If You Hide a Comment on Facebook Will They Know

Negative comments can exist expected on the Facebook pages of fifty-fifty the near loved brands. What should yous practise when those comments land on your page?

We've all had it happen: A negative comment on a Facebook Page post glares at you from the screen.

Our first instinct (or at to the lowest degree, mine) is to hide the negative comment or somehow bury it, so it won't injure the post or my business. Nosotros do, after all, accept the selection to hide comments on Facebook.

And then, should yous actually hide comments or negative mentions on your Facebook Folio?

The curt answer: sometimes, yep, and sometimes, no.

Either mode, you shouldn't automatically hide negative comments just because they're negative.

There are pros and cons to hiding comments on Facebook, and other strategies yous tin can apply instead. (You can go an overview of Facebook marketing in this free downloadable Facebook 101 guide.)

Related Post: How to Remove a Page from the Facebook Business Manager

The first type of annotate that will typically trigger our "hide" reflexes will be negative comments about our content or our brands.

Non only do they make us automatically defensive, but negative sentiments shared online tin hurt our businesses.

Because social media often acts as powerful word-of-mouth marketing, nosotros want comments to work in our favor.

Y'all should consider hiding other comments, such as:

• Blatant spam. These comments may send users to broken links or sites with viruses and malware.
• Self-promotion from other users. One case I see the most frequently is users trying to put their "refer a friend and become $15" codes on the business concern's posts to rack up referral bonuses.
• Inappropriate content or language. This includes explicit linguistic communication, sexual content, or racist, homophobic, or sexist comments.

Pros and Cons

The pros of hiding negative comments on your Facebook Page are clear. Ideally, y'all'd protect your business's reputation and eliminate whatever negative sentiments from your posts.

It can actually hurt your Page if y'all've got a ton of spam in comments on every post that you don't hibernate or delete.

The last thing you lot want is someone turning your post into a hotbed of controversy that has nothing to practice with the original status.

Nipping all of this in the bud can benefit you.

This annotate could potentially hurt this business; it's pointing out the flaws of the business organization while recommending a competitor instead.

You should consider, however, the cons of hiding comments on Facebook. (Peculiarly when you hibernate comments that aren't offensive and only criticize your business. If users discover—and many will—at that place can exist a perceived loss of transparency.)

Social media is all virtually transparency, so people may non trust y'all, leading to a loss of customer loyalty.

In rare cases, users who notice that you've deleted their comment can get angry—really angry—when they're already agitated and tried to complain about a production or customer service.

Deleting their annotate may not do you much good. They might leave you a scathing 1-star review or very vocally take their opinion somewhere you tin can't control it—like their own pages.

Though yous tin can't avert fallouts with all of these and then-angry-their-eyes-are-bulging-out-of-their-heads customers, reducing collateral damage is a plus.

When you go to hibernate a annotate, you'll run across that you lot can also delete the comment or ban the user who left it.

Once you've hidden a comment, you tin can unhide it, delete information technology, report it, and ban the user.

You take three options in regards to negative Facebook comments:

• Hiding the Facebook comment volition continue it hidden from everyone except that person and their friends. They won't know that the comment is hidden, then yous can avert potential fallout.
• Deleting the Facebook comment will erase it; no i volition be able to meet information technology. The user will know that the negative comment has been deleted if they go to view it again, but they won't exist notified of its deletion.
• Banning users will continue that particular user from commenting on whatsoever of your posts ever again. This is a adept movement for users that are unreasonable and seem to enjoy leaving negative comments every chance they get, or for users who drop spam or offensive content on your posts.

Options

Instead of jumping to hide comments on Facebook posts automatically, inquire yourself whether at that place's some other manner to resolve the situation.

Accost the problem

Sometimes, users really are just frustrated.

Think that a bad client experience turned into a adept one can create some of our near song advocates for our brands in the long run.

Resolving issues for unhappy customers can plough them into loyal, raving fans.

Addressing comments head-on can sometimes be the best approach.

