Mzingawp Moderation

8/3/2019 Mzingawp Moderation

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2011 Mzinga, Inc. 1

Moderation: Protecting Your Brand in a Social World

Moderation:

Protecting Your Brand in a Social World.

Mzinga eBook

Ma y 2011

Contac t informa tion:

Mzinga

T: 888.MZINGA.8

E: [email protected]

W: ww w.mzinga .com

T: @mzinga

Developed in collaboration with


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Interactive and social media sites have become integral to the online presence of more and more

organizations as they work to keep their various constituents engaged with them and each other.Businesses find themselves competing with busy schedules, competitors, and personal interests as

they try to capture and retain their constituents time and participation.

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. Too often, moderation is mistakenly defined as simply policing sites to remove

profanity and other unacceptable content. Instead, moderation canand should bemuch more.

Moderations role in community solutions includes caring for both content and members

externally and supporting the community strategy and goals internally.

Why Does Moderation Matter?

Moderation may sound more like a luxury than a necessity, but the bottom line is that you need to

protect your brand identity and your image. Any time your company is associated with content

that is generated and posted without your explicit control, you are exposing yourself to some

amount of risk. Potential issues include libel, slander, copyright infringement, and release of

private information.

You also want to promote a positive image of your organization and your site. And ultimately, you

want to gain something from the siteinsights, revenue, visibility, connections, etc.all of which

are results that require some encouragement and direction on your part.

Defining Your Moderation Strategy

To effectively define the role of your moderators, you first need to establish a clear moderation

strategy. But even before you can identify your moderation strategy, you must have a clear vision

and execution plan for your overall online community strategy.

What is an online community?

A community by definition is a social

group whose members are located in a

specific place, share the same rules, and

share common interests that they see as

distinct in some way within society as awhole. When we bring people together

online to share information, thoughts,

and ideas, we are creating a virtual

communitywhich needs the same

constructs in order to function properly.


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Community Strategy

Behind every community, its essential to have a strategy with clear and measurable goals and

objectives. When you create or review your strategy, try to involve all of the stakeholders in the

project, which will likely include a cross-section of departments or teams. Your strategy should

encompass how the community fits into the bigger picture of all of your companys

communications and content. It should also include how various properties and entities will

interact.

Once youve defined your communitys overall goals and objectives, you can develop a moderationstrategy that will best support your needs. Examples include:

The types of participation that youd like to foster within your community

(i.e., survey responses, text posts, dynamic exchanges, video uploads, etc.)

The content and topics that matter most to your audience, and should therefore be

promoted

Anticipated or potential violations, and the appropriate action plans for addressing such

violations (Examples: posting copyrighted material, engaging in aggressive personal attacks,

marketing competing products)

The importance of immediacy of content posts and real-time interactions

What level of risk you are willing to take

The escalation paths for unforeseen or emergency situations

The amount of coverage you need (24x7, peak traffic hours, daily) based on all of the above

Community Strategy

TipBe sure that you review your community

and moderation strategies periodically

and update your goals and objectives as

your needs change.

Best PracticeDo not treat your online community as a

stand-alone entity. It should be part of

your organizations larger

communication/content plan.


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Technology Considerations

Your moderation strategy and technology selection will have an impact upon each other. If youare in the planning stages of your community, take the time to define your requirements, research

your options, and make the investment in a community platform and toolset that will meet your

needs.

You should include your legal team and other stakeholders in the requirements-gathering phase to

ensure that their needs are identified and then met. Your solution should be stable and flexible

enough to grow and change with you over time, and it should provide reporting that aligns with

your communitys goals and objectives.

When making your technology selection, consider:

Ease of user interface for both your team and your members

What can be automated (like word filters and alert flags)

Member management flexibility

Whether you can manage member privileges (banning, probationary measures, etc.)

Reporting and tracking functionality

Solution scalability

Flexibility to integrate with other internal systems & tools

Hosting, security, and system requirementsMaintenance costs

Whether this solution is a good fit with your community & moderation strategies

If your technology decision has been made prior to the creation of your moderation strategy, you

can work to match your strategy to the toolset that existsor you can look for supplemental tools

or services to help you bridge any gaps.

