The Shifting Tide on Content Moderation

The Guardian of Customer Experience: Highlights from our Content Cafe

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Melissa O’Brien, Vice President of Customer Engagement, Retail and Travel Strategies at HFS Research, as part of our first Sutherland Content Café about the evolving role of content moderation. Melissa leads HFS’ customer experience (CX)-focused initiatives, exploring the trends and change agents that drive CX across the enterprise.

Brands face a daunting challenge in managing content across channels. It’s no secret that the volume and complexity of online content — particularly user-generated content — have exploded in recent years across platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Compound this with the rise in “fake news,” misinformation and harmful content, and the need to effectively moderate content for both public and private good is clear.

Content moderation is one of those change agents that has become foundational to brand strategy. As Melissa shared, “Content moderation is an important part of digital CX, and it’s crucial to a company’s brand.” The benefits are profound for companies to protect their content realm — from resonating with the right audiences, to avoiding regulatory issues and improving brand perception.

Watch the video of our conversation below to learn about:

• Pillars of a strong content moderation strategy, including trust and safety, talent development, AI capabilities, agility and more.

• Steps to build effective brand “guardians” with proper recruitment, training and tools.

• The right balance of human and machine to deliver effective moderation at scale while protecting human moderators, and more.

As content-related challenges continue to proliferate, brands can no longer afford to overlook the role of moderation in underpinning employee and customer experiences.