Show other users that your make is prepare to stride upward and resolve complaints. If you can solve their trouble publicly, other users will take detect.

Lyft does this extremely well, equally pictured in the instance below.

If yous can't offer an immediate solution, respond to the annotate and ask the user to motility to a private message to resolve the event. Many users will be willing to do this.

If they aren't, you however look good for having publicly attempted to become to the lesser of their complaints.

Sometimes, though, hiding is the best option.

Comments that can hurt your business organization should be hidden if they can't be addressed. Catch the comment early before it gets much visibility or any traction with engagement.

Similarly, comments who come from users who volition simply stay unhappy no affair should be subconscious if they're at risk for impacting other users' perception of you.

More details: Social Media Best Practices to Aid Guide You During Whatever Crunch

There are some cases when you should always hide comments, if not delete them or ban their creators entirely.

This includes comments that:

• Are blatantly spam
• Are offensive or inappropriate
• Have been reported past other users
• Come up from "trolls" or users determined to drag your name through the mud

In all those cases, become alee and delete the comment completely and ban the user; they'll nearly definitely bring problem back to some other thread after.

Hiding a comment on your Facebook Folio may seem similar an extreme option, but this selection actually is ane of the tamer ones.

Deleting the comment ensures that no i can see it, and banning the user means they can never interact with your Page once more.

Keep an eye on users if yous've had to hide their comments before. (If you need help with your Facebook direction, y'all'll want to

If their start annotate isn't worthy of banning them outright (which it would exist, for case, if they were antagonizing other customers) simply concerns you, put a label on the user through Agorapulse. This volition only be seen by you or your squad, and allows you to flag users who may be an outcome moving forward.

If there are echo issues, you may exist able to spot them easier and human action more decisively to ban them outright.

If you exercise decide to ban someone, deleting their comment is typically warranted.

Deleting may also exist a strong option when the comment doesn't offer any value whatsoever.

(Sometimes negative comments do offering some sort of value, even if it's just for their friends and followers to see your level-headed response.)

For case, sometimes someone will comment about my appearance on my professional Facebook Page. I'1000 personally in the military camp that this is never OK. The comments range from deadline like "and so pretty" to more obscene ones.

Here, I originally hid the annotate, but later went back to delete it altogether when I actually established a no-tolerance rule in my professional business.

If you lot're on a social media management team and want to permit the business organisation possessor decide what to do, go on in mind that you can e'er hibernate the comment for now and delete it at a later date.

You lot tin can have this approach when you feel that a user may exist lying or exaggerating almost something. You can hide the comment to do some fact-checking before you lot take more decisive action.

For example, I one time worked for a brand where this was the case: Someone said their daughter had been carted out of the eatery in an ambulance because her shellfish allergy was ignored.

I paused hid the comment while I did research, only to notice that not merely did the incident never occur but that the restaurant was vegan—no shellfish in sight.

The hide push gives you enough time to make a decision, so a bad snap judgment isn't fabricated.

Should I Respond to the Comment Instead of Hide It?

Part of this will come downwards to a bit of gut instinct.

If yous read a comment and it reads like a legitimate complaint from a frustrated customer, yous'll get farther in the situation by confronting it head-on.

Transparency

I've been the client considering a brand, seeing a negative comment on ane of the brand's ads, then noticing an hour later that the annotate is mysteriously gone.

That doesn't read like not bad transparency to me. It'south actually stopped me from purchasing before. I'yard far from the but one.

Consumers today are savvier than ever earlier, and they're less trustful of brands.

If you hide that comment, too, remember what nosotros said earlier. If the customer figures it out, they could get actually angry, especially if they're already at a tipping indicate.

Reaching out direct, addressing questions, and offering to find a solution is a better way to go here. They'll appreciate it, it gives you a adventure to rescue a guest experience, and other users volition take notice, too.

More details: How to Rightfully Earn Trust From Your Network Followers

Comments That Should Exist Left Alone

You don't really need to answer directly to some comments.