Technology Considerations

TipThe best decision-makers will have an

understanding of both the people and

the technology sides of your endeavor.

TipBe realistic about the bandwidth of the

team in charge of the community and

choose tools that can help automate

certain processes, like profanity filters

and activity reports.

Best PracticeSet up (and review!) standard activity

reports for your community.


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Establishing Ground Rules

With your strategy and technology in place, you can create the terms of use and outline the

conduct guidelines for your participants. Your Terms and Conditions are a legal agreement

between the community owners (you) and the members and serve to protect everyones rights.

Since this is a legal document, a lawyer should create or, at minimum, review your terms and

conditions. This documentation is the foundation and reference for your moderation team.

Make your Terms and Conditions simple, clear, and accessible.

Your Terms and Conditions and Code of Conduct should protect you and your communitymembers. Take the time to create a solid document that really helps people to understand what

their responsibilities and limitations are as participants. Make sure you specify the type of

community atmosphere you are creating and outline your guidelines. Be thorough, but keep your

terms simple and clear so that members will actually read and understand them. And remember

your moderator has to enforce your terms. Give your moderator s a solid foundation from which to

work. Be sure to include:

Content Ownership

Liability limits

Indemnification

Having the legal language in place in your Terms and Conditions is important to minimize liability,

but it is also important to provide a Code of Conduct document that provides your guidelines in

plain English.

You may also find it helpful to integrate acceptance of your Term and Conditions and Code of

Conduct into the overall registration process. This can be accomplished by requiring members to

select checkboxes indicating that they have read both documents when they register their

accounts.

Ground Rules

TipIt can be useful to create a Code of

Conduct to separate the legalese

typically required in Terms and

Conditions from the information on how

you expect members to handle

themselves. Posting an FAQ is also very

helpful.

Best PracticeAnything you post should be as simple,

readable, and friendly in tone as possible.

Best PracticePost your Terms and Conditions in a

prominent place on your site to make it

easy for people to refer to the document

as neededand so no one can say they

couldnt find it!


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Defining the Role of Your Moderators

Every community has its own special requirements; however, there is also a set of common needs.

The moderators role, with respect to interacting with community members, can be segmented

into three main categories:

1. Engagement welcoming new members and encouraging continued participation fromexisting members.

2. Facilitation providing conversation support and answering members questions.

3. Trusted Content making sure that content posted to the site is appropriate, Terms andConditions are enforced, and that members feel safe in the community.

The Moderators Role in Engagement

Whether a community is new or established, moderators should welcome new members. That

welcome can be as simple as a standardized email that thanks the person for joining, points to the

Terms and/or Code of Conduct, and suggests ways in which to participate more fully in the

community. If more bandwidth is available, a personal response from the moderator is ideal, since

it can show the new member that their contribution is valued and appreciated.

Engagement is especially important in a new community. In addition to welcoming new members,

moderators help to create social proof and seed conversations:

Creating Social Proof. We all look for social cues about how to act in new settings andsituations. This is as true online as it is in person. A street musician might put a few dollars in

an open instrument case to suggest that people leave tips, and a sitcom might overlay a

laugh track. Similarly, the moderator might create a profile, post a video, link to an article, or

take other actions to provide constructive examples for the community.

Engagement

TipPointing new members to the Terms

and Condition and/or Code of Conduct

as a standard operating procedure will

help the moderator with enforcement of

those terms later.

Best PracticeMake sure that every new member

receives a response to their posteven

if that response is from the moderator.

Receiving a response increases the odds

that the person will return.


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Seeding Conversations. Until a community reaches critical mass, the moderator often plays

a primary role in starting conversation threads or keeping existing threads going. Posing aquestion is one of the best ways to spark activity. When possible, give members some

context for an answer by providing some background information or even giving your

opinion or answer to that question. Linking to videos or articles around a topic might also

interest people to take a look and weigh in.

The Moderators Role in Facilitation

(Conversation Support)

It should be easy for members to find and contact the moderator with questions or problems.

These inquiries could be technical in nature, such as questions about supported web browsers or

the mechanics of the community site, or they may focus on conversations, content, and sources.

