Firms thinking of hosting user generated content (UGC) on their sites must have a clear idea of their goals and plan carefully to avoid potential pitfalls, according to a leading UGC moderation expert.

Tamara Littleton, chief executive of eModeration, warned that many firms may be swayed by the hype surrounding UGC and fail to establish clear targets for what they hope to achieve.

"Once you've got a goal you can plan for when it goes wrong and manage that risk," she told IT Week. "People can wreck [UGC projects] just because they're bored, sometimes."

Littleton added that reporting tools are also an important part of a UGC project that often get overlooked, enabling firms to consolidate and analyse data on user behaviour and moderation trends.

But she maintained that the type of content and users should determine whether a firm handles the moderation of UGC internally or outsources it to a firm such as eModeration.

"Some content is best left inside – if you're Microsoft and want to know how your tools are performing, for example, you're better off letting your own experts moderate that content," she added.

Content moderation has become increasingly popular in the past 18 months, not only to remove illegal or inappropriate content but also as a way for advertisers to control the way brands are portrayed on the web.

eModeration has also released a new white paper advising firms on ways to create safer UGC campaigns.
http://www.emoderation.com/news/Six_techniques_for_safer_ugc.pdf