PR Week asked the following question a couple of weeks ago…

Is it Ever OK to Edit Comments on a Brand’s Facebook Wall?

…and then sent out a call for responses for a future article. The following was my response in hopes for a healthy debate since I live in this world every day:

When it comes to protecting your brand identity, whether it be for a company or yourself, the notion of editing comments can be a slippery slope.

I would never EDIT any comments submitted on a Facebook Brand’s Fan Page Wall – nor is that really possible to do – so I’m assuming that this question is really geared towards the notion of deleting comments on a Facebook wall.

That said, my policy on DELETING comments on a Facebook wall is the following:

1.     If the comment has nothing to do with the topic at hand, or does not contribute to the topic in any way, shape or form (example: solicitation, political, or religious viewpoint), then it is deleted immediately with no other comment. My main reason for doing this is to actually HELP the commenter avoid any negative comments or backlash from other fans of the brand – which then turns my, or my company’s wall into a verbal battleground on something like immigration when we simply posted an announcement in an event in AZ. This actually happened to us recently.

Also, we don’t put a block on the offender in this matter, unless they become a repeat offender within the same topic. On second offense, we send a kindly reminder in the form of a Facebook message to stay on topic to avoid other people sending them negative comments or messages. On third offense, the ‘Fan’ or user is blocked from the page, and their content is no longer visible to that ‘Fan’ base ecosystem.

Keep in mind, we’ve only had to block 1 person in 9 months and with over 15,000 fans.

2.     If the comment is negative but relative to the topic or discussion at hand, then it’s best to leave it be and simply WATCH what happens. If you have a large and/or loyal fan base, you’d be surprised of the level of self-policing (call it brand-policing if you will) from your customers. It’s pretty amazing to watch, and it’s no different when you have multiple contributors on a Wikipedia entry making sure everything is accurate. We’ve seen some amazing ideas and discussions come out of this healthy debate inside our comments.