The more user-generated content your brand gets, the more UGC moderation matters. We dig into what moderating UGC looks like and how to do it efficiently.
UGC moderation is the process of managing, reviewing and approving user-generated content featuring your products. This might include:
How brands approach UGC moderation varies depending on a variety of factors. This includes your goals, tech stack and expectations.
Brands that want unpolished and raw content may have looser requirements. Other brands may have a strict, curated process and only approve a handful of pieces of content.
Regardless of your brand and its content, how you moderate UGC is super important. Not just for the sake of your brand reputation but also to avoid legal issues and needless headaches for your team.
Approving content isn't a one-size-fits-all process.
For brands today, moderating user-generated is an ongoing priority across multiple channels. This is especially true for brands actively promoting customer content or running influencer campaigns.
Let's dig into an example of multi-channel moderation from Converse.
The brand actively promotes customer photos across its product pages. This content is sourced from social content using Converse's branded hashtag, plus reviews and UGC submitted on-site.
When you submit your product photo to be featured, you'll see a confirmation of the brand's terms of use. Here you'll see a bunch of legalese and a peek into the brand's UGC moderation policy.
However, note that the brand's approach to content moderation for reviews is less strict. That's because this type of UGC isn't expected to be 100% "on-brand." Potential customers value authenticity and having a perfectly curated review feed would feel fake. As a result, many of the brand's review photos feel off-the-cuff and unpolished.
See how that works? That's UGC moderation in action!
Clearly, the company isn't going to publish just any photo on its website without approving it manually first with the help of human moderators. The same goes for photos on Instagram. Converse has specific expectations and community standards, not to mention a specific aesthetic they want for their product page photos. The exception is their review photos which have more relaxed guidelines and standards.
Below is a brief breakdown of where brands typically struggle with it comes to reviewing and approving user-generated content.
1. Time Management
Juggling UGC approvals is time-consuming. It's easy to get overwhelmed when you're dealing with dozens of social tags, influencer content submissions and reviews day after day. Finding a balance between automation and human moderation is key.
Failing to establish a moderation policy can lead to inconsistent decision-making and confusion among moderators. For example, what's considered inappropriate content or on-brand content should be consistent across your team.
Neglecting to address negative or critical UGC can be a bad look for brands. While it's tempting to solely focus on the positive, brands are understandably expected to engage with UGC in any form. Doing so obviously takes time and can be frustrating.
If you attempt to aggressively art-direct and obsess over every little detail of your content being "perfect," you're going to have a bad time. Not to mention you'll have way less UGC to promote. Consider how in most cases, unpolished UGC performs better and resonates with the average customer more than the "perfect" piece of content. That's why UGC ads are so popular.
While having a ton of content from customers and UGC creators is a good problem to have, it's still a roadblock for busy brands who need to quickly pick pieces to promote organically or feature in UGC ads.
To wrap things up, here are some quick tips and ideas to help you level up your content approval process:
Make sure that your moderation team and brand community understand your company's tone, style and values. Don't be shy about promoting your community guidelines and values. This includes on creative briefs for influencers and UGC creators so your expectations are all on the same page.
At the end of the day, some form of human moderation is necessary when it comes to your UGC. For example, having no oversight on your approval policy could potentially lead to inappropriate content slipping through the cracks.
Don’t be afraid to communicate with your audience. For example, you should clearly indicate when content has been moderated or rejected. You should likewise be upfront about usage rights and obtaining proper approval to use your UGC in ads. Honesty is the best policy!
Regularly assess and refine your moderation strategy so it doesn't slow down or cause needless headaches. Consider opportunities to implement different tactics and strategies to speed things up.
For example, you might try a three-tiered moderation system which is common. That means:
You may surprised at how much time you dedicate to content moderation once you start tracking it all and finding where there's room for improvement.
UGC moderation is a top priority for brands today. In fact, it's pretty much non-negotiable for brands that regularly use customer and creator content in their promotions
And that's pretty much every brand these days!
How you approach moderation and approvals goes hand in hand with how much those promotions are able to scale. Not to mention how much work falls on your moderation team.
That's where Statusphere's UGC platform can help. Our micro-influencer marketing software and dedicated customer success teams help brands promote UGC at scale. Our platform's approach means streamlined moderation with a human touch
As a result, we empower brands to get 100s of pieces of UGC per month without requiring your team to approve or review every post by hand.
Want to learn more about our platform and how our moderation process works? Get in touch with one of our experts to learn how Statusphere can scale your UGC in a fraction of the time.
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