here at PrairieWifeInHeels.com and on our social media accounts, we have a Prairie Wife Guarantee that lists how we will act and how we expect our readers and followers to act. You can read the full guarantee by clicking here, but below are a few excerpts that show what we expect.

“When we review a product or site, we will tell you how we learned about it and, honestly, what we discovered. If we’ve been given a product to review (at no cost to us), we will let you know, and we will still give an honest opinion to you, our readers. We WILL NOT put up negative reviews. After all, why should you waste your time reading how much we dislike something?

We give credit where credit is due, and we expect you to do the same. Feel free to Pin from our site and share links, but let people know it came from us.

Comments are moderated, but we want your honest feedback and will post the good, the bad, and the ugly. However, we won’t allow personal attacks or vulgar language.”

On our Facebook page, we have a post pinned to the top of the page letting readers know what we ARE and ARE NOT okay with.

Why is it essential to make your expectations clear?

It allows people coming to your space to feel comfortable interacting with you and with the community you’ve formed.

My readers and followers know it’s okay to swear a little, and they know I may do the same (though usually for the purpose of humor rather than out of anger). Our readers and followers know that they can disagree with me (or others) and have an open dialogue. They know their comments will be deleted if they are overly aggressive or rude, and I will delete comments directed at them if I think they go against our policies.

Having clear expectations also eases my workload.

It makes it easy to see what comments must be hidden or deleted and which accounts must be blocked.

As your social media following grows, you can expect that more of your time will be spent dealing with this kind of negative junk, and while it’s not fun, it’s something you can’t ignore.

Facebook has tools available that will automatically monitor your comments based on your chosen criteria. You can see how I use them in the screenshot below.

The Moderation Assist feature helps me reduce the spam comments I must go through and saves me around 30 minutes a week.

You can’t just post your content and then forget about it.

The whole purpose of social media is to be social! You won’t see growth even if you’re posting great content consistently if you are not interacting with your followers in the comments.

You need to like and love comments posted by your readers, and you also need to make sure you are typing authentic responses to your follower’s comments.

Interaction with your clients/readers/followers is what it’s all about.

And they won’t interact with you if a bot hits them up with a link to purchase an item every time they comment, or “Joe Shmo” is saying how pretty they look and asking them to message him. Instead, they’ll get frustrated or have their feelings hurt and associate that feeling with you and your brand.

Schedule time multiple times a day to monitor your social media sites.

It makes sense to check comments as soon as you put up content, but chances are you won’t have an instant response to what you’ve posted.

I post across several social media sites daily, and I do it simultaneously. I suggest taking time to post on all your accounts, then go back to the first account and start responding to the comments that have happened during that time.

If you want to see growth on your social media sites and ensure your readers/followers have a safe space, you need to plan to check on your sites three times a day. Morning, afternoon, and evening.

Yup, it can be exhausting, and no, your whole world will not fall apart if you miss an afternoon or evening here and there.

But with how fast the internet moves, not visiting your social media sites for two days in a row could mean a lot of negative experiences for your followers!

Is it okay to respond to social media trolls?

My answer to this is tricky.

“Yes, but…”

If someone is ridiculously rude or vulgar, trying to teach them anything is not worth your time. It’s your space, not theirs, and you should quickly block them.

I don’t think it’s wrong to respond to rude comments and tell people if they’ve misunderstood your meaning or remind them that there is a real person with feelings on the other side of the computer.

BUT know that the response is more of a way to show what kind of person you are to your readers/followers more than it is a way to actually change someone else’s thinking or prompt an apology.

Below is an example of a time I have responded to a rude comment.

First is my original post, followed by their comment and my response.

I guarantee that I didn’t change this person’s mind, but I did show who I am as a person and brand. I thought long and hard about my response. I wanted to share with her how The Cowboy and I both grew up in poverty and how we’ve been saving for years for this trip…but in the end, I’m happy with the response I put up. Despite her suggestion that I delete her comment if I didn’t like it, I kept it up. After all, it didn’t break any of our rules.

I also don’t believe in covering up people’s names in comments when I share them via screenshots (usually for a positive reason). They know my page is public, and their “name” is visible to others, so I don’t think it’s needed.

How do I deal with Spam Posts and Bots tagging me?

Spam posts are content that uses your platform to try to build their business, and Bots often create these posts.

An example of this is an article posted to your site that is fake (often about a shocking celebrity death) or accounts that tag your account in a post. Some common posts that will tag you have to do with closing your account or telling you that you’re a BIG winner.

As soon as you notice these posts, you need to block the account, and if the option is available, block any other accounts they create.

This keeps your site safe from hackers and ensures your followers and readers are secure.

Running a successful social media account is a big part of creating a successful brand/business. Monitoring Social Media DOES take time and effort. But, the result is a safe social media space where you have great interaction and can connect with people positively and impactfully.

Questions? Leave them in the comments, and I’ll reply as soon as possible.

Interested in having me help you and your brand? Learn more about my consulting services by following this link.

Categories: Prairie Life, This and That

Tags: , behind the blog, brand advice, how to deal with trolls, managing social media, monitoring social media, runnign a brand, social media, social media comments