Stay Ahead of the Game: How Moderating New Content Formats is the Key to Unleashing Business Growth.

Media consumption is rapidly shifting from text to images to video. Social video generates 1,200% more shares than text and image content combined. It won’t stop there: this year, we have also seen audio formats like podcasts and voice notes drive increased engagement.

Many companies have responded to changes in content consumption and enriched their customer experience by adding video formats. Since Instagram introduced Stories and Reels, more marketplaces have incorporated videos of products and allowed users to post video reviews so shoppers can see items in action.

Adapting the user experience to new behaviors drives business results, too: consumers who end up on an e-commerce site through a user-generated video are 184% more likely to purchase – and spend 45% more.

As new types of content are added to enhance the customer experience and drive business growth, businesses become increasingly shaped by the content their users share. This is a powerful opportunity to take the transformative interactivity of digital technology to the next level, building a brand’s user base into its identity and value. It’s also a risk – no matter the format, if the content is harmful to the user, it’s harmful to the brand.

This is why content moderation technology is critical. If the content is not moderated, harmful content goes undetected and valuable content goes underutilized. When users see content that damages their experience, customer loyalty is impacted, and business growth is diminished.

Reacting to harmful content is too late

Businesses must proactively control the user-generated content (UGC) on their website. It’s not enough to react when a harmful video appears on the site, as the damage will already be done. Businesses need to take a preventative approach where they stay ahead of damaging UGC to protect their users.

As more and more user-generated content is created, especially in several different formats, it becomes harder for businesses to keep up with content moderation needs. Businesses must constantly adapt their content moderation efforts to keep up with new consumer behaviors, but this product development takes time. Developer teams are then placed under pressure to deliver constant innovation to be able to handle all types of content.

This is a huge challenge, which is time-consuming and requires constant agility, but if not addressed the potential for damage to the customer experience is huge.

CTOs and the tech teams they lead have a lot on their plate. Across different industries, we can see incredible innovation happening with UGC, making the customer experience more sincere, useful, delightful, and meaningful by empowering user interaction. Managing that content, however, can lead to an unpleasant decision between building that capability in-house (and stretching developers yet thinner) or buying a solution off-the-shelf (and risk discovering that it is not truly fit for purpose).

Lean on an expert business partner

Technologies like video UGC are powerful growth drivers – but without control over what appears on the platform, that growth is unsustainable. So how can businesses ensure their teams can keep up with moderation needs whilst simultaneously reaping the benefits new formats provide to the user experience?

Working with a business partner who can offer content moderation tools that address new formats like video is extremely valuable. At Besedo, we are currently developing moderation for video content. Outsourcing means the partner is a source of innovation for the business – but we also take the pressure in product development, and our teams specialize in content moderation alone.

At the same time, Besedo offers a partnership, not just off-the-shelf tools, so moderation is fit-for-purpose and tailored to needs.

We realize that every company’s UGC needs are different and build customized content moderation solutions that address the differing needs of businesses, from dating apps where users connect to marketplaces where sellers interact with customers.

An expert partner can proactively ensure the moderation of all types of UGC. We use a combination of artificial intelligence and human moderation to ensure no bad content slips through the cracks. Businesses need a trusted partner with whom they know their user experience will be safe.

When harmful content is prevented, the user experience improves, users will stay loyal, and lifetime user value increases. Being able to innovate your approach to content moderation to keep up with users’ content consumption habits is key to sustainable growth

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