Regardless of the question topic, the moderator is typically the frontline support interface for

members. Moderators arent expected to know all the answers, but they should know where to

find them.

Conversation support also comes in the form of assisting members who might be having trouble

staying within the guidelines of site conduct. This crosses over into trusted content and

enforcement, but we are including it in this section since the goal is to help people create posts

that are constructive.

In rare cases, moderators may need to remove disruptive posts. Reasons for such an action can

include copyright infringement, inclusion of personal information, inappropriate language, and

inadvertent release of confidential company news. Your members need to know that you value

their posts, so you should always let a member know when and why their post was removed.

Moderators can also add great value to the community by helping to tease out interesting points

within posts. At times, posts with great ideas can be overlooked, either due to a great deal of

posting activity or simply because the post was vague or unclear. In both instances, a skilled

moderator can bring the ideas to the forefront at the opportune time.

Facilitation

TipTry to find out why someone is making

a request before taking action. For

example, if a member asks to be

removed from the community, check to

see if there is an issue that can be

resolved rather than losing them.

Best PracticeSet and adhere to a service level

agreement (SLA) for responding to

inquiries. Response times can vary by

type of submission. For example, you

might address a violation report within

30 minutes and a general question about

the site within 4 hours.


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Tagging also falls within the facilitation role. If your community platform enables content tagging,

it is worth your time investment to set up the key words. Members can tag key words in their ownposts, and moderators can add the tags as well. Tagging will help you and your members to better

search content over time to find topics of interest.

The Moderators Role in Trusted Content

(Creating a Safe Environment)

For a community to thrive, members need to feel comfortable when they are there. The guidelines

and standards for behavior should be clearly outlined in the Terms and Conditions and/or the Code

of Conduct. It is the moderators responsibility to watch over the community and make sure that

members are meeting those standards.

There are a few options for reviewing posts to your community, including:

Pre-moderation:Content is reviewed prior to appearing live on the public community space.

Post-moderation:Content goes directly to the live site and is reviewed after it is posted.

The choice you make will depend on how much risk you can bear, which is determined by factors

that include the regulations of your industry, market guidelines, and member demographics (for

example, sites for children require careful content review). There are pros and cons to both

moderation methods.

With the appropriate tools, some of the monitoring can be performed effectively and efficiently

using filters. Word filters can flag offending language and shift a post into a queue for moderator

review.

Trusted Content

TipSet up profanity filters to flag posts for

review so your moderator can focus on

posts that require attention rather than

scanning everything for offending words.

TipCreate separate review queues for

profanity and other filter flags to make it

easy for the moderator to review.

Best PracticeInclude your community members in the

monitoring process, allowing them to

feel some ownership. Self-monitoring

within a community becomes a necessity

when volume reaches a critical mass.

Make it clear and easy for members to

report violations and suspicious activity.


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An experienced moderator will also be able to intervene when a member is approaching a

violation and provide some guidance to steer that member in the right direction. Moderators

should monitor interactions to look for suspect patterns of communications, or messaging that

sounds threatening in any way. It is very important to know the proper escalation path when

confronted with a violation or a worrisome post.

In the end, consistency is key. Whichever moderation approach you choose, and whatever yourconduct guidelines are, it is critical to act consistently. You need to treat all members equally and

all instances of similar infractions the same way. This is especially important when the moderation

role is shared by multiple people. Your community is paying attention to what you do. You need

your members to trust not only the community, but the moderator as well.

The Moderators Role in Reporting

(Ensuring Steady Communication)

Ultimately, the moderator, in conjunction with your Community Manager, is responsible for the

flow of information between the company and the community. One of the most important parts of

that process is reportingtracking trends and issues, kudos, and complaints.

The types of activity and trends that should be tracked include:

Frequency of new posts

Subjects users are talking about, also called "Hot Topics"

Amount of disruption, in the form of warnings issued, posts that had to be deleted or

escalated for a decision about whether they should stay up, etc. (For effective tracking, cut

and paste individual posts into the report.)

