Be an Enabler!

Before you think I'm advising some kind of Charlie Sheen-esque transformation, hear me out!

When it comes to your brand's online relationship with customers, potential clients or even colleagues, there are two ways of going about it - one is to let the conversation flow freely, to let it happen as it happens and use it to mutual advantage. The other is to monitor it. I'm talking, of course, about comment moderation on blogs - in this day and age, more businesses are starting blogs or have had one going for some time, and the worst thing you can do to an existing blog is to moderate comments before they go live on the web. Moderating has its benefits, you can guide the conversation to help you achieve a particular end or weed out spam, but the reality of it is that you're taking away one of the greatest assets of engaging on the web - everyone has a voice and they can use it when they want and how they want.

If something is abusive or irrelevant spam, sure go ahead and delete it, but before you go making comment moderation your default position, think again and become an engagement enabler!