[OPLINLIST] Advice for Off Color Comments on Facebook

[Laura Solomon]

Hi Amanda,

You're doing the right thing.  People like this do crop up 
occasionally.   Responding politely and briefly is your best bet.  It's 
important to remember DFTT ("Don't Feed The Trolls.")  There are some 
people you just can't make happy and/or are just seeking attention.  The 
more you engage with them, in depth, the more they may take it as a 
signal to go further.  Another strategy you can use for these kinds of 
posters is to work on burying them--basically, posting more things to 
your Wall and engaging more frequently with other posters who are not 
out looking for a fight.  This way, their negative and unproductive 
comments get buried under the weight of all the new material on your 
Wall.  Hope that helps some!

Laura Solomon

/(/Shameless Plug/) Doing Social Media So It Matters:  A Librarians 
Guide (http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=2903)/

*Laura Solomon, **MCIW, MLS*
/Library Services Manager/
Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN)
2323 W. 5th Avenue Suite 130
Columbus, Ohio 43204
614.728.5252 (voice)
(614)728-5256 (fax)
laura at oplin.org <mailto:laura at oplin.org>


On 11/24/2010 10:15 AM, Amanda Henning wrote:
> Hi All,
> We recently got a library Facebook account (yay) and have about 200 
> fans right now (double yay).  Unfortunately, one of our fans has been 
> making what I would call off-color/slightly rude comments on a 
> semi-consistent basis.  As an example, I posted our hours for 
> Thanksgiving yesterday, and he or she commented "since when is 
> Thanksgiving-eve a holiday?  why would you close early?".  All of the 
> comments have been more annoying/slightly rude than anything else, but 
> has anybody else had a similar experience?  Up to this point, I've 
> used the comments as an opportunity to address questions that other 
> people might have..  so for the Thanksgiving comment I responded that 
> many businesses and libraries close early to give employees an 
> opportunity to be with family and reminded all of our fans that while 
> we're closed, patrons don't get fines.  I'm just looking for either 
> validation that this is a decent strategy or advice from similiar 
> situations.
> Ahh the joys of the internet!
> Amanda Henning
> Teen Librarian
> The Marysville Public Library
> 231 S. Plum St.
> Marysville, OH  43040
> (937) 642-1876 ex. 25
>
> "Sometimes, after coming home thus late in a dark and muggy night, 
> when my feet felt the path which my eyes could not see, dreaming and 
> absent-minded all the way, until I was aroused by having to raise my 
> hand to lift the latch, I have not been able to recall a single step 
> of my walk, and I have thought that perhaps my body would find its way 
> home if its master should forsake it." - Henry David Thoreau
>
>

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