Social media is part of a well-balanced digital marketing strategy — a part that’s versatile and potentially highly effective. While not every company will have use for every social media platform, there’s a good chance that a given business can make use of at least one social network.
With that said, it can be unwise to let social media go unchecked. Social media exists to start conversations — that’s the “social” part of the name in action. When many voices become involved, talking about a company’s products and services in channels facilitated by that company, there’s a chance that harmful or negative elements enter the picture.
A social media moderator is someone who steps into this situation and makes sure the social media experience around a brand stays safe and positive for audience members, employees and the brand itself. As companies step up their social media marketing efforts, moderators will act as vital facilitators.
What Does a Social Media Moderator Do?
A social media moderator uses their own hands-on labor and a variety of technology tools to monitor social channels, user-generated content and the tone of the activity involving a specific brand.
The exact nature of a brand’s social media presence and community will differ from one company to the next. A business-to-business organization focused on informative LinkedIn posts is fundamentally unlike a consumer-facing company that is active across platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
See what social media’s role could be for your business’s marketing strategy.
This range of circumstances means social media moderators need to shift their focus to match a particular employer’s needs — but the objective is essentially the same. Moderators have to keep the conversation civil and on-topic, enforcing the company’s rules and keeping hateful, inappropriate or illegal content from becoming associated with the brand.
A social media moderator plays a role in a company’s overall community management efforts. By keeping unsuitable content and activity away from the brand’s social channels, these employees allow the company to make good use of its social platforms to engage with customers, answer questions promptly and produce an environment where audience members can interact.
With a moderator in place, a business can be more sure its social media marketing strategy will go as planned. It’s easy for harmful elements in an online community to take focus away from the intended messaging and branding. A moderator intervenes at the first sign of trouble to keep everything running as intended.
Tools for a Social Media Moderator in 2024
Managing the content and tone of social media discussion comes with challenges and complexities. Perhaps the most glaring issue comes from the speed and volume of information on social channels. As companies accumulate more online followers, the sheer amount of posts about those brands can be overwhelming.
Harmful content can appear quickly – especially if a company is intentionally targeted by bad actors. Detecting posts that violate a company’s policies and applying moderating actions such as deleting social media content and blocking users may prove too demanding for employees to handle manually. Fortunately, there are a variety of technology tools that can assist with this work.
Top social media moderation tool lists reveal that these utilities fall into a few categories. These are:
- Features of larger suites: Not all social media moderation tech tools stand alone. Some of the leading options are parts of more wide-ranging technology platforms, such as Hootsuite’s listening tools, which automatically assess the sentiment of posts and let users take action to manage negativity. Amazon’s Rekognition content detection engine is designed to flag harmful posts via machine learning (ML) algorithms and let human moderators take on the high-priority issues it detects.
- Dedicated moderation tools: Some products are specifically designed to help with social media content moderation. For example, WebPurify pairs human third-party moderators with artificial intelligence (AI) detection tools to moderate text, image or video posts on a level that automation alone couldn’t handle, but with less intervention from a company’s own employees.
Using the latest technology is simply part of the job description for content moderators when the flow of abusive or harmful material can ramp up quickly.
How Does a Social Media Moderator Excel in Their Work?
A social media moderator’s task is wide-ranging. Brands’ social media marketing efforts cover a variety of purposes, which means moderators have to pursue several objectives at once.
Moderators’ work includes:
- Maintaining the brand’s reputation: When companies are associated with negative sentiments or offensive content, that can lead to lingering reputational damage. This is one of the major risks of engaging with a community of users — materials not actually posted by the company itself can cause damage by association. Moderators need to work quickly to prevent such a scenario.
- Keeping community interactions positive: Loyalty and engagement can come from a welcoming environment and good conversation between a brand’s representatives and its audience. A content moderator’s task is to keep harmful posts or toxic interactions from undermining this sense of comfort.
- Helping the brand achieve its specific objectives: A moderator’s work is in service of helping the company reach social media objectives. No 2 companies are going for the exact same goals. Some will be most interested in gathering feedback from their audiences, for instance, while others are more committed to humanizing themselves. Effective social media content moderation means taking action against any posts that threaten those objectives.
The Social Media Moderator Profile
The work of a social media moderator is somewhat unique, combining tech savviness with a very human sense of empathy and ease of communication. Whether they intend to hire an outside candidate for such a role or train a current employee, companies should look for someone who has:
- A customer service mindset and the ability to interact with all sorts of audience members.
- Aptitude with picking up and using new technology tools quickly and effectively.
- Tolerance for dealing with inappropriate or disturbing content in the course of daily work.
The ideal social media moderator is someone personable enough to act as the face of the brand in online spaces, while being tough and tech-savvy enough to respond decisively to problematic posts.
Learn the ins and outs of community management in greater detail.
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What Are the Benefits of Having a Social Media Moderator?
A healthy social media community, one overseen by a skillful moderator, comes with several benefits for its parent company. Such a positive online community is:
- A place for consumers to interact directly with the company and each other, building bonds and becoming more comfortable.
- A channel for the brand to make direct announcements and share useful information such as how-to tips.
- A direct avenue for feedback, criticism and questions from customers, allowing them to have their voices heard.
- An in-group that creates a sense of loyalty and belonging and encourages members to stay engaged over time.
None of these identities can form if people feel the need to abandon the company’s social media channels because of negative or dangerous elements. By deleting problematic social media content and banning offenders, a social media manager is the person who makes an online space worth visiting and engaging with.
Delve deeper into the ups and downs of using branded social media.
How Do Brands Know When They Need Social Media Moderators?
Since social media marketing has become such a mainstream concern for brands, companies of all kinds need to have internal discussions about whether they should be moderating their social media conversations. In many cases, the answer will be yes — even a small company can end up with a thriving social community, one that would be endangered by offensive content.
It’s easy for brands to end up caught in conversations about current events and topics of global importance. Sometimes, this is a chance for a company to show its mettle and make a stand on an important issue. In other cases, it would be better for the brand not to engage if it doesn’t have anything to contribute. No matter what happens around a given event, having a skilled social media moderator on staff can keep the conversation civil and relevant.
Any company with a sizable or growing social presence is a good candidate to have a moderator. Whether a business’s policy is to seek out provocative discussions or avoid them, and no matter what its main social media objective is, it may find itself challenged by harmful or offensive posts. When such an issue arises, leaders will be glad they have moderators to turn to.
Learn how social media technologies like Sprout Social and related tools help companies stay on top of their social strategies.
Ready To Step Up Your Commitment to Social Media?
If your business is increasing its social presence — or if it’s already large — you need to show that you’re serious about joining the ranks of industry leaders. Having content moderation is one of the signs that your organization is ready for the big leagues.
Social media content moderator is a role that companies may not realize they need to fill until it’s too late, and they’ve already suffered a major controversy within their online communities. Hiring a skilled professional for this job is a way to stay one step ahead.
Moderation is a part of a well-constructed modern social media marketing strategy, a piece that complements professional content creation, analytics, performance tracking and other functions. Put them together and these pieces add up to social excellence.
