In an age where online presence plays a significant factor in conversion and sales, businesses must strive to keep their reputation untainted. This means keeping their digital content informative, relevant, and safe for their target audience across all their online channels.
Throughout the years, many companies have invested in content moderation services to help achieve their business goals. By weeding out harmful content on their websites, social media pages, forums, and other platforms, businesses have boosted their search rankings and put their brands into the limelight.
But how does content moderation work? And what industries need content moderation to thrive? Let’s discover all these and more in this blog!
Table of Contents
What Is Content Moderation?
Content moderation is not a new practice. Since the dawn of the internet, content moderation efforts have been made by communities and site managers to keep digital spaces safe.
Over the years, the practice has evolved to become a more sophisticated process. Human moderators are usually in charge of reviewing all user-generated content (UGC) and making sure they comply with the platform’s rules and guidelines. If non-compliant posts are identified, they make the final decision to flag or remove the content from the platform.
As the internet evolved, manual moderation became limited to small-scale content processing. With that, automated moderation through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning was developed to optimize and improve how content moderation works. By training algorithms, AI systems can quickly detect harmful content in different formats and at an incredible speed.
Types of Content Moderation Services
A content moderation company can offer several types of content moderation services, depending on the specific needs of a business:
Text and Chat Moderation
Text is the primary mode of communication online. While it’s essential for business to be discussed, some text posts might not align with the brand’s values and goals.
Some may write negative reviews with false accusations and information about the company. Others may simply start a thread of unhinged arguments involving profanity, sarcasm, slurs, and offensive speech.
Text and chat moderation services screen all comments and messages that can harm a brand and facilitate healthy interactions on public chats and forums.
Image and Video Moderation
Image and video moderation services are geared towards regulating visual content that may contain inappropriate imagery, like violence, nudity, self-harm, and suicide, among others.
By filtering unwanted imagery on business platforms, customers can have better experiences and ensure that the company prioritizes their welfare.
Social Media Moderation
Social media moderation services should be a priority for businesses that mainly showcase their products and services on social media. This ensures all UGC adheres to specific platform regulations enforced by Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and other social media apps.
Profile Moderation
Some businesses, particularly e-commerce websites, may require users to create an account to purchase products. Profile moderation should be applied to ensure that all profiles created are real, preventing fraud or identity theft online.
UGC Moderation
UGC moderation is the go-to solution if your business runs on multiple online platforms, including websites, social media apps, and other channels. It monitors and filters all types of UGC in various formats, offering optimum content management.
5 Reasons Why Businesses Need Content Moderation
Content moderation is not just an added expense; it is an essential investment for any business that wants to elevate its online reputation.
Here are the main reasons why businesses need content moderation:
1. Brand Protection
One of the top reasons businesses choose content moderation services is their inherent ability to protect their brand from the unwanted consequences of harmful content.
Due to the influx of UGC daily, it’s impossible to ensure that all of them are compliant and safe for consumers. If left unchecked, they can get the wrong impression of your brand and assume that you simply don’t care enough to keep your platforms free from trolls, spam, and inappropriate content.
Content moderation sees to it that your online business platforms are reputable and trustworthy to purchase from or interact with.
2. Legal Compliance
Complying with existing laws and policies is crucial when running a business. Through content moderation, businesses can adhere to industry-specific regulations and legal requirements. They can prevent legal issues concerning data privacy, copyright infringement, cyberbullying, harassment, abuse, or illicit content can be prevented.
Partnering with a content moderation company can help avoid fines, lawsuits, and reputational damage caused by non-compliance issues.
3. Enhanced User Experience
Boosting user experience is tied to higher engagement and sales. Fostering a safe online environment encourages users to interact and create communities to support your brand.
One of the main benefits of content moderation for users is making them feel more comfortable and safe to engage with a brand. If their platforms only tolerate respectful user behavior and content, businesses are more likely to gain the trust of their target market.
4. Better Understanding of Customer Base
Content moderation also provides businesses with an opportunity to better understand their customer base. During campaigns, moderators can leverage increased engagement by tagging content that could reveal people’s thoughts, opinions, and attitudes toward your brand.
With this information, businesses can take actionable steps to improve their operations and customer satisfaction.
5. Scalability
Content moderation is beneficial during UGC campaigns. For example, if your business is running a contest requiring video submissions from users, you’ll need a reliable method of verifying and reviewing each content. Content moderation services can help scale your campaigns, eliminating the need to hire extra staff.
Securing Your Brand’s Future Through Content Moderation
Content moderation is essential for businesses to maintain a positive brand reputation, comply with legal requirements, and enhance user experience. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the role of content moderation will become even more critical in safeguarding online communities.
Investing in robust content moderation services not only protects your business but also fosters a safe and engaging environment for your audience. Embrace content moderation now to secure your business’s future and build lasting trust with your customers.
