I am not sure if there are any hard rules pertaining to social media. There are no prescribed dos and don’ts that will lead to eventual success. What to post, who to engage with are difficult questions and much of social media is being, well, social. It is engaging with the greater community and seeing where the conversation goes allowing it to unfold naturally.

Yet one of the toughest things to do for those that are new to social media is letting go. When you engage with others this means giving up control of your website, blog or Facebook page. People will comment, after all this is what is going to generate traffic and interest about you and your brand, or your church. What they will say though, you have no idea.

Does this mean you should monitor your web traffic to make sure nothing untoward is said about your brand? And when some disparaging comment is made, how do you handle it? Do you erase it, block the person, and eliminate the ability for comments to be posted? Do you practice censorship?

I should perhaps add a small caveat though. Racist comment or other forms of hate speech do not add to dialogue and this is perhaps the few instances that I would condone censoring comments.

But I can imagine the impulse is to block all comments that are negative. You don’t want your brand to be seen in a negative light. But this strategy has a negative effect. The people whose comments are blocked or erased will generally become angry at you or your organization. They will feel shut down, and no dialogue will ensue. Whatever their complaint was will now be magnified.

They will do what people normally do, they will talk. Maybe they will do it on their own blog or Facebook page. Maybe they will tell others offline. But you can be assured that what started as one negative comment that could have been dealt with in dialogue openly for all to see will quickly escalate and turn into a damage control situation.

Probably the best way to handle the negative comment is not to shut the conversation down, but to wait and allow one of your “brand evangelists” to address the comment for you. This way you continue to appear and remain open for dialogue and constructive criticism and your “brand evangelists” deal with the perceived negative comment.

I guess I should retract my first statement and propose one simple rule when using social media for your business or your church. Let go and let the conversation happen.