Deleting unwanted comments posted on a brand’s Facebook page is supposed to be bad because: “respect for fans”, “fair play”, “finally the consumers are free to speak, if you do not let them speak on the page they will do it elsewhere” etcetera.

I would argue that the opposite if often true. If you page is popular, chances are that you will need to delete comments. Often.

I am not talking about the comment of a customer that has been badly treated by the brand (classic example, lost luggage), posts about it, and deserves an answer. Deleting those comments is, in the vast majority of cases, stupid.

Same with somebody posting “Pepsi is better than Coke” on the Coca Cola page. That is ok.

Customers that would like you to do something different, but that are your customers nevertheless, fall in the same category – you do not want to censure the guy that wants you to go back to Coca Cola Classic…

Same thing for customers that are pissed off because of a major, and very public blunder the brand has done (example: British Petroleum,…)

In my opinion, once we get out of these categories, a more delete-friendly policy applies.

There is the category of the fans that are not fans and use the Facebook page to criticize the brand.

You have a number of cases.

Isolated non-true negative comments (“product X is made with dangerous substances”). They might not damage the brand, but do not help either. The fan page “belongs” to the brand, and if the comment is not true, I do not see in the name of what the brand should keep it there.

Isolated true negative comments. Depends on the comments, but I would argue that the rationale for keeping them there falls quickly with the gravity of the accusation.

Coordinated negative comments. Here a group of non fans takes control of the page. Maybe they have a specific demand, maybe not. For sure, there is no way you can convince them to change their minds. They have a goal and a plan. I would argue that you delete first and discuss later.

In reality also in this case the real damage in terms of number of eyeballs that see those negative comments is low. Very few people visit the wall of fan pages, and the vast majority of the fans that see the post of the fan page on their wall will not bother to look further and see the comments. It is very unlikely the negative information will spread virally (unless the negative information that is being spread is really bad, and it that case probably Facebook is the last thing you should worry about).

The damage is not done on Facebook. However the fact that it happens on Facebook, since Facebook is Facebook, makes it a piece of news. So you might get an article on the Wall Street Journal, and need to explain to people that do not get Facebook what happened there. No need for that.

Last case, by far the most common: spam. No big discussion here. Delete.

The real point, in my opinion, is that if you delete you need to delete fast. Otherwise it is useless.

By fast I mean real time. Before people see them. And way before they become “old” and practically non visible on their own.

Here is how Starbucks does it.

I looked at their page for about half an hour, refreshing continuously. Crossed-out posts are not present in next image.

I assume this is done manually, by somebody constantly monitoring the page, but it could be some (pretty cool) piece of software. I asked, and my comment was deleted. Happens.