Social media has changed the way businesses operate. From creating an entirely different platform for new marketing efforts and changing how brands relate to their customers. We can all agree that social media is a very integral part of many businesses.
But, just as social media serves as an asset for your business, it could also become a liability if not handled properly. We have all seen certain brands put out content that harmed their image, and caused irreparable damages. This could happen to any business if they don’t moderate their content. This is where a social media moderator comes in.
What is a social media moderator?
A social media moderator is someone hired by a company to review, screen, and filter all social media content related to their business. By doing this, a business can ensure that its content is:
- Appropriate
- Aligned with its branding and
- Helping them achieve their overall business goals.
In this article, we will cover some of the best social media content moderation strategies and how you can implement them in your overall social media marketing strategy.
Content moderation strategies for social media.
Having solid strategies set in place for your social media content moderation is extremely necessary. These strategies will ensure that you implement your content moderation following established guidelines. Hence, eliminating room for error.
Here are some of the best social media content moderation strategies you can incorporate into your social media strategy.
1)Establish a standard social media policy.
Setting standard rules are essential because they ensure everyone on your content team knows what’s allowed and what’s not allowed. When creating your social media content policy, ensure it includes:
- The inappropriate content your company disallows. Inappropriate content should entail; bullying, brand bashing, sexually suggestive content, offensive photos, and videos, etc.
- Rules on posting spam content. Spamming your audience on social media can diminish your brand’s credibility. It can also devalue your content. Additionally, it can make your social media pages look messy and unattractive. Stay away from spam content.
- How your company addresses sensitive topics like race and gender.
- The method you apply to handle negative comments and reviews on your page or about your brand.
- How you deal with content created from influencer marketing, etc.
2) Designate who can submit social media content.
We all know that there are a plethora of ways brands get and create their content. We also know that a high engagement on social media could equal high reach. And if all things were equal, we could trust all content sources without questions and allow everyone to tag and comment on our page. That’s why the best writing companies make sure they use trusted sources.Therefore, as a brand, you can never be too careful.
So, set limitations on:
- Who can submit content to your brand.
- Who can comment on your page & tag you on their content. Most social media platforms have settings to accept, limit, or decline things like brand tagging and commenting.
- Where/whose social media content you share. It is best to share or feature content from only people who have accounts with your business.
By doing this, you prevent trolls and fraudsters from taking advantage of your brand.
3) Determine a Content Strategy
Creating a content strategy is essential to your content moderation. It helps you ensure that you are creating content that fits your overall brand/social media marketing goals. Your content moderation strategy should include:
- Where you share your content.
- How you use the content that you create.
- How you want your content to look. This should include your color schemes, style guide, taglines, hashtags, if you want to add logos or not, etc.
- The type of content you want to upload.
Your brand messaging must be consistent throughout your social media channels, so a content moderation strategy will help.
4) Create a standard submission process.
While we expect your business to create content regularly, there are also a few other contents generating methods you could implore. Some type of social media contents include:
- User-generated content.
- Customer reviews.
- Contests and giveaways.
- Affiliate promotions, etc.
Consumers love reading user-generated content and top writing reviews. However, whatever way you get your content, you need to have a standard submission process.
The three most common submission processes you can use in your business are:
- Pre-moderation: In this moderation method, your moderation team reviews and approves content pre-posting. The team has to approve submitted content before they post it.
- Post-moderation: In this moderation method, the moderation team posts submitted content, and monitors/reviews them regularly to see how they perform.
- Reactive moderation: With reactive moderation, content is submitted in real-time, and only reviewed if the content is flagged.
Ensure that you include all the information content submitters need to know. So, make available information on:
- Where you intend to use the submitted content
- User permission and rights agreements.
- Content submission deadlines, rules, etc.
5) Monitor your content regularly.
Finally, it is essential to monitor your social media content regularly. This helps ensure that you aren’t missing out on anything that could harm your brand.
You can monitor your content manually, automatically, or a combination of the two. Tools like Mention.com help you track social media content related to your brand.
In conclusion
Any serious business knows content moderation is vital. It attracts the kind of customers you need and also helps keep existing customers. Other advantages include understanding your users, increasing traffic and protecting the image of your brand.
