Besedo targets companies that consider security and consumer trust to be critical to their business success.

Services provided cover three main areas – Content, Safety, Customer and Operated. Since 2002 Besedo has

conducted and developed operations for clients operating in industries like Online Classifieds, Social Networks,

Media and Gaming.

White paper

Online Competition is increasing. Companies are looking at new strategies in how to secure

growth and sustain success.

Find out how a Quality Strategy with Moderation of User Generated Content can boost your

business. Achieve Higher Revenue, Lower Cost, Better Brand Reputation and More Satisfied

Customers.

How a New Quality Strategy can Boost Your Business - Why You Should Moderate Your User Generated Content

Introduction

Online businesses that have User Generated Content (UGC) in

classified ads, user profiles, chats or community forums adopt

different policies on how to treat content on their sites.

Some allow all content to be published and others use quality

rules to screen content and to take action, so called UGC

Moderation.

UGC Moderation can be done Pre- or Post Publishing or in Real

Time. Different needs determine the right choice. Some

Moderation can be automated with technology, others not.

Some argue that it is not worth the cost or effort; others claim

Moderation to be a key contributor to their company strategy to

create growth and profitability. Others say only the reduced risk

of lawsuits makes it worthwhile.

This White Paper will guide you through the key steps you need

to take in order to define a Quality Strategy with UGC

Moderation that can boost Your Business.

“People are trying to sell their kidneys on Classified Sites. This is a crisis, says Andries Hoitsma at Universitair Medisch Centrum”

- Algemeen Dagblad, The Netherlands

Typical content that is

Moderated

On Classified Sites

- Duplicate listings

- Illegal products

- Abusive text

On Dating Sites

- Nude pictures

- Sexual text

- Spam & Fraud attempts

In Social Media & Forums

- Offensive pictures

- Rude & racial language

- Bullying

On Gaming & Gambling Sites

- Abusive language

- Bullying

- Service complaints

Besedo targets companies that consider security and consumer trust to be critical to their business success.

Services provided cover three main areas – Content, Safety, Customer and Operated. Since 2002 Besedo has

conducted and developed operations for clients operating in industries like Online Classifieds, Social Networks,

Media and Gaming.

White paper

Traffic

An online business today is dependent on a

number of factors to drive Traffic to its site.

A key factor is Brand Recognition and

Reputation. This has become even more

important in a world where everyone has

access to information and customer

reviews, social media comments and site

rankings are available at your customers’

fingertips. Great reviews drive traffic.

The marketing effort to drive new traffic to a

site is becoming increasingly difficult and

costly.

Conversion Rate

A great service, a well-designed and

intuitive site as well as the ability to build

Trust with visitors, is key to converting them

into customers. Do you run the risk of losing

customer Trust by having bad content?

Customer Retention

If your customers like your service and think

they get great value for their efforts (time,

money, or both) they will come back. This is

what everyone wants, repeat business. But

not only that. You want the customers to

really like your service to the degree that

they become loyal and spend the time to

give you great ratings on customer review

sites, blog about you and write great social

media posts about you on Facebook,

Twitter and other networks.

This builds your Brand Recognition and

Reputation and ultimately new traffic.

Customer Acquisition Cost

The Acquisition Cost is a challenge and

everyone wants this to be as low as

possible without limiting business growth.

Compared to new business, repeat

business is much less costly. The average

Acquisition Cost is hence heavily influenced

by the Retention Rate a company achieves.

Getting a positive buzz around your brand

to the extent it drives new traffic is a key

way to reduce the average Acquisition cost.

= Traffic x Conversion Rate + Customer Retention – Acquisition Cost

The formula of online success

The world is changing. 24% of all US customers have posted a review or comment online

about a product or service. And this is growing fast. How do you control your brand in this

environment? And how do you act online in order to maximize each part of the Success

Formula?

Besedo targets companies that consider security and consumer trust to be critical to their business success.

