Should You Disable Comments on Your Social Media?
Consumers are more likely to buy from a company if they feel they have a strong relationship with the brand. With the popularity of social media, the relationship between consumer and company has a new avenue to explore.
Brands that tell their stories online with transparency and compassion are more likely to experience sales growth from online marketing. Consumers expect brands to engage and interact with them on social media.
As a business owner, social media can be a crucial tool in building effective customer relationships, and in maintaining these relationships. While social media allows your company to provide the transparency and honesty customers are looking for, it also has its drawbacks.
Customers are free to be open and honest on social media, which may lead to negative or inappropriate comments for your entire following to see. Before you disable comments completely and silence your social media following, consider the pros and cons of this action.
Pros of Disabling Comments
You have no control over what’s said about your company, employees, or products in social media comments, so there are some advantages to disabling this feature.
Protect Your Brand’s Reputation
When a social media follower posts a negative comment on your page, other customers can be negatively influenced. A potential customer who was close to buying your product or signing up for your service or a past customer who is about to refer you to a friend may think twice after reading a negative comment from another consumer.
In some cases, the negative comments that consumers post may not even be true. These negative and false comments can affect your brand’s online reputation, which can also affect the way your company is viewed by the public.
Discourage Spam and Trolls
Social media users who post comments with the intention of simply causing arguments or stirring up controversy are called “trolls.” They often use cyberbullying tactics to instigate other social media users for their own enjoyment.
Not only is this type of behavior immature, it can also discourage other followers who have positive comments from engaging on your page. If you disable your comments, you eliminate the platform these trolls have to start disagreements at the expense of your brand.
Some businesses or individuals could use other companies’ social media pages to self-promote. They may leave comments on your posts about their own business, whether the product or service they offer is related to your brand or not.
These comments are frustrating — not just for you as a business owner, but also for your social media following. If you disable comments on your posts, these spammers won’t be able to engage in these self-promotion tactics on your page.
Save Time With no Moderation
Implementing an effective social media marketing campaign can become time-consuming. Whether you’re doing it yourself or have a social media team, it can be an expensive venture. One task you or your employees may spend time doing is sifting through comments to delete erroneous statements or spam.
If you have a large following, this job can be both extensive and important. Deleting these comments before most of your followers see them is part of protecting your brand’s image and online reputation. If you disable comments on your page, you can remove this task from your to-do list or free up your employee’s time.
Cons of Disabling Comments
While it may be easier to moderate and avoid spam with comments disabled, there are drawbacks to not allowing customers to engage with your posts.
No Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is valuable for your business because it gives you a glimpse into the customer experience. When your followers comment on your posts about their experiences with your brand, it points out areas where you can potentially improve your product or service.
Without customer feedback, you may assume your employees, product, and service are performing well and that your clients are satisfied. While criticism can be hard to hear, it’s a crucial part of learning and growing your business.
No Customer Interaction
When you disable comments on social media, your customers can’t interact with each other. This may seem trivial, but word-of-mouth and positive interaction between fans of your brand can help influence your lead generation potential and conversion rates. When consumers shop and compare brands, products, or services, the opinions, testimonials, and reviews from other customers can influence their final decisions.
Fewer Engagement Metrics
Most social media platforms use algorithms when choosing which posts or pages will show up in a user’s feed as they scroll. One of the most important metrics used in this algorithm is “engagement.”
The platform analyzes how much engagement a post has received from other users. If your post receives a lot of engagement, especially in the form of comments, it’s more likely to show up in more users’ feeds. This increases brand awareness and the potential for a larger online following.
When Should You Disable Comments?
Although there are pros and cons to disabling comments, there are certain times that it might be better to disable them.
If You’re Feeling Stressed
If you’re feeling sensitive or anxious and you know a negative comment will affect your mental health, consider disabling your comments. It’s not worth putting yourself out simply to keep your comments enabled. Your ability to maintain a positive mental space while interacting with clients can be more important than allowing for customer feedback.
The Comments Hold no Value
If you have your comments enabled, it’s important to read through them. If most of the comments don’t inspire conversation between users or don’t valuably contribute to your brand, consider disabling them.
Comments should allow you to learn something about your company or provide positive information to other potential customers. Avoid wasting your time on moderating comments that don’t provide value by disabling the comment section.
You Post About Controversial Topics
If your brand, product, or industry is controversial, it’s likely you can’t avoid sparking disagreements every time you post on social media. Controversial posts can cause passionate fights between followers in your comment section. If fights continue to ensue on your posts, social media users may be more interested in the controversy and less interested in your brand.
There are advantages and disadvantages to disabling comments on your company’s social media posts. When deciding whether you should allow comments, it’s important to consider the comments you receive and decide if they’re benefiting your brand’s online reputation or hurting it.
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