As a marketing manager or growth lead, you know the importance of online communities. These are valuable platforms to connect with current and potential users of your product or service.
A thriving online community raises brand awareness. It can help you to boost engagement and enhance customer support. It can be a rich source of content ideas.
Some of the best online communities are found on platforms like Discord, Twitter, Twitch, and Telegram. They have thousands of members who create and share content, play games, host events, attend webinars, and more.
You should be aware that there is one aspect of online communities that can be counter-productive. It's called spam. Spam can be defined as unsolicited messages and content posted online.
Often, spam contains unwanted promotional messages. It can also take the form of fake news, scams, phishing attacks, and malware.
Spam has several negative consequences. It can be annoying, take up user time, and clog up the community timeline. It can even be dangerous.
That is why you need to try and get rid of spam, or minimize it whenever possible.
It can be difficult for you to completely get rid of spam from a community. This is because there is no single technique that can capture all the different types of spam out there.
However, with a comprehensive strategy, you can block the most common instances of spam.
Here are six steps to start with.
From the start, you should establish strict guidelines to prohibit users from posting spam, profanity, or other offensive comments. These guidelines should be pointed out to new users. They should be consistently enforced. Prompt action sends a message to all community users.
Often, spam is generated by bots. You can use automated filters and other tools to detect and remove such types of spam. Look for a filter that checks for malware and phishing attacks. These tools can also prevent spam accounts from joining your community. Many online platforms have built-in spam filters that you can activate. You can also use third-party spam filters.
When it comes to reducing spam, it helps to monitor live discussions in the community. You can check for posts that contain self-promotion and repetition, for example. You can also check those with external links. Such posts can be blocked, or the user warned.
You can put a system in place to verify new users before they join your community. This can be done through valid email or phone details. Many communities take a step further by asking users to complete captchas every time they log in. These types of human verification will keep spam bots at bay.
You can make the entire community contribute towards reducing spam. Ask members to report posts that sound suspicious. These reports should be regularly monitored and acted upon. The same applies to user-generated content as well as comments on posts. This type of joint action creates a healthy and trustworthy community. Community moderators can be trained to recognize spam, with guidelines and best practices for identifying and removing such content.
In the long term, a community will thrive if members are aware of the dangers of spam. You can provide regular pieces of educational content about how to identify and report spam. You can also provide resources to help them stay safe online.
It is necessary to stay vigilant and remain up-to-date on the latest spam trends and tactics. One development that will also be valuable in preventing spam is the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence. These systems look for malicious IP addresses, keywords, suspicious attachments, etc. With time, this method will become even more widely used.
By taking these steps, your online community can stay spam-free. It can become a space for engagement and healthy user experiences.
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