Ways of Content Moderation that Could Help a Brand Manager

My Personal Presence

As a brand manager for several brands, you can help your organization by keeping the content in these four key areas on point:

• Your presence: Check through your social media to ensure that there’s nothing inappropriate. This is especially important if you’re mentioned on any company-run channels.
• Company-generated channels (like Facebook pages and Twitter feeds): This is where customers will see most of your messages, so it’s vital to keep the content professional.
• Homepage/blog posts: This is what passersby see first when they visit your site, and it’s where you should showcase new product releases and other updates.
• Comments sections: You want customers to feel comfortable talking about your products and services with each other online, but be ready to moderate negative comments or foul language when they arise.

For a Particular Brand

There are four big categories of brands, and they all have very different aims.

On Social Media

In a world where a misjudged social media post can bring down an entire company, it’s important to think critically about what kind of content you’re putting out on the internet. When you’re managing social media for your brand, there are a few elements that you should keep in mind when deciding what to post:

Taste Everything Posted

• Try to respond directly to the user.
• Modify or delete a posting if it’s incorrect or inappropriate, as long as you have permission from the author or a manager.
• If someone is asking a lot of questions about your product, refer them to an FAQ section.
• Explain why you’re making changes. If a customer is unhappy with your content and asks you to change it, make the change and let the user know that you did so.

Moderation

The key to all of this is moderation. While you want to create a vibrant community, you need to make sure that your users don’t descend into anarchy. That means breaking up fights, directing arguments towards constructive actions, and keeping the conversation on-brand. Don’t be afraid to step in and delete content that’s irrelevant or inappropriate for your audience—after all, it is your forum.

It also means that as a brand manager, you shouldn’t be afraid to take an active hand in the content moderation process. You may have a designated moderator who handles most of the day-to-day work, but you should be aware of what’s happening on the thread at all times and step in when necessary. Remember: while online communities can help with your brand engagement strategy, they’re ultimately extensions of your company—so just like any other part of your business model, they should be closely monitored and managed by someone who knows what they’re doing.

When I Look at the Content

When I look at the content, I try to see what is not true or untruthful. When it comes to content moderation, we have to make sure that our facts are straight and truthful. If we post something and it turns out to be untrue or untruthful, then the brand can lose credibility, so we must check our facts before posting anything online.

I also look at the content to make sure that it’s not offensive or inappropriate for our audience. Since we’re a B2-B company, I want to make sure that our content doesn’t contain profanity or offensive language because it can turn away potential clients who may want to do business with us if they think we’re unprofessional. Our goal is always to maintain a professional image for people to take us seriously as a company and trust us with their money.

That is Posted

This process isn’t the only way to moderate content, but it does provide a concrete series of steps that you can take to make sure that any message you post is appropriate. If you choose this approach, it’s important not to skimp on time spent evaluating each post at each step of the process—otherwise, you may be wasting your time by posting messages that don’t meet your standards or inadvertently broadcasting something offensive.

As a brand manager for a large media organization like Buzzfeed, it’s essential for me to consistently monitor and moderate our posts to ensure that we are maintaining high-quality standards and providing worthwhile information for our readers. We can start this process by making sure the facts in an article are accurate and up-to-date. Before any post goes up on our website, I ask my team to thoroughly research all of its source material so that they can verify whether or not they are correct. Next, I review the post myself, ensuring that what is written makes sense grammatically and factually. Then I ask my team members to look over their work one more time before we share anything with the public—we want readers to feel confident in our material!

I also need them (and anyone else who helps out) – keep an eye out for things like spelling errors or awkward phrasing– these might mean that there’s something incorrect about what is being said…

Quickly Scan What’s There

• I quickly scan what’s there,
• Then I carefully read through the content and make sure it makes sense.
• Then I check to see if it is legally appropriate. It must comply with any applicable laws.
• Finally, I look over everything again and ask myself if it is credible and trustworthy.

Make Sure it’s Correct

It’s important to make sure that your brand’s tone is always consistent, so try to be aware of what the general sentiment of your content is and keep it in line with the rest of your brand’s messaging.

Most importantly, read it carefully, and make sure that it doesn’t offend anyone or convey a message you’re not comfortable with. You should also check that it hasn’t been plagiarized from another site or piece of content in any way (you can use a tool like Copy scape for this).

There are Questions or Comments

If there are questions that are asked, answer them as soon as possible. If there are comments that are given, reply to them on time. If there is an issue with the content, try to address it.

Look at Them First

Here’s what I do: when someone posts something on our page, I look at it first. If it has points of interest, I try to reply to them quickly. If they have an issue with the content, I try to answer it as best as I can.

They Have Points of Interest

If a brand manager receives a submission that has an interesting point of interest, they’ll likely want to explore it further. For example, let’s say a brand manager is working with the travel rewards blog we saw earlier in this document. The blog post covers ways that customers can earn and redeem travel rewards points to go on the exotic vacations they’ve always dreamed of. A user comments on this post saying that they would love to go on one of these vacations but don’t have the money or time for it. They believe that winning a large lottery prize is the only way they could ever afford to do something like this and ask what games are easiest for winning these prizes.

This comment could lead to a discussion about whether or not playing the lottery is worth it (which you could easily find articles about online), and there might be some tangents about which lottery games have better odds than others (e.g., Powerball vs. scratch-off tickets). You could also share personal anecdotes about your own experiences in lotteries, or even comment on whether financial planning should be focused more on long-term investments or short-term wins like lotto jackpots.

Reply to Them Quickly

The speed of my replies varies depending on the severity of the problem and how quickly it needs to be resolved. If it’s a customer who is just tweeting his or her annoyance, I won’t reply quite as quickly as if there was a customer with an urgent need for help (like, for example, if there was an issue with their order).

But no matter what the issue, I try to get back to that person within 1-3 minutes—no more than 5 unless the situation warrants it. According to Sprout Social research, “50% of customers expect a response within 15 minutes,” with 53% of customers saying they’ll wait 24 hours before giving up on someone entirely.

So once you’ve determined how fast you can respond, consider what you will say.

They Have an issue With Content

If the customer has an issue with your content, prioritize the resolution of the issue. Make sure you understand the problem before offering a solution. Be polite and professional in your communication with them. Try to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Try to Answer it as Best as I Can

• If I feel they’re asking the wrong question, I try to answer it as best as I can. For example, if someone asks “What’s your favorite type of movie?” and I’m like, “that’s not a good question,” I’ll go ahead and say, “My favorite type of movie is this kind…” Then later on in the conversation, I’ll inform them that their question wasn’t very constructive and suggest that they could ask something more useful.