Benchmarks, such as users beginning to defend each other or help solve each other's

problems

User quotes that can be used to drive traffic to the forum

Effectiveness of advertising campaigns

Reporting

Best PracticeIn addition to keeping your community

safe, sound and thriving, moderation can

provide valuable insight into your

community. Reporting and analysis

should be performed regularly on

community activity, including levels of

disruption, posting quality, hot topics,

recommendations, etc.


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Responsiveness of users to changes in site content

Assessments of the quality of posts (users staying on topic, intelligent and livelycontributions, sharing of knowledge, etc.)

Requests for action by a user, such as a question or complaint about content on the sitethat the host cannot answer

Affinity between business and member goals; identification of areas in which the two canbe made closer

Recommendations for areas where the website can be improved

Identification of members who are a positive influence and what they are saying

Summary

Moderation can make or break an online community. Good moderation will keep members

interested and engaged. Great moderation will connect the community with your website, brand,

and overall strategy. Thats the good news. The bad news is that poor moderation, or a lack of

moderation, can put you at risk for damage to your brand and reputationor even leave you

vulnerable to litigation for copyright infringement or safety violations. To ensure success, you

should be purposeful when you create your strategy, select your technology, and staff your

moderators.

Not only do moderators play a pivotal role within the day-to-day running of your community, but

they are also a key voice on your team that develops communication and content strategy. The

moderator can act as both your organizations voice out to the community and the voice of the

community back in to your organization.

Nothing replaces first-hand experience when it comes to moderation. An experienced moderator

can sense when a thread or conversation has taken a wrong turn, can identify when language or

activity is nearing violation, and knows how to guide participants to become better more

productive members. It is not uncommon to find that the most cost-effective way to fill the role is

outsourcing.

Keeping in Compliance withApplicable Internet Law

There are laws in place for certain

industries (e.g., Financial Services) and

audiences (e.g., children). For example,

sites with minors as members must

comply with the Child Online Privacy

Protection Act (COPPA). You need to

make sure that you know what standards

and laws apply to your community.


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About MzingaMzinga is the leading provider of on-

demand social software solutions for

marketing, customer experience, and

employee productivity. The worlds

leading brands choose Mzinga for our

broad range of scalable social media and

learning technologies, in-depth

moderation solutions, and expertise in

successfully delivering solutions thatsolve business challenges. With 15,000

communities under management,

Mzinga services more than 2.5 billion

monthly page requests from 40 million

unique visitors in 160 countries

worldwide.

----------------------------------------------------

To learn more, contact us:

www.mzinga.com

[email protected]

888.MZINGA.8 (888.694.6428)

Mzinga Moderation Services

Mzinga provides professional moderation services that can deliver both staffing and reporting to meet yourspecific needs. The professional moderation team provides a full array of tools and support to help clients

efficiently and effectively manage community content anywhere that people interact on your site.

Mzingas moderation services go beyond simply maintaining order in your community. The Mzinga team can

also help define your moderation strategy, provide front-line member support, accelerate community

adoption by seeding new and existing discussions, and stimulate conversations around relevant topics.

By working in partnership with clients, Mzinga helps create safe and welcoming environments in which

members contributions meet business policies and remain true to the clients brands.

A robust proprietary moderation toolset helps automate the processes of identifying, filtering, and resolving

content that is not in line with set standards. Mzinga is also adept at providing services for clients who use

third-party community software platforms and homegrown solutions.

As experts in providing information on the interactions that take place within communities, Mzinga

generates specialized reportsdaily, weekly, monthlyor analytic documents that help understand what is

important to community members, and what they have done on the website that is associated with your

business. Reports can be customized to client-specific requests.

With a global team of experienced moderators, Mzinga is able to address specific needs and schedule

requirements around the clock, 365 days a year, and offers multilingual servicesincluding English, German,

French, Spanish, Japanese, and many other languages. Mzinga is flexible and scalable, and can support both

short-term and long-term needs, whether it is coverage for a steady schedule, or additional coverage for a

special event.

Mzinga regards moderation differently than any other company, viewing each individual community

member as intrinsic to the well-being of the community in general. Mzinga works hard to ensure that

members stay members and that they are actively engaged in the community.
http://www.mzinga.com/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.mzinga.com/

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