collaborative post | In the earlier days, social media was mainly used to connect with people, express opinions, and let the world know what you’re doing in real-time. As online platforms continue to evolve, companies and businesses worldwide have begun using social media to promote their brand and services. However, this move comes with a bigger challenge—content moderation.
Brand reputation is crucial for any business. With content moderation services, social media posts, comments, images, and videos can be filtered to ensure a healthy online environment for consumers. When potential customers feel safe engaging with a brand, this can increase sales.
However, content moderation on social media is no easy feat. Even though it comes with several challenges, it’s possible with the right tools and approach.
How Does Content Moderation Work?
Content moderation refers to monitoring and reviewing user-generated content (UGC) on social media platforms to ensure they adhere to an online community’s policies and guidelines.
This is usually done by social media content moderators. In social media moderation, content on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn are screened to maintain positive online engagement and help achieve your brand’s goals.
What Does A Social Media Content Moderator Do?
A content moderator for social media is responsible for monitoring any form of online post submitted by a user on a social media platform. After screening, they must decide if the content should be flagged as inappropriate for their target audience. They may block or remove content that violates rules and regulations.
Due to the nature of their job, social media content moderators are often exposed to disturbing or graphic content. In an article published by the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, there is growing evidence that content moderators are more at risk of developing mental health issues, with some exhibiting symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
With the budding popularity of artificial intelligence (AI), social media moderation services are being automated for enhanced efficiency, which can reduce the burden for human moderators.
What Are The Challenges in Content Moderation In Social Media?
Content moderation is an enormously challenging task for any company or online business. Promoting free speech while building customer trust is truly a balancing act.
Some of the common challenges in content moderation in social media are highlighted below:
1. Scale and Speed
Probably the biggest concern in social media content moderation is the large volumes of content. Going through all the users’ comments and posts can be extremely taxing for social media content moderators.
It’s also possible that some inappropriate content may not be filtered, which could potentially damage the brand. Consider the fact that Facebook users alone upload 350 million photos each day. Automated content moderation services are how companies handle anything close to this amount of data.
2. Content Diversity
Aside from the constant stream of posts being shared in real-time, social media content moderators need to deal with different forms of content, including text, images, and videos. They must be adept at understanding diverse types of content to maintain consistency in the moderation process.
3. Context
A social media moderator must have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the post’s social, political, and cultural context. This can be difficult if the moderator is unfamiliar with such nuances.
If AI is used for moderation, it can also be challenging to interpret harmful or offensive content due to potential bias in the dataset used to train the system.
4. Adapting to Changing Regulations and Policies
Regulations and policies in social media are constantly evolving, and it’s every company’s responsibility to stay up-to-date with these changes. Based on their location, they may have to follow certain jurisdictions. They must align their current content moderation practices to these policies to avoid fines and legal issues.
How Can Effective Content Moderation Be Achieved?
Whether running an online business or managing a company’s social media account, effective content moderation can be achieved in several ways. To mitigate the challenges that come with moderating online content, here are some key solutions:
1. Select the appropriate content moderation services
You must know your target audience to help you understand what content moderation services are suited for your brand. What type of content do they usually share? How frequently do they engage in your platform?
Once you determine this, you can choose the right moderation setup tailored to your needs.
2. Establish clear community rules and guidelines
Creating a clear community guideline for users is crucial for setting expectations on how they should interact with your brand online. This guideline should outline what types of content are allowed and prohibited on your page or website. It should also state that negative behavior may result in consequences such as content removal or account banning.
3. Hire a diverse team of human moderators
To prevent contextual ambiguity and misunderstanding, allocate resources to hire and train content moderators from different locations. Through training, you can further develop their understanding of cultural norms, which can help them make better content moderation decisions.
4. Consider AI content moderation
If you handle overwhelming content daily, consider AI-powered social media content moderation services. Automated systems can easily detect spam and flag potentially harmful content faster. Though it’s not perfect, it’s a perfect complement to manual moderation
The Future of Content Moderation
When navigating the challenges in content moderation, it’s necessary to consider technological innovations like AI tools while still placing importance on human expertise.
Combining these aspects allows the moderating process to be fast-tracked without risking unchecked or unfiltered content. With the help of human moderators, context-specific cases can be easily solved.
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, businesses must update their current policies and guidelines for content moderation to ensure the success of their brand in the long run.
