While the Phoenix Restaurant Facebook Business Page offers a convenient way for the restaurant’s management (General Manager Linda Brophy and Assistant Manager Anna Szyszkowska) to advertise the latest menus and in-store promotions, it also provides a forum where customers can post feedback on their experiences at the restaurant.
This functionality has allowed the business to receive first-hand feedback from the customers. However, the management at Phoenix have been careful to ensure that any potential criticism on the Facebook Wall remains civil and that the use of offensive language is avoided.
By allowing customers to sound off, you give your company a unique opportunity to take corrective action, but if you run a Facebook Page for a family-friendly brand, you have the absolute right to keep out foul-mouthed contributors who cloak their criticisms in profanity-laden remarks.
Fortunately in early 2011 Facebook released a moderation blocklist; a functionality that allows page administrators to set parameters around certain keywords – automatically marking posts containing these words as spam and placing them in the hidden posts filter where only administrators can view the content.
Administrators can tailor the list of banned words according to their own specifications from the Manage Permissions tab of the Page admin interface. While many may view the use of this tool as a form of customer censorship, it is important to note that Team Social Media has only chosen to filter a select number of highly inappropriate words that we believe should never form a part of any legitimate criticism.
To avoid the accusation that your company is running away from negative criticism it is probably best practice to include the warning “the use of inappropriate language will not be tolerated” somewhere on the landing page of your Facebook site.
Phoenix Restaurant, NUI Maynooth 