Though I'm a big fan of trying to engage with everyone who interacts with you on your Folio or your Advertisement, at a certain scale, it becomes so hard. We're all used to seeing naysayers everywhere we get.

About consumers are pretty good at spotting and writing off people who just want to complain.

Permit's have a wait at an example.

The start two comments on the following ad from Freshly are negative, arguing that the product is pointless. It's too expensive, it's not really homemade … On and on they go.

These comments may dissuade some tentative users from learning more, only the true audition for these ads—those who are struggling to brand dinners at home for whatever reason and need a niggling assist cooking—won't necessarily be put off by their comments.

The brand didn't even demand to respond, equally it turns out because Christine Potter came in and argued on the brand's behalf. That looks so much better to third-parties than a defense force from Freshly itself probably would take. She argues for the validity of the service and explains how it's benefited her.

You should monitor your campaigns, even if y'all don't necessarily need to hide all comments.

You and then can take action if anything escalates.

How to Hide Comments on Facebook

To hide comments on Facebook's native platform, all yous have to practice is hover over the comment. You'll see a drib-downwardly arrow; when you lot click on information technology, you'll run into the option to "hide comment" or "embed."

But click "hibernate comment."

Later on you do this, you'll see other options y'all can accept, including "unhide," "delete," and "ban user."

Agorapulse's moderation tools make information technology incredibly simple to find comments that need your attending chop-chop. You lot can view all comments nether the "Inbox" tab and select your Facebook Page. To hide a annotate, click on it.

The mail and comment volition exist fully displayed, and you can cull to hide, bookmark, or remove comments.

Once y'all've hidden a comment, yous can unhide it at any time from the Agorapulse dashboard.

If you want something more than automatic, you can ready moderation rules that will trigger actions upon seeing certain keywords. If, for case, you don't desire a whole bunch of comments or "company posts" with links to external Websites or contests, gear up up a dominion to filter out "http."

Then tell Agorapulse what you want to be done with whatever comment that features "http." In this case, I ready the tool to bookmark, tag, and hide comments and visitor posts with that trigger.

You see the "email notification" in the higher up analogy?

I've also said "yeah" to receive emails each time the dominion is triggered.

Here's an e-mail I recently received near a visitor post that included a Website link.

I tin and so determine to keep it subconscious (thank you to the rule I set) or if for some reason, that annotate/link was of import, I can go into Agorapulse and "unhide" it.

Best Practices

In addition to all the strategies and situations discussed to a higher place, there are a few Facebook best-practices to continue in mind when hiding comments on Facebook.

Hide them early

We discussed this above briefly, but information technology was important plenty to mention it again. If you're hiding a comment, you lot have a good reason; make sure you accept it off display as shortly equally possible to mitigate whatsoever potential damage it could do.

Address it if other users enquire

Some users (or even the original commenter) may notice the hidden comment and generate further word nearly information technology; since the potential loss of transparency is huge, accost the issue if it comes up. Explain conspicuously why y'all hid the comment: was it offensive? Did the user take a history of leaving negative comments? If y'all hide a comment, y'all'd amend have a expert reason—and this is why.

Ever consider culling actions offset

While we've all got an itching trigger finger when we have the opportunity to delete negative sentiments about our brand, don't jump to hit the hide push button immediately; consider what other alternatives you lot take, and what would be most productive. The last thing you want is for users to trust you less when you had an opportunity to increase their trust farther.

In Conclusion

Hiding comments on Facebook can injure you or help you, depending on the annotate in question. In some cases, hiding comments won't be the best move; instead, yous should accost the comment head-on for more productive and beneficial results. Either fashion, the features in Agorapulse brand it easier for you lot to decide which action to accept.

Get started on saving time and energy on your own social media management! Cheque out our complimentary trial of Agorapulse to assist yous schedule, track, and mensurate all your social media efforts.

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Source: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/hide-comments-on-facebook/#:~:text=Hiding%20the%20Facebook%20comment%20will,be%20able%20to%20see%20it.

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