Social media services have practically changed everything, be it the new promotional practices or the integration of customer service. Communicating with existing and potential customers via social media is now a crucial part of any business.
But it’s also necessary to make sure that social media doesn’t cause any sort of inconvenience to your business. Nowadays, all it takes is one controversial post to cause severe damage to your business’s reputation. And that’s why content moderation is so important.
For those wondering, content moderation is the activity of reviewing and filtering user-uploaded content related to your profile. It not only ensures zero inappropriate content making it in the public eye but also helps you establish a strong brand image.
In this guide, we will walk you through the process of social media content moderation, including tips for seamlessly integrating it into your overall marketing practice.
The Diversity in Social Media Content
Social media content can be used for several aspects of your business. You can utilize it for either only advertisements and promotions or a customer support channel to deal with user feedback and queries. It opens an opportunity for your business to inform and connect to existing and potential customers. There’s a wide variety of content shared through social media, with most of it uploaded by the customers themselves.
User-generated content (UGC) is a type of content created and uploaded by users. It’s limited to not only texts but also images, videos, detailed reviews, etc. This sort of content is usually posted on social media, allowing businesses to use it on their marketing materials (e.g., ads, newsletters).
UGC can be considered as free marketing since it comes directly from the customers. It makes your business look more authentic and trustworthy among new customers. Let’s take a deep dive into the different types of user-generated content.
Reviews
According to recent surveys, the majority of potential consumers decide to interact with a business based on the user-uploaded reviews online.
Customer reviews are typically found on a business’s official Facebook or Twitter page or subreddit. Reviews on third-party websites like Google and Trustpilot also improve discoverability on search engine results.
Furthermore, it aids to social media promotional campaigns, such as advertisement banners showing customer reviews praising the features of a product or giving 5-star ratings. We recommend actively monitoring mentions so that you can repost or retweet positive feedback about your business.
Interactions
You can interact with customers through social media in several ways, be it an engaging post, chatbot, or comment from your customer support team.
Such interactions will be typically related to your business, such as the address, hours of opening, offerings, prices, or queries regarding issues with their purchases. Swift responses and follow-ups to customer comments and questions require a collaborative effort from both marketing and customer service.
Be sure to always respond to customers regardless of the message or tone and take some of these tips into account:
- Try to give a timely, personalized response
- Shift to private messages when necessary
- Keep your customers informed with updates about a particular product
- Keep links to F.A.Qs ready
Contests & Sweepstakes
Contests, giveaways, or sweepstakes are an effective way to build an organic following and increase the count of user-generated content related to your business. Most brands use the following strategies to incentivize customers to participate in a contest/giveaway:
- Following the official account
- Sharing or retweeting the post
- Leaving a comment/reply with a brand-specific hashtag
- Tagging a friend(s) in a post
- Completing a particular challenge
Referral programs
Referral programs or affiliate promotions are a great way to boost engagements on social media. In exchange for a commission on every successful referral, affiliate marketers can promote your business on social media using referral links to the official Facebook page or Twitter profile, or website.
Moderating Social Media Content
Moderation plays an important role in a marketing campaign, given the types of content that can be posted by social media users. Here’s how you can set up social media content moderation with a few things in mind:
1. Set a guideline for user-uploaded content
Start with working on a guideline that should highlight what user-generated content will be approved, and what will be rejected.
It includes inappropriate and racy content, such as vulgar, offensive messages and photos/videos containing violence or nudity. Content that wrongly incites misinformation or involves bullying your brand should also be deemed inappropriate.
Spam content is also a major problem that will hurt your business’s legitimacy in the longer run, so make sure to set rules about posting spam.
It’s worth noting that negative reviews and complaints aren’t inappropriate by any means. Hiding them will only make things worse. Instead, try to take them as feedback of greater importance and work on rectifying the issues.
2. Put a limit on submissions
Although the majority of accounts on social media are real people, there’s always a possibility to get targeted by fake/troll accounts. To avoid such occurrences, we advise you to put certain limits and requirements for who can share content.
Every social media service allows for setting up limitations on tagging and replies. For instance, there’s an option on Instagram to block tags and mentions in user-uploaded content, such as comments, stories, and captions.
Alternatively, approve content that only comes from your existing customers and not from those who have never interacted with your business or services. However, it will result in an overall slower organic growth.
3. Control the flow of content
Besides the initial guidelines, you can also give the social media followers an idea of what type of content you will want to see — something that plays well with your brand image. It includes catchy taglines, hashtags, and content that isn’t too divisive. Additionally, you can provide a descriptive guideline to the following, explicitly stating the content you want them to create and share.
For example, when using a specific hashtag, make sure to focus on capitalization and length. A clear and concise hashtag that’s easier to associate with your business will help grow awareness among the public.
4. Review the submissions
Once users begin to submit content, moderators assigned to your business’s social media accounts can review and approve the posts beforehand or monitor them in real-time. They should actively follow user reports for particular posts and take necessary actions.
If you lack the resources or the time to go through all the user-generated posts one by one, consider taking help from social media content moderator services like Chekkee. They not only understand how to efficiently monitor user-submitted content and build a positive social media presence and but also attract the right audience and help build towards an enticing customer experience.
