Making premium-quality lemonade out of nasty comments

I’ve been back managing my community for oh, 3 weeks now, and already I’ve encountered the least-pleasant but most-fixable of conversation problems: the big ole’ misconception.

Nonprofits, especially large ones, encounter this curiosity about administration costs a lot (insert your industry’s pervasive rumour here if this one doesn’t apply to you). In our nonprofit’s case, it happens to be totally untrue. All donations go to the community.

This is the point where some people will cringe at social media’s power to attack your brand, but I like this kind of comment. It provides a great opportunity to publicly offer the correct information.

It also serves to reinforce the fact that this misconception about use of donations, or whatever inaccuracy you’re confronting, is still, yes still, floating around out there and obviously still needs to be countered in your general communication strategy.

Our nonprofit already makes it clear on printed material that 100% of donations go to the community, but if I take this comment as representative of a segment of the population, then more needs to be done to communicate the facts. I’d hate for people not to donate based on the wrong information.

What can we do to clear up a rumour?

• Create an FAQ for our website, with a front-page banner calling attention to it (SEO)
• Create a unique static FBML tab on our Facebook fan page with the information (AD DESTINATION)
• The occasional tweet (MESSAGING)
• If it’s really bad, produce a (FUNNY) video about it and spread (SOCIAL OBJECT)

Just being armed with the realization that a persistent rumour is still persisting gives your organization a chance to be proactive about it. Sometimes you feel like you put a message out there so often, everyone has to have heard it. Then the social media focus group speaks and you realize there’s more work to be done.

I’d feel really good about myself if you’d subscribe to my blog. Interactive & social media marketing insights served piping hot!

Facebook could fix ‘Like’ spam with a simple interface upgrade

Spammers have figured out a not-illegal way to exploit Facebook ‘likes’, according to Dan Tynan. Dan thinks this makes for a bleak situation for the future of ‘likes’, but there’s a simple interface change that would not only provide the chance to announce the presence of or entirely quarantine spam, but would also make ‘likes’ more social by permitting commentary.

That’d do it, eh? I can report it as spam, which would delete it instantly in my fantasy interface, or I could just comment on my suspicions, helping warn other users away from spreading the sleazy link.

Social-wise, it’s always bugged me that I can’t comment on this particular Facebook action—I may have something to say without ‘liking’ something. I get that they’re trying to funnel you towards liking, but greed has opened a spam hole. Plug it with increased interactivity, Facebook!

People still want news: on demand, tailored & interactive

Despite all the moaning about dying print publications, people are still eager to absorb daily news. What they expect out of the experience has changed, though, according to a new Pew Research Center report. Now people want multi-platform news on demand, customized, and spreadable.