Moderating Your Online Community

Best Practices Guidebook

Presented by Mzinga, Inc. April 2012

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What is Moderation?
Actively monitoring & facilitating online content and conversations

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How Does Moderation Work?

Forum messages Blog comments Photos Video & audio Live chat & more.

Applies to any User-Generated Content (UGC)

Ensures a safe, welcoming environment

Observe daily interactions

Encourage participation, proactively seeding content Act on abusive behavior, remove posts & flag members accounts

Defines key objectives & measure progress

Moderation strategies, usage guidelines, trend reports Suggest areas of improvements & reporting on the concerns of your community

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The Value of Community Moderation

Moderation will assist in building a safe & inviting environment
Reinforces commitment
Addressing objectionable content shows a vested interest in the community

Reduces risks
Maintain brand compliance & credibility Limits liabilities & infringements

Additional customer service function

Answering questions with a trusted voice Facilitating and addressing escalations

Measure success
Define key objectives and measure progress Assess moderation strategies, usage guidelines, trends and key issues

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Now, lets review some common best practices

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Best Practices: Assess the Risks

Identify risks to brand image
Know your brands weak points and know how youll respond if issues arise Stay on top of developments about your brand and industry

Be swift in your responses. Use external sources to predict problem spots

Identify potential liabilities

Allow anyone to read content, but require log-in to participate Be aware of who your community members are Assists in member management

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Best Practices: Membership

Publish terms of use & community rules
Members should agree to terms during registration Terms of Use are a contract what is and is not allowed

Community rules should be easy to read and understand

Require registration when possible

Copyrights Libel

Corporate secrets (insider trading)

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Next, lets talk about defining your moderation strategy

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3 Big Questions

Pre or Post Moderation?

Automated or Manual?

Internal or Outsourced?

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Pre-Moderation
Submitted content reviewed BEFORE being posted Advantages No risk of inappropriate content Disadvantages Does not facilitate interactions or communication

Pre-Moderation Queue

Online Community

Higher investment required

Commonly used for sensitive subject matter, such as health issues and childrens sites
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Post-Moderation
Submitted content posted WITHOUT advance review Advantages Increases interactivity & liveliness Better user experience Lower investment required Disadvantages Risk of inappropriate content

Online Community

Post-Moderation Queue

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What about the tools? Automated vs. Manual Moderation

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Automated Moderation: Filters & Watch Words

Filters
Define list of unacceptable words

Determine how you want to apply constraints around member use

Watch Words
Define additional terms that need watching Determine how you want to be alerted to posted watch words

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Automated Moderation: Crowdsource It

Encourage and leverage your community members to assist Enable violation reporting on all types of UGC Only remove content that is in violation Provide clearly visible methods for submitting violations Allow guest reporting, or force members to log in

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Manual Moderation: Content Management

Allow members to build their community They will take ownership if you provide the tools and empower them If the subject matter is relevant, it will grow organically

Allow open feedback and discussion Be prepared for criticism and negative comments Allow champions or evangelists to defend your actions/project

Expect competitor conversations Easiest and quickest way to gain insight into your community and business Direct feedback

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Manual Moderation: Member Management

Reach out offline Try to come to an understanding on issues

Talk to members

Empower & restrict members

Select brand champions Remove privileges if needed

Ban members

Member name banning IP banning

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Internal vs. Outsourced Moderation

Emotions can interfere with rational decisions Free up internal staff time for program development

Reduces the overtone that big-brother is always watching

Objectively observe & take appropriate action

Why hire a 3rd party to enforce rules & policies?

You can be viewed as an active participant rather than as the enforcer

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Additional Resources
Mzinga eBook Moderation: Protecting Your Brand in a Social World
Interactive and social media sites have become integral to the online presence of more and more organizations. Ultimately, the organizations and communities that meet with success are those that have invested in planning and executing a community strategy planincluding moderation as a core component.

Additional questions?

Contact us LearnMore@mzinga.com

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Thank you!

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