First published in the January issue of Nonprofit Business Advisor, available electronically to current subscribers in December.

Social media platforms are increasingly important conduits that nonprofits are using to engage constituents, raise funds, and communicate their missions to a broader audience. But as organizations have delved deeper into the use of these tools, they have confronted a new challenge: negative social media comments.

Carie Lewis, director of Emerging Media at The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), said her organization receives negative social media comments on a daily basis, and it inspired her to write the blog entry “Haters Gonna Hate: Dealing with Negative Feedback in the Social World.” She recently spoke with Nonprofit Business Advisor about the phenomenon.

“We were an early adopter of social media … and we have strong opposition that is socially savvy,” Lewis said. “A lot of what we do today is correcting misinformation.”

The director said that the organization is heavily focused on Facebook—where they have two full-time staff members devoted to managing the page—and Twitter—where they have one full-time staff person managing the page. HSUS focuses most of its efforts on these two platforms, she said, because it is where their constituents are and/or where people are talking about the organization.

Complaints to HSUS social platforms range from critiques of commercials and direct mail pieces, to misspelled names on address labels, to more malicious comments about controversial issues, the director said, such as HSUS’s decision to work with Michael Vick, or HSUS’s stand on exotic pet ownership.

“Our policy is that we respond to everybody who asks us a question—and that’s not an invitation to step out of bounds, by the way. Questions range from positive, to negative, to really, really angry,” said Lewis. “People are passionate about animals, and no one here forgets that for a moment.”

To determine how to respond to negative comments made on HSUS social media platforms, the director said the organization looks for three things:

• Tone. If the person is extremely angry and makes it clear that he or she does not like the organization, if such a person has made it clear he/she isn’t going to listen, then the director said it usually isn’t a good use of time to try to communicate. However, if HSUS sees a comment from someone who has never posted before, and he seems to be confused or on the fence, then the organization tries to explain its side of the story to the user. “We will share our side of the story, correct any misinformation, and tell him what we do,” Lewis said.
• Influence. While the director said that the number of followers a commenter has isn’t the only factor to consider when determining how to respond, she said it does have to be taken into account. “If somebody has a huge fan base, and we know his or her message is going to be spread out, we want to make an effort to give our side of the story and then let him or her make a decision,” Lewis said. “It could be a blogger or a news reporter, so we may want to try to build a relationship, because people are listening.”
• Frequency. “If someone is flooding our feed with hate spam and sounding off on us,” Lewis said, “we’ll be less likely to try to share our side, but if someone writes once or twice, then he or she may be more willing to listen to our side.”

Other strategies the director said organizations should take—especially those that work around controversial missions—include:

• Create a commenting policy. The policy doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should cover basic issues such as profanity and personal attacks against employees or constituents and should state that such actions will not be tolerated.
• Adhere to the policy. If someone violates the policy, delete the post and reply in the thread, explaining why the post was deleted, the director said. Explain that if the policy is violated again, the commenter will be removed from the page. Be sure to send a link to the policy in your response. “Deleting someone happens every day; it’s a part of community management,” Lewis said, “but it has kept our community a fun and safe place for people, and it helps us grow.”
• Listen, then monitor. This is a critical step in managing a social media page, the director said. Develop monitoring tools and use them to learn who is talking about your organization and which platforms they are using. Start by becoming a user yourself so you can understand how people talk. HSUS uses an iGoogle page with RSS feeds to listen to what others are saying about them, she said.
• Welcome differences of opinion/feedback. Don’t be afraid when people disagree with you, because the combination of positive and negative feedback generates conversation. “We had a situation where people complained and [the organization] changed the way it operated, because we take feedback seriously,” Lewis said.
• Keep it professional. Do not take negative comments personally. “It can be hard not to,” Lewis said, “when you love your organization and mission, but you can’t, because if you do, you’ll feel a need to respond in a brash way, and you can’t let your emotions get to you when leading an official social media presence.”

Take these best practices into account the next time you notice a not-so-nice comment on your page and develop a comment policy for your organization if it doesn’t have one, the director said.

“It’s a hot topic because these platforms are where people communicate, but it’s so new, it’s hard to know how to do this effectively,” said Lewis.

For more information

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) works to reduce suffering and improve the lives of all animals by advocating for better laws; investigating animal cruelty; conducting campaigns to reform industries; providing animal rescue and emergency response; and caring for animals through its sanctuaries, emergency shelters, wildlife rehabilitation centers, and clinics. To learn more, visit www.humanesociety.org/; www.facebook.com
/humanesociety; or http://twitter.com/#!
/HumaneSociety. To read the HSUS social media guidelines/comments policy, visit www.facebook.com
/humanesociety?sk=info.