How To Moderate Your Facebook Group with these Key Rules
When I began my Facebook Group, The Swiftie Book Club, I did not think about the process of moderating it. It simply did not cross my mind. I lived in a bubble, thinking that everyone would just simply get along and do nothing wrong.
While I haven’t come across many issues so far, I know that that bubble needed to be popped.
Moderating a group can be very daunting because it can be a lot of work. However, if you set up a few key rules, then the job becomes a lot easier. These rules are simple and can be found below.
Create Guidelines and Best Practices
The first thing that needs to be done is set up guidelines and best practices for the group members to follow when participating in the community.
Guidelines and practices should be simple, straightforward, and available for all members. Making these rules complicated will just ensure that you have issues to moderate. It is also essential that these guidelines are pinned in the group so nobody can miss them. It will also be easier for members to refresh their memories of them.
Enlist Moderators
When your group becomes a certain size or you are busy with other projects and work, moderating can become difficult. At this time, you should reach out to group members that are highly engaged with the community and could be considered role models for the ideal group member and ask them to become a moderator for the Facebook Group.
Having more than one set of eyes on the group can make life tremendously more manageable. You will always know that someone is monitoring the group and preventing issues from arising.
Manage Posts and Members of the Group
A step that you can take to prevent many issues is utilizing approval settings, whether for posts or new members. Asking new members to answer specific questions will help you determine if they are there for the right reasons and see how they could contribute to the group. Post approvals are beneficial because you can address issues before the entire group sees them.
Be A Part of the Conversation
Creating the right type of content will help ensure positive engagement in your group. It will also provide members with an example of how they should behave when they see the admins acting correctly.
It is also crucial that you participate with others in the group by responding to comments, liking posts, and sharing your own thoughts about the topic. This does not mean that you have to comment on every single post. You do not want to dominate the discussion but rather encourage others to participate in the conversation (Kirby, 2017).
Keep Things Updated
I found myself in a big issue when moderating my Facebook Group because I felt like I could not change anything. However, that is not the case! You want to ensure that your guidelines, practices, and other strategies to monitor and engage your group are up to date. If something is not working for your group, then change it and find what does work!
These are just a few of the key rules that I found helpful in my short time running my own Facebook Group. I would highly suggest that others look into other tools to moderate their own groups because everyone has a different experience.
References
FBook Mastery. (2020, October 22). How to use rules & moderators in your Facebook group (Updated). FBook Mastery. https://www.fbookmastery.com/how-to-use-rules-moderators-in-your-facebook-group-updated-classpage-52-19.aspx
Greenwood, J. (2015, February 25). 5 Tips for running a Facebook group- Successfully. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-tips-running-facebook-group-successfully-jason/
Kirby, R. (2017, October 16). How to moderate a Facebook group. Refresh Marketing. https://www.refreshmarketing.co.uk/moderate-facebook-group/
Morin-van Dam, D. (2020, August 2). How to win at moderating a Facebook group. Social Media Pro. https://socialmediapro.com/blog/moderating-facebook-group/
