How can you keep social media moderators?

Training is important, but you know what is even more important? Selecting the right moderators! Select those who are passionate about your community, who've demonstrated their participation, and who in essence, are brand ambassadors for your community!

As a seasoned expert in social media moderation, I can't stress enough how pivotal it is to establish a robust foundation for your moderation team. Clear and unwavering guidelines, coupled with thorough training, form the bedrock of effective content management. By immersing moderators in your brand's unique voice, tone, and values, you empower them to make nuanced decisions that align perfectly with your identity. Furthermore, the digital landscape is ever-evolving. As such, staying proactive by consistently updating your guidelines and training materials is non-negotiable. This ensures that your team remains in sync with the latest policies, algorithms, and trends, preventing any compliance gaps.

Social media moderator usually focus on user-submitted content, rather than being responsible for verifying anything that other employees post or upload to social media accounts. They often help decide what rules to apply to content and announce changes

Sustaining a committed team of social media moderators involves a dual approach of consistent feedback and genuine recognition. Constructive feedback serves as a catalyst for growth, enabling moderators to refine their abilities, acknowledge their strengths, and address areas for improvement. Mistakes become valuable learning opportunities within an environment of open feedback.Equally important is recognizing the pivotal role these moderators play. By showcasing appreciation and value through recognition, you validate their hard work and dedication. This can be achieved through tailored strategies such as personal discussions, performance evaluations, team gatherings, public accolades, incentives, or symbolic .

Encourage peer to peer recognition. Recognition from a superior can often be perceived as clinical and regimented. Recognition amongst peers facilitated within the right parameter's fosters trust and belonging. An example being for moderators to nominate the moderator of the week based on positive behavior's demonstrated within the team environment.

Your moderators will know your community and the issues it faces better than anyone. They support the community because they want it to succeed, so involve them in making the community better. Ask them what is working well and what could be improved, and not just about moderation. Your mods will be best placed to identify gaps in your guidelines and have ideas to improve moderation tools, but they will also be able to suggest ways to make the community user experience better.

Motivation matters. Before you focus on provision of training, support or recognition it's vital to know how to attract and retain your moderators. What motivates your mods to join the team, and to stay part of it? Consider intrinsic as well as extrinsic motivation.

Treat them like you would family. It is a tough job, not everyone realizes this. The amount of global content posted today is phenomenal. Not only does the moderator need to be knowledgeable with their own country but this is expanded to a global scale. They have to remove unconscious bias from their perspective and follow the terms of service provided to them. They are the Frontline of defense for your user base. The protect from the harsh world that which is not desired from your service. Pay them well, recognize the work they do, provide support and wellness, utilize their minds to fix what may be broken. They have read and seen it all, use that accordingly. Also, don't use them to train their own replacement. IMHO.