Living in an age where the internet is no more a luxury but a necessity, we have been exposed to a deluge of online content. While this has opened new avenues for content creation, the onus for moderating this content lies in the hands of platform owners.  

Amidst this, user-generated content such as reviews, recommendations, comments, forum discussions, videos, photos or social media posts has become one of the most powerful tools in enhancing brand recognition and building customer trust. It plays a highly influential role in the decision-making process of customers, especially when they are shopping online. According to a survey conducted by Tint:

• Almost half of the customers (48%) claim that user-generated content is a great method for them to discover new products.     

• A significant 70% of consumers will consider UGC reviews or ratings before making a purchasing decision. At least 41% of them will read four to seven UGC reviews to gain important insights on a product. 

• A staggering 93% of customers believe user-generated content is very helpful when making a purchasing decision.

This makes it more critical than ever to monitor the user-generated content to protect brand reputation and make way for the right information. However, the utilization of user-generated content comes with a set of risks in terms of how it can influence the users’ perspective of your brand. You never know how consumers are going to react to your product/service and portray your brand. Further, audiences are often at the risk of being exposed to abusive or offensive content, hate speeches or any other kind of violent, disturbing content. In such cases, it is crucial to check whether the user-generated content promotes healthy consumption, or encourages malicious, harmful content. This brings in content moderation services. 

First things first, 

The Basics Of Content Moderation

We already know by now that businesses need to protect their website from any kind of harmful content. Thus, any content that is submitted to a website must go through a screening process, which is called the moderation process. In simple words, it involves examining whether the content meets companies’ guidelines and can be used for the website. With a predefined criteria, it is decided whether to use certain submissions or not. 

Outsourcing content moderation services to a professional content moderation company helps in getting rid of any harmful or malicious content while increasing the number of active users on your platform, giving you an insight into what your customers are thinking, assisting in developing marketing campaigns, and several other benefits.

Significance Of Content Moderation Services

Protects the Website and Its Users 

User-generated content can be in several forms ranging from photos on social media, comments on blogs/forums or other internet trolls. However, sometimes it can violate the website’s guidelines, thus hampering the brand’s reputation. Here, content moderation services reduce the risk by keeping a close check on offensive content while creating a more positive environment for users to interact. 

Further, content moderation services help in understanding users through pattern recognition. This is done by tracking UGC to understand the opinions of users about a brand. For instance,  by studying online comments, one can figure out the usage of a particular product. 

Increases Website Traffic

User-generated content such as product reviews and social media comments increase result in high traffic and conversion rates. It helps in creating additional content for the website and further increases user engagement. 

Let’s consider a product review on your social media handle. With social media content moderation, you can remove any negative comments and create a more interactive experience for the users. A positive experience, in turn, will lead to more engagement, as users will constantly leave good feedback. As more and more people engage with the content, search engines will view the website as more relevant. Thus, a good content moderation system can result in high traffic for your website. 

Improvise Customer Perception of Your Brand

Content moderation isn’t just limited to checking whether users follow set guidelines while uploading content online but also provides resources for better social listening as well as an understanding of how your brand is being perceived. Nowadays, people are open to sharing their feelings, thoughts, and experiences on the internet. Content moderation scans diverse online platforms and helps you understand the views of your customers, what they think about your products/service or brand in general. By being aware of the discussions that surround your brand, you can analyse the attributes and factors that distinguish your products/services from your competitors. 

Improved Buying Behavior

With the advancement of technology, traditional digital marketing techniques like pop-ups, auto-play videos, banners, etc. no longer work as consumers feel annoyed by them. Also, most people use ad blockers to find a way around them. This calls for electronic word-of-mouth or eWOM technique that involves content creation and circulation by internet users – reviews or ratings being the finest example. Since the majority of the consumers look for product reviews and ratings before buying a particular product, positive eWOM through content moderation can have a great impact on the brand, as consumers trust the opinions of other consumers, which , in turn, influences the purchasing behavior. 

In a similar way, negative eWOM can negatively impact the purchasing behavior of customers. Content moderation is therefore important to help your online business optimize negative eWOM and minimize the harm that it does to your brand. 

Scale Your Marketing Campaigns 

The main purpose of user-generated content is to boost a business’s online marketing campaigns. The more user-generated content available on your platform, the more are your chances of being found online. Consider online review websites, for instance. Such websites allow brands to get closer to customers without having to push much. With the help of content moderation solutions, the content provided by users (on the website) can boost the chances of being discovered by search engines. The more user-generated content, the higher are the chances of being ranked on search result pages.

What’s Next?

Considering today’s digital era where everyone is free to express themselves online, a single tweet or a Facebook comment with unauthorized use of your brand’s name can turn things upside down for you. It can simply tarnish your brand reputation that you have taken years to build. 

Incorporate moderation strategies today by outsourcing content moderation services to a trusted content moderation company. SunTec.AI offers content moderation services across industries ranging from social networking sites, educational forums, news platforms, blogs to e-commerce websites, dating sites and gaming portals by moderating a variety of content to keep your platforms safe and secure.