Top tips on moderating social media initiatives in-house

Social media continues to be a growing trend for businesses that are keen to maximise brand exposure within existing customer communities as well as entice new prospects. Done well, social media initiatives can open up many new opportunities for businesses but done badly, it can leave them wide open to brand damage beyond their control. Such possibilities shouldn’t discourage businesses from instigating new social media initiatives as they can be very lucrative. What is important is that businesses approach such initiatives cautiously, carefully and with serious thought.

The most effective way to minimise the possibility of brand damage is to take some initial steps to control and moderate your social media initiative. This can be done on a basic level in-house if the resource is available or by bringing in an outside expert moderation company. In the current climate businesses are likely to be worried about the additional cost implications of outsourcing a moderation company to monitor a relatively cheap new scheme. However, this is not a good enough reason to leave submissions unchecked. This is why in-house moderating can be a good option for many businesses who are either embarking on social media for the first time or do not have the budget to outsource moderation at this stage. As your social media initiative grows in success so does your requirement for expert moderation to maintain it.
Outlined below are few basic tips that businesses should consider when embarking on in-house moderation:

Be aware that any skeletons in your brand cupboard won’t stay undiscovered for long

Even when your brand is doing everything right there will always be the odd person wanting to poke fun at it. This can quickly turn from a few light hearted comments to abusive and brand damaging comments. This can encourage brands to shy away from introducing social media as it can be deemed too risky. Although engaging in social media does not mean having to publish the unrestrained rants of others, especially if they are directed at individual employees. An in-house moderation team must quickly identify undesirable comments, without becoming a censor, whilst understanding that justifiable criticism of their brand must be allowed. Otherwise the integrity of the whole initiative can be compromised.

A sophisticated set of rules for in-house moderators is needed before social media is introduced

It is essential that before a social media initiative is set up a stringent set of rules are agreed by the organisation and the moderators. Even though the moderators may be existing employees, it is not a given that they will understand exactly what the brand finds acceptable when it comes to content on their website. This will allow the moderators to make judgements which are fair and consistent and most importantly in line with the brands message. The moderation policy should be a written document, signed by all parties, illustrating the rules with examples of acceptable and unacceptable comments.

Taking no interest post-launch is a dangerous game

After all of the hard work which has gone in to planning and executing the new social media initiative you must stay close to it. The early days of any new venture are important and the same goes with social media. It is important that cliques of troublesome users are not allowed to develop and keeping on top of submissions from the beginning can help. It is easy to get distracted after the initial launch but it is in the organisations interest to keep the momentum going in order to reap the real benefits of social media and avoid associated problems.

Once an in-house team has been decided they must keep their mind on the job

It is very easy to look at moderating in-house as an easier and cheaper alternative to bringing in a specialist moderation company. To ensure a successful in-house moderation process a permanent team must be put in place. Moderation must be their priority, not simply their part time job to look over submissions if and when they get the chance. Moderation must be consistent and therefore have a team on board who are dedicated to moderating the submissions.