Hiding Comments on Facebook: How, When, and If Ever to Hide Comments

Today, a significant part of our life has moved to the online space, where we actively share personal moments, post photos, write our thoughts, and promote businesses. We have many fans and like-minded people here. But at the same time, there will always be those who seek to offend, humiliate, insult, devalue, or express their tactless opinion. Alas, everyone faces this, whether it is a personal profile or a business account.

No matter how well the company works, customer criticism on social media is inevitable. Users criticize in the comments under the posts, putting dislikes, or sending private messages. One way to deal with unwanted stuff in the comments is to hide comments on Facebook. But is it a powerful tool for a brand or a destructive solution? Let’s find out.

Key Types of Criticism

There are two types of criticism: adequate, constructive, and unreasonable, inadequate criticism.

We can observe fair criticism when the person who has bought your product or service makes arguments against this product. Of course, such a comment can be deleted, but we strongly advise you to contact this client personally and resolve the situation. Try to understand why your product harmed the client. Deleting comments is quite a pernicious thing that may cause a decrease in a business page’s rating, and you certainly do not need it. Reply to an unhappy customer in the comments and indicate your actions to solve the problem and improve your product. 

Another type of criticism is inadequate criticism. It is essential to distinguish between a hater and an adequate person who wrote a comment on emotions. If you start a dialogue with a disgruntled person, then an adequate one will try to help you solve the problem, while the hater will continue to write delusional messages angrily.

Sadly, some followers of your brand on Facebook are still trolls, haters, or spammers. In this case, it is preferable to hide the junky content from your feed.

Reasons to Hide Facebook Comments

You should consider hiding such Facebook comments as:

• Inappropriate language or content. The social media manager’s task is to keep the Facebook page clean. Hide abusive language or any hate speech, racist, sexist, or homophobic remarks.
• Spammy links. Facebook is the most popular social network in the world. This means that it is also the tastiest morsel for dishonest advertising. Large spammers and applications can be dealt with systematically, but small ones disguised as friends are much more difficult. They spread comments that may send a user to broken links or sites with viruses and malware. If you come across such a type of Facebook comment, it is the one to hide or block.
• Self-promotion. Have you seen “refer a friend and get $10” comments? Some users enhance traffic on their platforms by posting links in your Facebook account’s comments. Hide them!

Hiding vs. Deleting vs. Banning vs. Reporting

When managing negative Facebook comments, you have a few options:

• Hiding a comment. Facebook can hide comments from users, except for the persons who left it and their friends. While the comment will disappear from your comments thread, it will still be visible to avoid potential fallout for the person who left it.
• Deleting a comment. Deleting a comment will remove it entirely and forever. The user who left the comment will not be notified about your action, but it will still be visible that the comment is erased. Please make sure you do want it gone since the deleted comment cannot be restored.
• Banning a user. You can ban those users whom you do not want to comment on your Facebook posts at all. It is a convenient option for those who leave drop spam or offensive content on your page.
• Reporting a comment. Irrevocably offensive content can also be reported to Facebook. In case of violation of Facebook’s standards, the comment will be deleted.

How to Hide Comments on Facebook?

If you are a page admin and decide that hiding a Facebook comment is a proper way out for you, please follow the steps below.

1. Locate the comment you want to hide.
2. Click on the three dots icon on the comment’s right-hand side.
3. A pop-up with available options will appear. You can either delete, hide, or report a comment. Click ‘Hide comment.’ 

What happens next? If you are a page admin, once you click the “Hide comment” option, you will see the comment blurred. For the comment’s author, nothing will be changed. Moreover, Facebook will not notify the author of any actions from your end.

To hide a comment on the Facebook app:

1. Locate the comment you want to hide.
2. Long press the comment you want to hide to pull up the menu.
3. Choose ‘Hide comment.’
4. Observe greyed out notice “This comment has been hidden.”

Once done, this particular hidden comment thread will hold back any notifications. Still, there is always a way back if you change your mind and decide to unhide it.

Pros and Cons

The advantages of hiding a Facebook comment are evident enough. First, you protect your brand’s reputation and hide the inappropriate content from your page visitors’ eyes.

If you misuse this Facebook feature and hide the comments that criticize your business mostly, this will lead to the loss of transparency and customer loyalty. Remember that the social media world is all about clarity and transparency. If you can address the client’s issue and provide good customer service, do that! Let other users see how you care about customers’ opinions and how effectively you deal with adverse situations.

Is There Any Other Way to Resolve the Situation?

Always consider alternative actions first. As already mentioned above, reaching out directly, addressing the users’ issues, and offering to find a solution is sometimes a better way to go here.

Your reaction to the negative comment should be:

• Operational. You need to respond to negative comments and reviews as soon as you encounter them. You must answer them within the first 15 minutes, maximum – within an hour. It is crucial to be as prompt as possible if the negative comes from the client. Here it would help if you reacted with lightning speed.
• Calm and respectful. It is also essential to maintain a calm, polite, and respectful tone of communication, even if many nasty things and absurd nonsense have been written about you.
• Objective. Carefully read the comment and make sure the client feels heard. Admitting your guilt will score some points in the eyes of your audience, as it will show that you are a lively and honest person capable of making a mistake.

Conclusion

Now you get a better idea of how and when it is appropriate to hide comments on Facebook. Depending on the comment itself, hiding comments on Facebook can help you or hurt you. Sometimes it is more reasonable to address even the most unpleasant user’s feedback and show that you are a responsible business interested in building lasting relationships with customers.

It is time to save time and energy on your social media management. Schedule, track, and optimize your social media efforts with Vista Social.