The recent announcement that Lady Gaga is investing in social network start-up Backplane highlights just how social media centric some celebrities are becoming.

Celebrities with large, passionate fan-bases have always sought ways to communicate with them and grow their community. The clubs and newsletters of old have simply been replaced with official websites, and social media profiles.

The problem is, by creating an official space online for fans to meet and share, celebrities have taken on a certain level of responsibility to not only safeguard themselves and their brand from attack, but to protect their fans while they are on their pages. Incidents such as those that confronted Demi Moore, where her Twitter followers helped her track down a tweeter that threatened suicide are extreme examples of how people try to reach out to their idols via social media.

It’s not just the fans that celebrities need to worry about either. Those in the public eye are now under 24 hour online scrutiny, a celebrity only has to share an ill-judged joke with a friend on Twitter to create a storm which can negatively impact their image, brand and career if the subsequent outrage is not responded to correctly and in a timely manner.

VIPs and their social media teams will often find that online fan behaviour can be challenging. Sitting in the comfort of their homes, fans feel protected and able to say what they wouldn’t dare to in the offline world.

A Facebook page could be managed and run by the VIP’s branding team and never be visited by the celebrity at all, and yet some fans will think that the page is a direct link to their idol asking them questions, responding to wall posts as if the question was directed at them and them alone, expecting a reply of some kind. More troubled fans may post unsavoury comments or use the profile as a platform to threaten the celebrity themselves. There has to be a clear procedure in place to deal with these emergencies: robust escalation procedures which need to be effective, day or night.

Left unchecked, a VIP’s social media profile can become a hotbed of spam, trolling and obsessive fan behaviour. Although the major social networks are supposed to be for over-13s only, there’s no real way to police them, and underage fans often end up following or ‘liking’ their favourite singer. Whoever manages the page for the VIP needs to be aware of this possibility and ensure official content is safe for all to view, as well as making sure that fan-created content is not offensive – neither to the celebrity nor fellow fans.

So, how should a celebrity or VIP manage their social media presences? Whether or not the celebrity is directly involved in posting to the page, they should be transparent about who is making the posts. Celebrities will usually have an individual tone of voice and fans are likely to be insulted by a team of imposters. Better instead to have named admins of the page – people ‘close to’ the page owner, privy to the intimate details of their lives – and then the odd, exciting post by the star themselves, publicised and guaranteed to be a traffic-driver.

It’s unrealistic to think that a single person can manage a community of thousands, which is really what these social media profiles are. Ideally, the VIP should have a team of people posting on their behalf, even in different languages. The team would establish an editorial calendar which would be co-ordinated with the PR team to keep the profile relevant and up to date.

But in the wild west of the web, no matter how strong the community is, there will be people posting offensive remarks. A page with effective community management will have clear guidelines posted for fans to see, which outline behaviours which will not be tolerated and the consequences of breaking the house rules (which could range from deleting offensive comments to responding with legal action if necessary). Criticism should be tolerated – abuse should not.

Ultimately, reputation is the bread and butter of VIPs and celebrities and they need to ensure that their social media profiles reflect their carefully crafted image or risk the reputational damage that could ensue.

Tia is communications manager at eModeration which has just published a new guide to managing Facebook for VIPs, celebrities and high profile individuals. Images via love getting dressed and Times Online.

Tags: Backplane, celebrity, emoderation, facebook, lady gaga, moderation, tia fisher