Welcome to the Melcrum Social Media Newsletter.

One of the numerous case studies to take away from Melcrum's 4th Annual Strategic Communication Summit in Sydney last week came from Australia's national telecoms firm, Telstra.

With their "Now we're talking" external blog, Telstra staff have faced some tough questions, vicious criticism and open challenges.

How can you prepare for similar problems if you're launching a corporate blog?

Derived from Telstra blog editor Tania Elliott's presentation, here are six tips on preparing for the inevitable.

1. Establish your guidelines up front
Decide before you launch a blog if and how you're going to moderate it, and what the boundaries are for acceptable posts, language and behavior – on both sides.

2. Develop a thick skin
Prepare for some criticism and challenges on the blog. By nature they often invite disagreement, so accept it and deal with it appropriately.

3. Moderate with a light hand
Unless it's absolutely necessary, don't remove or edit comments. If you’re forced to remove a comment, be completely transparent and explain why such action was taken.

4. Let the community moderate
Blogs and forums can also have an element of self-moderation and self-correction. Provide the channels for this to happen by way of quick feedback and contacts.

5. Beware the stalker
Be wary of those who will repeatedly ask you tough questions or challenge the organization.

6. Don't pick fights
Respond to misinformation, but don't argue back. Don't antagonize readers or inflame situations.

Best regards,

Alex Manchester
Editor
alex.manchester@melcrum.com

This week's Melcrum headlines:

Social media - a risky business?
- The Black Belt Dojo - 2 August 2007

Is it right to ban Facebook at work?
- The Melcrum Blog - 30 July 2007

Do we need social media?
- The Communicators' Network - 23 July 2007