Community Manager Discussion: Should Your Community Only Be Exposed to the Rosy Stuff?

by Deb Ng on January 14, 2009

roses

As Community Managers, it’s our job to find out what is on folks’ minds and bring it to the attention of the people who can solve the issues.  Many times issues have to do with technical difficulties or scenarios that may make folks a little unhappy.Most communities are respectful however, and usually present their case in a kindly manner in one of our forums.

Still, sometimes other members of the team would rather the community doesn’t have a place to discuss technical issues or user unhappiness. It’s not that they don’t want the issues to come to light, but they’d:

A. Prefer not to have to do this extra bit of work

B. Prefer not to have the whole community discuss these issues. The power of suggestion and all that. One question can lead to many people claiming the same issue.

Riddle me this, Community Managers. Should issues such as these be discussed in public, or is best to hide them away so the world thinks everything is rosy? I realize there are certain things that should only be discussed internally, but should a community be allowed to discuss negative issues they face as well?

Please discuss…

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  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/palko Michael Palko

    As the manager of an internal community, I welcome both positive and negative comments, and I feel the same way about a public forum.

    If everything looks rosy, the community’s credibility comes into question because we all know that NO community or company is perfect; each has it’s warts. If you don’t post the comments from the dissatisfied customer, then you ignore the issue and miss an opportunity for a solution.

    In terms of unhappy customers, this is a great chance to reach out to them. People LOVE to talk about themselves and their problems. If you respond to their problem, they will likely see you as a caring/concerned company and be willing to share their ideas about a resolution. This also builds a bond and strengthens their loyalty to your brand. You also approach them in a “non-sales” mode, but continue to look for opportunities to tell them about other products/solutions you can offer that can help them.

  • http://gregchurcher.blogspot.com greg

    Hi, Great post! Heres my take; If you provide the tools, expecting a thriving community to grow as a result, you will best be transparent. The individuals that make up your group are more connected and informed than ever over the history of man kind! If you have something to hide they’ll find you out sooner or later. If you choose to bury the hard stuff – you it’ll come back and bite you.

    If you’re building a community do it for the right reasons or not at all.

  • http://freelancewritinggigs.com Deb Ng

    Thanks for weighing in, guys. I feel all communities and businesses benefit from honest and transparency. I’m the person my company hired to represent them, if I can’t be honest, they’ll never trust me – and this will carry over to future communities I manage.

    I think negativity isn’t good for any business, however. Sometimes things aren’t meant for public consumption. Balance is good. When negative stuff does come to light we need to answer the questions and not avoid them. Trust in us as community managers ensures trust in our brand.

  • http://alisonmichalk.blogspot.com Alison Michalk

    Our complaints forum received far too much attention. People would log in daily to check who was complaining about who, who was complaining about what and they’d click on the threads accordingly, or add their two cents and continue the debate, often arguing with Admin or other members. Our answers would further more debate. It was very time consuming, as inevitably there are two sides to each story (at least with personal differences bwteen members or Mods).

    So we made a decision to pre-Moderate this forum only (1/180). Reviewing each thread allowed us to respond at the same time, and also lock the thread if need be. With non-contentious threads we allow un-moderated comments which might be needed for example to get info from members on a technical problem.

    I have found this to be a great compromise – maybe this would work for others?

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