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EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HIRING A CONTENT MODERATOR

A content moderator screens the content you see online to make sure it adheres to general community standards. Find out what role a good content moderator has in marketing.

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1

What is a Content Moderator?

CHAPTER 2

Why is a Content Moderator Important?

CHAPTER 3

Important Skills and Traits of a Content Moderator

CHAPTER 4

Where to Hire Content Moderators?

CHAPTER 5

Hiring Considerations

CHAPTER 6

C9 Staff Content Moderators

What is a Content Moderator?

A content moderator’s primary job is to make sure all content – from images to videos and from articles to multimedia files – that you can see on social media sites, online forums, and other online community platforms are fit for general public consumption.

With almost 60% of the world’s population today using the internet, there’s no effective way to police the uploading of various content onto the web. These content may contain anything from cute animal videos and funny pictures to sexually explicit material and extreme violence. The only choice is for website owners to decide which of the content uploaded to their respective sites they would like to show and which ones they’d like to hide or delete. This is done by employing content moderators to act as screeners for unwanted content.

In digital marketing, a content moderator’s role takes on a less stressful note as it is more in line with applying a set of guidelines to text, images, video, multimedia, and user-generated content or UGC in order for website or platform owners to have more control over the kind of information served to their audience. Content moderation allows platforms to filter whatever is not useful, acceptable, or necessary for their brand and the community they serve.

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Why is a Content Moderator Important?

A content moderator is important in brand and image building. This is especially true for brands that employ plenty marketing strategies that involve a large volume of user-generated content.

Without content moderation, it will be easy for competing brands to undermine each other simply by fielding false but damaging information or even fake reviews. On the other hand, a good content moderator will be able to vet information and choose only to highlight those that can boost brand image.

When a content moderator decides to field only content that can positively impact a brand, inversely he prevents damaging content from taking center stage. This is a powerful capability as it entails direct control over target audience perception.

If employed properly, a good content moderation strategy combined with effective content marketing can drive engagement, conversions and sales.

Important Skills and Traits of a Content Moderator

In order to be effective, a content moderator needs to possess a certain skill set and certain character traits:

Above Average Analytical Skills – content moderation requires a certain level of analysis that goes beyond evaluating information at face value. There is some information that may seem harmful at first but can actually be helpful in the long run and vice versa. As such, content moderators need to have keen analytical prowess in order to discern whether a piece of information is valuable or not.

Effective Communication – he should be able to explain his strategy and justify why he’s doing this or that inasmuch as content moderation is concerned.

Critical Thinking – a large part of a content moderator’s job is strategic planning and problem solving. 

Ability to adapt quickly – an essential part of a content moderator’s job is managing information and content on the fly for the purpose of either minimizing the damage of harmful content or maximizing the effect of image-building information.

Being receptive to new things – content moderation is dynamic and ever-changing. A content moderator needs to have an endless supply of curiosity and desire to learn – not to mention patience and a thick skin.

Where To Find Content Moderators?

Like most digital marketing staff positions, one can easily find content moderators online. It’s only a matter of vetting them as far as experience and capability are concerned.

The first thing you need to decide when deciding to hire a content moderator is whether you want to hire a local or a remote one.

The advantages of hiring locally include:

  • Ease of access and the ability to work with you personally – it’s always easier to work with someone face to face.

  • Less cultural and social adjustment needed you’re most probably living in the same city as your content moderator so you’re in the same time zone, speak the same language and share the same culture. This makes work so much smoother.

  • Better team-building opportunities being in the same place physically creates plenty of opportunity to train, collaborate, build rapport, and get feedback.

On the other hand, hiring local talent can have the following disadvantages:

  • Specific skill sets can be harder to find if you’re limited to a particular geographical area, finding a rockstar will be challenging. 

  • Overhead expenses if you hire locally, you’ll be obligated to keep an office which means you have to pay rent, pay for supplies, pay for electricity and other utilities. If you already have an office, you’ll have to provide your new hire with a work space which translates to the same thing – increased overhead.

If you decide to hire a remote worker, you need to decide if you’re hiring a project-based content moderator or a full-time one. In any case,

here are the advantages of hiring remotely

  • Access to a global pool of talents you’re not limited to who’s available in your city and what they know. Hiring remotely gives you access to talented content moderators from different countries who may even charge relatively smaller fees than local recruits. This is true to both project-based freelancers and full-timers.

  • Little to no overhead most remote workers work from home so you don’t need to worry about providing them with work spaces. This is especially true for project-based freelancers. However, for full-time employees, you may be required to subsidize their internet connection, computer equipment etc. But these costs are still far less compared to local overhead expenses. 

  • Less contractual obligation you can hire content moderators on a per-project basis. If you like their work, continue to give them projects to work on. If you don’t, just don’t give them any more tasks to perform and that’s that.

On the other hand,

here are the disadvantages of hiring remote workers:

  • Trial and error you can’t really gauge the level of expertise, experience and even work ethic of the remote worker until you take a leap of faith and hire them. The good news is, if you don’t like their performance on the first project, you can just part ways right then and there.

  • Time constraints if you hire a remote content moderator, particularly a freelancer, you need to understand right off the bat that you’re probably sharing him with several other clients (some paying more than you). That means your project is at the mercy of the freelancer’s workload. This may not be the case, though, with full-time remote employees.

That being said, here are a few places where you can find Content Moderators online. Note that in some of these websites, you’ll have the option to hire either locally or remotely. It’s all up to you, your needs and your budget:

Upwork (local and remote) – ggeared more towards the US market. You can post a Content Moderator job, and available contractors can start lining up to apply. All you’d need to do is choose the best candidate. This is a good place to look for either part-timers or full-time content moderators.

Fiverr (remote and local) – contractors already post their services and their fees upfront. However, there’s still room for negotiation once you’ve touched base with a contractor. This is your best choice for one-off projects.

People Per Hour (remote and local) – geared more towards the European market. Just like Upwork, you post a job and contractors will apply. You can choose the best candidate and go from there. This is also a good place to look for either part-timers or full-time content moderators.

C9 Staff (remote) – specializes in providing remote staffing services from a global pool of talents, including content moderation services from the Philippines and other countries. It is considered a concierge service where you don’t simply hire a content moderator (or any other kind of remote worker for that matter), you hire a Content Moderator with an entire management service behind him to keep him accountable and always on his toes. This is ideal for people looking to hire the best and expecting to get the best while keeping costs relatively competitive.

Hiring Considerations

When looking to hire a content moderator, whether it be local or remote, there are a few important considerations you have to keep in mind.

Do you already have content moderation that you want to improve? Or is this your first venture into content moderation? Do you plan to integrate a content moderator into an existing team? Or do you intend to treat your content moderator as a lone wolf?

Is it going to be a one-off project or do you have a series of projects in your pipeline?

Next, what level of experience or proficiency would you like your content moderator to have? Would you be okay with a mid-level one or are you looking for a senior level one?

Finally, how much do you have to spend? Do you have just enough for a one-off deal? Is your pocket deep enough for a part-time or even a full-time recruit? Are you ready to spend good money on a senior-level content moderator salary or is your budget pointing towards a mid-level one?

Why C9 Staff Content Moderators Rock

Here at C9 Staff, we have content moderators in all levels of proficiency. Whether you need mid-level moderators (with 1-3 years experience) or senior level moderators (with 4 years experience or more), we have one that fits your needs. In fact, we provide the best content moderation service in the Philippines.