Two things, first:

As the old saying goes:
“If your business involves unrepentantly clubbing baby seals maybe you shouldn’t be engaging the public with social media”

I think when you start engaging using social media you have to be keenly aware of your organization’s weak spots. You should be ready to deal with poor or misleading information on the part of the poster but more importantly you should be willing to listen, take feedback and use it to guide and change your organization. If not, then your organization should stay way from social media, you’re only using up time and energy that could be better spent bludgeoning baby seals to death for fabulously soft fur coats.

Secondly, deciding whether or not to risk engaging is one consideration, deciding just how to handle it is another consideration.

At the organization I work at we are working on creating social media guidelines and have mashed together the following six points by looking at what others have put together before us for their social media guidelines.

1. Ignore them or delete the comment
Not usually the best course of action, this should be a last resort. If you are dealing with some one trolling this may be the only course of action.
2. Attempt to pacify them
Bribery with a 50% off coupon may work but it does not solve issue since you are just trying to make the problem go away.
3. Address (but don’t Antagonize them) them
This is always the best course of action. A negative comment can become a great opportunity for your organization to improve itself (see first part above).
4. Contact your boss, PR, etc…
If in doubt as to what to do contact a department supervisor or someone that can give you advice on how to handle the matter.
5. Have a firm policy in place on the blog/Twitter/Facebook site
Having a comment or anti-negativity policy in place.
6. Ban the offending party
Don’t be afraid to ban someone who constantly creates a negative environment. If some one is being a troll, remember it is not their community, it’s yours.

~end comment.

I would like to conclude with the following from Intel’s Social Media Guidelines:

“Follow these three principles: the Good, the Bad, but not the Ugly. If the content is positive or negative and in context to the conversation, then we approve the content, regardless of whether it’s favorable or unfavorable to us. But if the content is ugly, offensive, denigrating and completely out of context, then we reject the content.”

The blog post is overly formal and comes across as if PR wrote the post rather than the curator as it does not fit the writing style of the rest of her posts so it lacks a bit of genuineness and risks sounding condescending and dismissive. However, otherwise I think it was handled well and given the controversial nature of the subject it was probably better to be conservative in the writing style.

Some observations… It was an interesting preemptive tactic to invite the public on their social media channels to post comments on their blog.

1. Having comments on their blog directs any attacks and comments way from other Brooklyn Museum accounts. The blog post functions as a proverbial blast wall that is helping to direct the blast.
2. While the comments may be negative it is still on their forum. The dialog will happen, but it is better to be part of the dialog helping direct the discussion rather than outside of it.
3. The blog post is highly specific to traffic and less public than a Facebook wall or twitter feed.

I am curious what other people’s observations are on this.

But tisk tisk, I also need to remember that good web design is good PR.

When it comes to social media most get it, if not in practice then in theory. There is the well known story of Comcast’s customer service manager Frank Eliason who came uses Twitter to listen and interact with customers and deal with questions and complaints. (I hope you are listening to your users through social media).

However, when it comes to your plain-ol’-web site, is your web site a good listener? and more importantly, is your web site a good helper? Is it respectful? is it courteous?

It goes without saying that you should have away for users to contact you. If not through a form then through an regularly checked email account such as webmaster@yourmuseum.org

Also listening to your users by means of analytics and surveys. The analytics give you the numbers – unique pageviews, bounce rates etc. Surveys help make sense of the numbers by giving you the customers intent.

Analytics is more than just a popularity contest between web pages. It can tell you if users your site are finding the information they need or are leaving frustrated and confused.

As far as surveys, the simplest (or the least unobtrusive) survey would be to include a “Rate this Page” and feedback widget on every page (or at least every page on certain sections). One of the nicest implimentions that I have seen so far was on Informz.com. Sadly while they provide email and and survey support their rate this page widget is not available as of yet.

And as far as dealing with the uninformed plebs asking me to design or help with their web content..? Jim Cheshire a Microsoft Expresion, Moderator posted a great anecdote on that subject which helps remind me all have our talents and that the brightest people can be the worst web designers and we need to respect and we patient with that and appreciate each other for the knowledge and talents we have.

My sister, who also happened to be the director for the National Eagle Center, commented that you can’t buy that kind of public relations and an employee like that is the best PR and organization can have. She herself had a similar situation when in the early days of the National Eagle Center when she gave an impromptu tour to someone that showed up just as she was locking up for the day. This person was so impressed that they became not only a great volunteer for the center but also a very generous donor as well.

This brings up an issue that I have noticed with several museums. Yes, the front desk people whose jobs may be dependent on being polite and helpful are cheery but what about the rest of the staff? What about your director, your curator, your exhibit designer, your web designer and yes your maintenance staff? Chances are if it is not their job, they are not. While they may not be rude and dismissive (sadly some are) are they proactively looking to help visitors or going out of their way to be polite? Are non-customer service staff

Museums have small marketing budgets (at least most). One of the greatest marketing tools they rely on and one of the most effective is word of mouth.  One of the cheapest PR tools out there and the most effective, is good employee interactions with customers. Some of the extra good deeds I have spied at the Minnesota History Center during my time here have been an employee on their way home offering to return a borrowed wheelchair to the front desk from the parking lot; walking a visitor in the rain out to their car with an umbrella; helping carry a visitor’s tray from the cafeteria to their table; talking time to help visitors get to where they need to go; numerous people opening doors for visitors; etc…

I worked in a hospital which placed great emphasis on employee etiquette and courteousness. Good etiquette and courteousness didn’t happen there by chance, the hospital did quite a bit of employee training on the subject, if nothing else employee got it that this was considered both important by the organization and meant to be practiced by all.

So what does all this have to do with online marketing and PR? Well, in my next post I will talk about the overlooked PR potential of employee helpfulness, etiquette and courteousness in the online environment.