Did you know that Facebook is employing over 20,000 content moderators? You may think that one of the biggest tech companies in the world would have figured out AI to accurately moderate all of its user-generated content on its platform. However, humans still remain a huge part of their moderation strategy.
While artificial intelligence (AI) has come a long way over the years and companies continuously work on their AI algorithms, the truth is that human moderators are still essential for managing your brand online and ensuring your content is up to snuff.
Humans are still the best when it comes to reading, understanding, interpreting and moderating content. Because of this, great businesses will make use of both AI and humans when creating an online presence and moderating content online.
Ready to learn more? Below we’ll tell you why human moderation is still needed in the age of AI and technology.
1. Humans Can Read Between the Lines
One of the most important reasons human moderators are necessary is because they’re more skilled at reading between the lines. Hidden meanings will sometimes be lost on an AI when in many cases, a human could easily grasp the meaning in an instant. For example, one of our financial service customers decided to leave a post up stating ‘It would be suicidal to invest in …. ‘. An AI would have picked up the word ‘suicidal’ and deleted it right away. A human, on the other hand, can understand the figure of speech and keep the comment up.If you need social media moderation then it will pay to have a human moderator who can easily understand the true meaning of a customer complaint and dig through the hidden layers to determine the best course of action.
AI can do a great job of understanding basic definitions or ideas quickly. However, humans are usually much better when it comes to reading between the lines to understand underlying issues and concerns.
2. Context and Intent Matters
Similar to the last point, humans are more skilled at moderation because they can fully grasp the concepts of context and intent.
In the English language, words can take on different meanings depending on how they are used in a sentence and depending on the overall meaning of a passage. In some cases, images can also take on different meanings depending on how they are being used as well. AI can detect an image, but cannot determine how it is being used.
For example, one of our customers provides fitness, nutrition and weight loss programs. Their customers post pictures of their weight loss results on a daily basis, but some people go as far as posting partially or fully nude pictures. Now for an AI, it would be hard to draw a line between acceptable and unacceptable.
A human can recognize the nuances in the image and make the right decision about whether or not the photo is appropriate.AI can do a great job of flagging inappropriate content and filtering spam and usually does it without a hitch. However, it won’t always grasp the full intent and context of a social media post or a customer comment. Fortunately, humans can understand not only a word’s definition but also how and why it is being used in the moment and in which context.
3. Humans Can Have Authentic Conversations
If you want to create real conversations with your audience online then it’s important that you have human moderators.
While AIs are being taught to be more conversational, they’re not fooling anyone just yet. Chatbots, for example, can be helpful for interacting with customers to provide straightforward information. Yet, they don’t have the level of humanity needed to really connect with customers in an engaging and personalized conversation.
Human moderation, on the other hand, is ideal for interacting with customers. Human moderators can easily respond to comments and messages to create a back and forth conversation. This conversation will be authentic and can help build a customer’s relationship with your brand.
4. Your Brand Reputation Is Important
Brand reputation management is extremely important in this day and age. Like it or not, some customers will vent their frustration online if they have had a bad experience with your products or services. A canned response from an AI is the last thing an upset customer wants.
As part of creating a conversation online, human moderators will do the best job of resolving issues and dealing with customer feedback.
Human moderators have the intelligence and know-how to resolve complaints strategically. They can even flip a negative customer experience into a positive one by taking the right approach. Relying on human moderation will help build your brand online and will ensure that any customer complaints are handled in the best way possible.
5. Humans Are Better At Answering Questions
In addition to managing your brand reputation, human moderators are also helpful for providing basic customer support and resolving issues. Our customers in the financial industry, for example, often receive questions from their customers about their accounts. A human will have to log into the systems to actually provide the service requested.
While AI tools can also help to provide support to customers online, they are limited to the knowledge and answers that have been programmed into them. For example, we’ve probably all used automated systems to find out our account balance. However, when a question is more specific or unusual, an AI may not have the answers requested.
Humans have the ability to think creatively. They can go more in-depth when resolving issues related to your business or products. They’ll be able to provide real-time customer service and support. Every customer problem or concern will be different. Humans are still the best at choosing a personalized approach to take based on a customer’s specific needs.
6. Branding Needs to Be Consistent
Another area in which humans tend to do a bit better is when it comes to aligning content and moderation with your brand vision. As a serious company, you should always be aiming to create a cohesive brand image and should be using a similar brand voice when posting content online.
While AI can provide basic moderation for your business and can interact in a predefined way, it isn’t as skilled at keeping your entire brand vision in focus during communications with customers.
A human moderator will be superior at keeping your brand in mind when interacting with customers on social media. Human moderators will perform their work while ensuring every move they make aligns with your brand values and your brand voice.
7. Humans Can Gain Better Business Insights
Another benefit of human moderation is that human moderators can better understand what your customers are thinking. They can pay attention to any significant trends that appear. Human moderators understand the importance of social listening and can skillfully ask questions of customers and get their opinions on products and services.
By engaging customers, reading between the lines, and taking suggestions seriously, human moderators can help propel your business forward. The insights they learn can be used to positively improve your business and can serve to guide future marketing tactics and strategies as well.
AI excels when it comes to digesting large amounts of information and getting a basic understanding of it. However, it won’t be able to get the same insights as a human who understands both the big picture and the minutiae.
We find product testimonials for one of our clients, in their social media channels and other online posts. This client uses these testimonials to inspire their employees and other customers. We also find negative posts that provide valuable product feedback that this client uses to make changes to their products and services.
Complementing AI with Human Moderators
All this being said, AI and human moderators can nicely compliment each other. For example, taking quick action in social media is crucial so that people do not see certain content. And of course, nothing can beat the speed of an AI. It can quickly flag and remove content that would simply take humans a little longer to do. Also, AI can help determine which posts require human review, as well as help prioritizing those posts.
AI is still far from fully replacing the human element. However, using AI as an initial screening for the human moderators can give you the best of both worlds. If you want your business to do its best online, then you should still have humans involved. Be sure that you consider all of the above tips if you’re wondering if human moderation services are right for your online business presence.
Ready to talk about professional social media moderation services? Contact us today to learn more about what we can do for your business.
