Nowadays, many businesses have an online presence on blogs, forums and social media networks. Such platforms can be very useful tools for connecting with consumers and receiving feedback. People share their questions and suggestions about your business or brand by sending tweets, posting on your Facebook wall, leaving blog comments or posting on your forums. Responding to this feedback in a timely manner encourages more interactions and builds a strong following for your brand.
However, at times, people are likely to post content which is misleading, irrelevant or offensive. If such content is not moderated, it might have a harmful effect on the reputation of your business or brand. Content moderation ensures that any content that appears on the business sites or forums is relevant, accurate and helpful. In turn, this maintains order in the community and protects the site from all sorts of abuse.
There are several ways businesses can benefit from content moderation:
- Reduction of inappropriate content. Negative user-generated content in form of social media posts, blog comments or forum posts can have a harmful effect on your business or brand. Content moderation allows you to remove any inappropriate or misleading videos, images or text content, thus protecting your reputation.
- Spam control. Forums, blogs and social media pages are usually targets of spammers who post offensive or irrelevant content. If not controlled, such spam content will eventually put off consumers who are interested in your brand. Content moderation is therefore necessary to keep spam in check.
- Enhanced credibility. If your social media page or blog is filled with negative or inappropriate content, people are not likely to follow, interact with or support your brand. However, when you remove content which is inappropriate, your brand gains more credibility in the eyes of consumers.
- More profitability. If you moderate your content effectively, thus improving your credibility, more people are likely to follow and engage with your brand. Consequently, this will result in more profitability for your business.
Businesses can moderate content in five different ways:
- Pre-moderation.
- Post-moderation.
- Distributed moderation.
- Reactive moderation.
- Automated moderation.
The type of moderation chosen will depend on your community engagement style, as well as your business model.
1. Pre-moderation
This is where content submitted to a website or blog is reviewed by a moderator before getting published. Pre-moderation allows you to keep content which is deemed offensive or inappropriate content away from public view. This type of moderation is especially useful for high risk sites such as those targeting children or celebrity-based communities.
Though pre-moderation is very effective for screening content before it appears on your site, it has a few disadvantages. At times, moderators might take too long before clearing submissions. As a result, community members are likely to get frustrated and stop participating in conversations. Pre-moderation can also be very expensive. When your community grows, you might have to hire more moderators to handle the increased influx of user-generated content.
2. Post-moderation
In post-moderation, content is published on a site right after submission. Afterwards, submissions are reviewed by the moderator and either approved or removed. This kind of moderation allows conversations to happen in a fast-paced manner, thus encouraging community members to participate. However, moderators need to act quickly to deal with any legal, security and behavioral problems.
Just like pre-moderation, post-moderation can become very costly as the community grows. In addition, this kind of moderation is risky since defamatory content can be viewed publicly before being moderated. This can lead to legal problems, even if the submission is removed later.
3. Distributed Moderation
Distributed moderation uses a rating system for determining whether a submission adheres to the laid down rules. Submissions are approved or rejected based on the votes of community members. However, there is usually a moderator overseeing this activity. Businesses can apply this kind of moderation by having a few employees reviewing submissions and determining whether they should go public or be rejected.
4. Reactive Moderation
This type of moderation is based on members reporting content which they find inappropriate or violates rules of the community. When used together with pre- and post-moderation, it can be a very useful strategy for identifying problems which the moderator might have missed. You can encourage reactive moderation is by having a reporting button on all your user submissions. When this button is clicked, it automatically sends a notification to the moderator or administrator.
This type of moderation can help you keep your costs down, even as your community grows. However, if you want to maintain the reputation of your business or brand, it would be risky to depend too much on community members to find and report undesirable content.
5. Automated Moderation
This kind of moderation relies on technical tools or software to handle user-generated content. One of the most commonly used tools is filters such as WebPurify. Filters scan content for specific inappropriate words or phrases. Such words are either blocked or replaced with suitable alternatives. Automated moderation can be very effective when used along with all the above-mentioned human-powered methods of moderation.
6. No Moderation
There are several reasons why some business owners choose not to moderate their sites at all. Some cannot simply afford the costs associated with moderation. Others feel that their communities are not large enough to need moderation. However, whatever the reason, moderation is something that should be seriously considered by every business owner. A community that is not moderated is exposed to all kinds of risks which could prove harmful for a business.
Conclusion
One of the best ways of reducing inappropriate or irrelevant content on your social media pages, forums or blogs is by having clear submission guidelines. Let users know what kind of content is acceptable and what is not. Remember to mention the consequences for violating these guidelines. Having such rules from the onset will make work easier for the moderator.
Charles Mburugu is a professional blogger who likes sharing tips for internet marketers and bloggers.