Online Forums – Moderate Or Manage?
Posted by heatherrast on January 20th, 2010A colleague and I were recently discussing some features of Facebook pages. An example frequently cited as a well-designed page (in the creative/app sense) is PINK by Victoria’s Secret. With 1,702,953 fans, this branded page certainly has an 
audience with its target demographic – late teen-to-mid 20-aged women and to a lesser extent, the males in their lives (not to mention males who simply appreciate the lingerie maker’s, er, assets).
If you notice the brand’s wall, you’ll see a host of comments and announcements by the page’s fans. All kinds of people are shouting out their love for the apparel maker. But the brand doesn’t seem to use the wall as an opportunity to engage directly with its consumers. Miss. Nor could I find an instance in recent history where PINK representatives used the review or discussion to initiate or pursue related topics. Another miss. I imagine that things like garment care and cleaning, recommendations for certain types of body styles, etc. would be useful to fans. Have the folks at PINK given any thought to adding more value to this experience, creating a stronger opportunity for sales and – dare I say – affinity? Maybe that’s not their goal.
Despite silence from the PINK peanut gallery, fans are talking with one another in the discussions tab. A conversation I checked out was between one female fan and a male fan centered around PINK’s foreign manufacture policy. The two people exchanged several comments and finally the male lost his decorum. The female retained her composure and stayed on point. But the whole issue concerned my colleague, who felt it very risky to “allow” customers to interact online, on a forum hosted and maintained by the brand. Wouldn’t it be smarter to disable the discussion tab and avoid potential conflict (as well as deny dissenters a platform)?
This situation is a single instance, and enabling/disabling a Facebook page tab is generally a tactical question. Only six tabs can appear in the nav at one time, anyway. But both speak to much larger issues of systemic concern for consumer-facing organizations in an increasingly connected, accessible, always-on, and public world: moderate, or manage?
Consumers have witnessed (and borne) the past three years’ socio-economic events and emerged more curious and conscious about the brands they select. Diminishing disposable income will do that to a fellow. Money matters more, and we want more in return for the precious green we hand over.
Brands – perhaps more so makers of non-essentials like PINK – should be making very deliberate decisions about policies which might interest their core audiences, and the transparency with which they present relevant policy information. Companies might not have historically viewed Facebook (for example) as a platform for reaching significant numbers of their audience about topics more weighty than sale dates or promo codes. Increasingly, I think brands should consider every consumer touchpoint as an opportunity to share their story.
Chances are, PINK’s fans aren’t on the distro list for the company’s press releases. The information the fans receive – and share – stem from other sources, and the degrees of separation can weaken or even misinform.
to be continued…
