eModeration is a privately held company (founded in 2002) by Tamara Littleton, who is their CEO. They have over 30 customers including GE, Nokia, Philips, Infield Parking and Times Online.

They are about 20+ people and are based in London, UK although the majority of their clients are in the US. One of the most interesting parts of the conversation was the 3 best practices (see below) for community moderation.

eModeration Limited is an international, specialist UGC (user generated content) moderation company.  They provide twenty-four hour community management and moderation to clients in the entertainment and digital publishing industry and major corporate clients hosting online communities.

User Generated Content is becoming an extremely important capability for communities. eModeration helps make communities safe for users, children and ensures that companies brands are protected. Their moderation services help make sure that the right environment, brand and tone are perceived by customers.

Q) State your overall vision for your company
Tamara: We want eModeration to be the leading specialist moderation service for communities and attract the best customers and employees towards helping customers get value from communities.

Q) What is your unique value proposition?
Tamara: Companies outsource their moderation to us, so they are entrusting their brand face to our capable hands. The thing that is unique about us is that we are a boutique organization that serves as an extension to their organization. We take their trust in our capability to moderate their community very seriously.  And we’re incredibly flexible in our approach.

Q) What kinds of communities does your services power?
Tamara: Companies that cater to primarily consumer markets are our target. We help them ensure that there is a fine line between policing their discussions and user generated content and at the same time making sure there is participation that is encouraged.

Q) What are 3 best practices that you would recommend for customers around moderation?

Tamara:

1. Recruit lead figures and users into the community right upfront to give it credibility. This gets customers comfortable.

2. Be honest and show candor. If you messed up (e.g. if your product recall notice was not shared before it actually should have been) admit to it and share a plan on how you intend to fix it.

3. Show transparency in moderation. If you have to remove someone’s content because of unacceptable behavior, tell them what they did that was unacceptable and give them a chance to right the wrong and people will learn ‘good behavior’.