Services provided cover three main areas – Content, Safety, Customer and Operated. Since 2002 Besedo has

conducted and developed operations for clients operating in industries like Online Classifieds, Social Networks,

Media and Gaming.

White paper

Step 1 – Review Your Business Strategy

Review your business strategy and evaluate the formula of success. Examples:

Is your business model working?

o Do you get the revenue streams you want?

o Are the revenue streams coming from the sources you want?

o Is all traffic profitable traffic?

What is your Brand Reputation?

o Are your customers giving you great reviews?

o Do they come back for more?

o Do you attract the Tier 1 Brands for Ads?

Step 2 – Define a New Quality Strategy for your User Generated Content

Based on your Business Strategy, define a new Quality Strategy that sets the framework on how

UGC should be treated on your site to create the formula of online success.

Exposure of content

o How should your site be structured to maximize exposure of great content and

minimize risk of bad content getting high visibility

Set a Policy of Black-listing of Content

o Decide on what you want and do not want to have on your site

o Grade the severity and impact if “bad” content is published. Not all “bad” content is

equally ”bad”.

Risk Mitigation – where can bad UGC create severe consequences?

o Law suits

o Expose users to Fraud

o Negative PR or viral effects

Business Strategy

Quality strategy

The 3 Key Steps Towards a Quality User Experience

Moderation strategy

”As long you can find prostitution on our site we will never be able to attract the Tier 1 Brands for our Banner Ads.”

- Executive at Classified Site in North America

Besedo targets companies that consider security and consumer trust to be critical to their business success.

Services provided cover three main areas – Content, Safety, Customer and Operated. Since 2002 Besedo has

conducted and developed operations for clients operating in industries like Online Classifieds, Social Networks,

Media and Gaming.

White paper

Step 3 – Set a Moderation Strategy

When your Quality Strategy and overall policy structure is defined you need to decide on the

Moderation Strategy. There is no textbook answer on how a Moderation Strategy should look as all

businesses are unique and have different needs. However, there are three key tactics to consider:

1) When should we use technology and when should we use operational processes to screen

content?

2) Should we Moderate Pre- or Post Publishing? Or should we do it in real-time?

3) Should we do random sampling, or should we screen all content?

Pre-Moderation of 100% of content creates the highest level of quality but could still be the wrong

answer for some sites. Especially if it creates an unacceptable user experience through long

delays. It can also mean an unacceptable cost increase that can´t create a favorable ROI.

Level of

exposure

to bad

content

Risk elimination

High

Low

High

Post moderation

of reported

content and

samples

Post moderation of

all content

Pre moderation of

all content

Low

Maximizing Value Creation and ROI with a Tiered Moderation Strategy.

Often the right answer is to apply different tactics to different parts of a site or service. This way it

is possible to maximize the boost in business and still keep the costs under control so that a great

ROI can be achieved.

A classified site might see more

fraud in Cars & Electronics and less

in Furniture and decides to use

different Moderation tactics.

A dating site might do random

sampling in the Basic service and

100% screening of content in the

Premium service to secure a quality

experience.

A dating site could also decide to

allow immediate publishing of text

but to screen all pictures before

publishing to ensure that no

offensive pictures are published on

the site.

A social site or forum could use

technology to filter abusive language

and Post-Moderation of reported

offensive posts or comments.

Examples on how a Tiered Moderation Strategy can

be deployed:

Besedo targets companies that consider security and consumer trust to be critical to their business success.

Services provided cover three main areas – Content, Safety, Customer and Operated. Since 2002 Besedo has

conducted and developed operations for clients operating in industries like Online Classifieds, Social Networks,

Media and Gaming.

White paper

UGC Moderation as the Tool to Boost Your Quality

74% of Americans say that they are more likely to use a

classifieds site if its customer service focuses on monitoring and

removing fraudulent and offensive content. (Source:

www.kijiji.com)

You can build great features, a fantastic service and design the

best site in the world –but if your visitors feel intimidated, fooled

or disappointed, by the User Generated Content, your business

will suffer.

