Earlier this year, Hunting With Pixels caught up with Shay David from Kaltura on the New York leg of our epic interviewing spree. Kaltura are a leading open-source video platform, helping business and educational clients deliver top quality video solutions. In this video, Shay shares some examples of good practice around user-generated content, giving advice on how business can balance openness and brand safety. In order to best implement consumer feedback and engagement, online video providers need to understand that there are multiple stakeholders in the conversation. Businesses want to be promoted without having consumers degrading their brand, and consumers want to feel engaged and that they are listened to. In terms of moderating any user-feedback section, Shay suggests that any moderation should be as transparent as possible, to allow users and business to see the rules, and to build up trust between the groups. To that end, there are several levels of moderation that are generally found to strike an appropriate balance. It is possible for user-content to be entirely moderated by the business. So for example they can preview user content and feedback before it being released to the wilds of the web. At the other extreme, it could be entirely self-moderated by users, by having a ‘report’ button or other method for consumers to police the conversation. It is also possible to have a more hands off approach, in the form of set rules or pre-moderation, for example swear filters. This has the added benefit of transparency, as the user knows before making a post exactly what will and won’t be accepted. Finally, Shay encourages brands to open up the level of engagement over time, once trust has been established and the brand feels comfortable. A feedback forum might have users who become a trusted source, who can perform the role of moderator from outside of the brand. Above all, it is important that customers feel as though they are legitimately engaging with the brand and with other customers. Customer engagement can be a powerful tool in the marketer’s arsenal, but it must be genuine. http://www.vimeo.com/25699044
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