5 reasons content moderation is key for UGC campaigns

If you’re thinking of running a user-generated content campaign, content moderation is a must for maintaining control of your branding and narrative.

Why?

Content moderation is your way of seeing what people are saying about your brand, and in the context of influencer campaigns, can include content revisions and adjustments to better align your content with your brand guidelines.

There are a few approaches to content moderation, including reactive moderation (which relies on users or moderators to review content after it’s published), and proactive moderation (where you review content before publication). 

You need a good mix of both in order to successfully stay on top of your brand’s online presence and create powerful UGC campaigns that resonate with your audience and align with your branding.

Wondering why implementing a solid content moderation strategy can improve your UGC campaigns? Let’s look at five ways it can elevate your marketing.

1. Uncover organic UGC you can repurpose for future campaigns 

Content moderation is a great way to discover the most impactful user-generated content. Once you identify the larger trends, you can use them as inspiration for your first user-generated campaign. 

Let’s say you market colorful patio furniture, and your customers share photos of their madeover yards or balconies and tag your brand. You could run a UGC campaign that repurposes their content to highlight how fun it is to revamp an outdoor space with your product. 

To simplify this type of content moderation, we recommend proactively monitoring branded hashtags and setting up automated alerts. This way, you don’t miss a single trend. You can also set aside a small block of time every month to comb through the posts and identify the most relevant content. 

Note: If you take this approach, it's important to consider the legalities of repurposing content, as you’ll need express permission before running your campaign. 

As you run through the options, consider more than just your users’ official follower count. They don’t need to be celebrities to make a difference. Ideally, you want authentic content that fits your larger brand ideals. 

Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty is a particularly good example of incorporating effective hashtags into their digital marketing strategy. Because the brand caters to a diverse range of customers, marketers encourage customers to tag posts with #FENTYFACE and @FENTYBEAUTY. 

This led to 4.5 million branded posts, proving the product’s inclusivity and building a positive brand image, community, and online presence. Their customer’s creativity and genuine passion for the products also helped inspire popular UGC campaigns that resonated with the brand’s many customers. 

2. Get to know your audience on a deeper level 

Content moderation isn’t about censoring your customers and critics, but about discovering what really makes them tick. A reactive moderation strategy is a powerful tool that reveals what your audience really thinks about your products, values, language, and overall vibe. 

Whether you’re receiving positive or negative attention, you can gauge how different types of consumers perceive your brand. You can get clarity on how they position your brand relative to your competitors and understand which content matters most to them. 

Reactive moderation also gives you a chance to address inconsistencies in your branding. For example, if one of your brand’s values is transparency, but your customers report difficulty finding answers to their questions, you can flag this discrepancy for immediate review. 

Here are a few best practices for reactive content moderation:

• Straightforward flagging: Whether it’s a user or content moderator who flags a post, there should be a clear process to isolate, categorize, and address the issue. 

• Consistency: While content moderation can be flexible, you should prioritize consistency across the board. As you create and update your policies, use feedback loops from  users and staff to continuously improve your community guidelines. 

• Honesty: Truthfulness with your audience can go a long way to improve your brand’s reputation. So, if you use a mix of AI and human moderators within your blog’s comment section, you may consider adding a small note above your comment box informing readers how comments will be moderated (and encouraging them to reach out with questions or concerns if needed). 

People often share their thoughts and opinions on social media to support a cause and express themselves. Around half of people say that they hope to either inform people about what they care about or inspire action in their followers. The more you track their content, the easier it is to understand what motivates your audience. . 

3. Build a community-centered brand 

There’s a lot of negativity on the internet. This has made safe spaces more than just a pleasant diversion — they’re a treasured chance to connect with other people through shared interests and values. 

A content moderation team helps you build a positive community around your brand. It can protect your customers from inappropriate content, such as hate speech or spam. You can curate your community based on your brand’s larger mission, whether that’s to help families eat better food or encourage respect across cultures. 

As you collect more feedback from customers, your content should line up more closely with their thoughts and perspectives. This doesn’t mean that current and potential customers can’t have unique opinions. Instead, the intention is to build a community that supports open, respectful conversation and sticks to your brand values. 

