Internet comments can bring out both the best and the worst of what people have to offer. In a well-moderated positive community, comments will entertain, inform and inspire others. People will exchange ideas and tips on how to use your products more efficiently. But if your community isn’t well-moderated, it can quickly turn toxic. While this may not seem like a huge issue – it’s only a forum after all – this toxicity becomes a reflection of your brand and the people who use your brand. Think of it like you’re inviting someone over to your house for a party. If everyone at your party is mean then that person won’t want to come back again and he’ll remember the negative experience and associate it with you. Having a poorly moderated or unmoderated community leaves the same feeling.
Moderating Your Content
By moderating your community, whether it’s through forums or chat rooms, you’re keeping your community clean and attractive to all users. You’re ensuring that when they have a question, they’ll turn to the community rather than struggling, giving up and leaving a negative review. You’re also preventing any legal problems that may crop up by a troll who posts objectionable content as you’ll be able to remove that content before it becomes a problem. Finally, people will associate your community as a positive place – and that association will rub off on your brand in general.
The Struggle to Moderate
Some businesses prefer to try to moderate their community with in-house employees. After all, who would know your brand better than someone inside the same office? The problem is that moderation is usually tacked on as an additional task. Unfortunately, forum moderation is going to be low priority for any employee and can get neglected completely during crunch time. Secondly, without previous experience, it can be incredibly difficult to moderate a community without negatively impacting it. Being too strict or too relaxed both lead to their own separate set of problems.
Outsourcing Your Content Moderation Team
If you choose to outsource your content moderation team, you’ll be set up with a full time set of moderators that are working for you. If you work with a business like Collective Solution, they’ll learn what you want your brand’s community to be like and they’ll apply what they’ve learned. Quality moderators can spark interest in your business, actively engage your fans and make your forums and chatrooms a place where people want to be. As you would expect, this improves brand loyalty – who wouldn’t want to be friends with the person who has the best house parties?
Hiring a Content Moderation Team
Once you’ve decided to hire a content moderation team, you need to know what you’re looking for. First, only hire a team that has experience moderating content. As mentioned previously, a poor moderator may negatively impact a community and its users. You can’t risk that. Secondly, make sure you hire a team that is personally invested in both understanding your brand and creating the type of community you want to build. Finally, look for experts that understand how important moderation is. These people have the ability to grow your community by actively engaging your user base. This helps your business retain old customers as well as attract and invest new ones.
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