Boosting the Brand Reputation – The Starting Point

A site, or service, that uses Moderation to create a High Quality

Experience is likely to see a positive effect on the Brand

Reputation with increased traffic as a consequence.

Users that enjoy a service without offensive or forbidden content

tend to be more loyal and more likely to give the brand high

ratings and reviews. Strong reviews, ratings and rankings will

signal quality and trust which will motivate more people to visit

the site.

Negative PR outlining illegal activities, forbidden content etc also

has a very strong negative effect on the Brand Reputation.

Adopting a Quality Strategy can significantly reduce negative PR.

A Quality Site attracts Larger Brands for Advertising

It is unlikely that the Tier 1 Global Brands will advertise on sites

with bad content that risk damaging their own brands.

If banner ads are a part of your revenue mix you increase your

chances of higher Ad revenues with a quality secured site.

Maximize a Positive User

Experience

Secure Strong User

Reviews and Ratings

Secure a Positive online

Brand “Buzz”

Avoid negative PR and

Viral Campaigns

Moderate to

Secure Your Brand

[...] Despite that, all the ads are checked and validated before they’re made live. “There are no duplicate ads, no Nigerian letters, no forbidden content,”

- Olivier Aizac, Leboncoin.fr, #1 Classified Site in France

Besedo targets companies that consider security and consumer trust to be critical to their business success.

Services provided cover three main areas – Content, Safety, Customer and Operated. Since 2002 Besedo has

conducted and developed operations for clients operating in industries like Online Classifieds, Social Networks,

Media and Gaming.

White paper

Conversion Rate – influenced by Quality.

A visitor that has been recommended to the site by people they

trust will be more likely to try the service. If the site indicates

Quality visitors will have greater faith and willingness to try.

The Conversion Rate is hence clearly influenced by the Quality

of the site.

Improve Your Customer Retention.

9 out of 10 users on a Dating site leave within the first three

months. (Source: www.mashable.com). The services the dating

sites provide are fairly similar and the cost of switching to another

service is low. Leading providers do not concentrate on fast

growth anymore, but instead on the quality and customer loyalty.

Happy customers come back. Simple as that. Negative

experiences will make people hesitate to return.

High Quality as Unique Selling Point for Premium Services.

A business, like a Dating site, can use Moderation to create a

High Quality Premium Service to complement a Free service.

Users that upgrade are guaranteed a High Quality Service

without offensive pictures, sexual text or fake profiles asking for

money etc. Moderation can allow for new product offerings and

Premium Services.

Use Quality to Boost

Your Online Success

More Traffic

Increased Conversion

Rate

Improved Retention Rate

Lower Customer

Acquisition Costs

Create new Premium

Services and Upsell

Attract Larger Brands and

increase your banner ad

revenue

In a competitive world a business needs to stand out. You need to deliver value to your

customers. Every day. Because it is easy for them to switch to your competitor. And they will.

Using Quality and focusing on the user experience is a way to build sustainable competitive

advantage.

Implement UGC Moderation as a key part of your Quality Strategy and take control of your Online

Success.

Besedo targets companies that consider security and consumer trust to be critical to their business success.

Services provided cover three main areas – Content, Safety, Customer and Operated. Since 2002 Besedo has

conducted and developed operations for clients operating in industries like Online Classifieds, Social Networks,

Media and Gaming.

White paper

For more information

Please Call +46 8 522 371 00 or contact your

personal Besedo account manager.

Offices in Malaysia, Malta and Sweden.

www.besedo.com

Besedo is an experienced knowledge and business process outsourcing company specialized in

the Internet and media market.

We operate mainly within the fields Moderation of User Generated Content and Trust and Safety.

In 2010 we reviewed 62 Million articles online (ads, profiles etc.) to stop fraudulent and poor

content online. Our customers range from #1 market leaders in multiple countries to new

ventures with high growth ambitions.

What is common for all our customers is the dedication to quality and the belief that quality is part

of a winning formula.

About Besedo