Establish clear guidelines for handling inappropriate content, such as lewd photos, rude comments, or self-promotional links. By spelling out what is and isn’t acceptable and clearly posting it for all to see, customers understand what’s expected of them when they engage with your online community and brand. 

You can also regularly review branded social media posts, encourage users to report or flag inappropriate content, and reach out to users if their posts violate your guidelines. Creating a community-centered brand begins with communication and honesty, and it’s important to treat everyone with respect and fairness — even if they don’t always show your brand the same courtesy! 

4. Protect your brand’s reputation 

Proactive content moderation can help you build a better user experience by presenting a consistent brand image across social media platforms. For example, you might ban using offensive words across the board. This ensures your brand isn’t associated with harmful speech, and your users don’t have to flag blatantly offensive content. 

Reactive content moderation can also help you protect your reputation, making it easier to either catch misinformation or respond to valid criticisms. So, if spammers are using bots to post inappropriate content or share dangerous links, you can catch it and perhaps implement an IP ban. If disgruntled customers share negative experiences about your brand, you can swoop in and respond respectfully and apologetically. 

In a hilarious yet effective example of reactive moderation, a North Face customer posted that her raincoat seemed to make her more vulnerable to the wet New Zealand weather. Evidently, it took a while for the company to respond via social media because they were busy sending a helicopter to the top of a mountain to personally deliver a new jacket to the customer! 

Most people want to know what their peers think about a brand before making purchasing decisions. It’s why you might ask a friend about a restaurant before you eat there or look up Yelp testimonials before you stay at a hotel.

But this doesn’t mean all reviews need to be positive to maintain your brand’s good reputation or carefully curated online environment. Companies like Wendy’s are known to respond with sassy retorts to take the edge off criticism while still doing what they could to make the situation right. This unorthodox approach earned the company 3.7 million followers on Twitter alone. 

5. Ensure UGC partners deliver valuable content 

If you’re not paying attention, the wrong content can potentially confuse or alienate your customers. When you implement consistent content moderation strategies, you ensure  your UGC partners create high-quality content that authentically represents the brand.

UGC campaigns and influencer marketing may not be exactly the same, but they share some core similarities. Both campaigns work best when users and influencers can be themselves — but all brands need at least a few unifying themes. 

You might run a UGC campaign for baking chocolate where users share their favorite recipes, but some users just post general content about enjoying the product. In that case, you can redirect them before the campaign loses focus. 

If a UGC partner or influencer posts a self-promotional link on a post that’s explicitly meant to promote your product, it’s important to stay on top of the issue. You can address this by following up with them about campaign expectations and sharing brand guidelines again if necessary.  

Brands often partner with people who are already fans of their products or services, but not always. When brands open the floodgates, it can unfortunately lead to mayhem. 

When Coca-Cola ran its #MakeItHappy campaign, which invited people to respond to negative comments with funny images, Gawker users exploited the Twitter bot to post harmful content. While the campaign undoubtedly spread some positivity, Coca-Cola ultimately had to pull it. 

Lately, brands are far more careful about who they partner with, which explains why user-friendly UGC platforms and UGC moderation are becoming more popular. Authentic and valuable content is a foolproof way to keep customers engaged and inspire more conversions!

Manage and moderate your UGC campaign with software 

Moderation tools go a long way in helping you manage your UGC campaigns and improve the customer experience. When you choose the right tools, you can easily share content inspiration and brand guidelines with your UGC partners. 

At Hummingbirds, we share key brand highlights with our local influencers and give them the creative opportunity to shine with their UGC. They put their unique spin on the campaign idea and upload content for brands to pick and choose from. 

This isn’t just an easy way to tap into dozens of everyday voices for better, more authentic UGC — it’s also more cost-effective than partnering with mega-influencers with wider, but less targeted audiences. 

Whether you’re marketing a service at your small business, a CPG product, or specialty offering, Hummingbirds can help you find creators in your niche who will add value to every UGC campaign. Instead of sending out endless DMs, let Hummingbirds connect you with experienced local creator who are ready to tell the world about your brand.

Ready to spend less time moderating and more time engaging with customers and building brand loyalty? Learn more about how Hummingbirds works!