Social media is filled with millions of people all looking forward to freely sharing their opinions on all social media platforms. As social media grows, so does the amount of people looking to say and post negative things. Whether it is towards your brand, looks, interests, or a product, people will always have something negative to say.
What is Social Media Content Moderation?
Social media content moderation is the process of controlling and filtering out what is viewed as sensitive, harmful, or inappropriate. Any form of offensive user-generated content (text, videos, images, reviews, blogs, etc..) uploaded on social media accounts often requires action. Whether it is the removal of the content, reporting, or simply responding.
Why is it important?
Social media moderation is essentially important to create a safe pace. Particularly when it comes to businesses, any objectionable content can potentially harm a business and drive away customers. Social media plays a big part in business growth, so monitoring and maintaining standards are crucial. Social media content moderation can help increase engagement with customers and it also adds a sense of safety.
Tips to Moderate Social Media Comments:
- Establish Clear Community Guidelines – First and foremost, it is important to establish clear and straightforward rules regarding your community. Your rules may determine the type of audience involved in your community. For instance, when scrolling on Instagram you’ll notice that some pages allow vulgar language and pictures to be posted. Other pages may allow vulgar images to be posted, but they’ll block out certain parts of the image or bleep out curse words. On the other hand, other pages may not allow anything of the sort. Knowing what type of followers, you’d like to attract, and your brand personality will determine the baseline for the type of rules that need to be in place.
- Make Profile Private – A quick and simple way to moderate comments is to make the profile private. This way, you have complete control over who you allow to view your content and who can interact with your social media. It won’t eliminate harmful comments entirely, but it may lessen them.
- Don’t Allow Anonymous Comments – Many times (mostly on Instagram) you’ll see brands or social media influencers who only allow certain people, pages, or other brands to comment under their posts. Although this may decrease engagement, it’ll be beneficial to the brand in the long run.
- Delete inappropriate Comments Fast – The last thing a brand wants is someone tarnishing its image. It is important to delete harmful comments as quickly as possible.
- Pre-Moderation – Pre-moderation is the act of having content undergo formal guideline checks before being able to be uploaded. When a user goes to post on social media, they will have to wait until the content is vetted and to be fully uploaded. Pre-moderation allows for greater control over the content before it is even published, and it makes it easier to avoid any potentially inappropriate comments.
Constructive Criticism vs. Inappropriate Comments
Lastly, it is very important to differentiate between negative comments and constructive criticism. Deleting all comments that you simply may just disagree with can send the wrong message to other customers. You want people to know that their opinions are welcomed and that they can speak freely. When running across a comment that you may feel is inappropriate, you can engage respectfully, acknowledge their opinion, and proceed to see if there’s any way you can help change their minds.
Teaching Social Media 