In our Guide to Google+ for Brands we examine why businesses should be on Google+ and what companies and industry sectors are using the platform successfully. We also go under the bonnet of Google+ and offer tips to help set up a compelling company page.
1. Guide to
Google+
for brands
We explain how a Google+ page can boost your company’s
SEO and help build local and global customer communities.
We also look at the sectors and brands leading the way on
the social media platform and offer helpful hints to get you
started with building a successful brand page.
Authored by Sue John
www.emoderation.com
January 2014
2. Guide to Google+ for brands
Table of contents
What is Google+ and who is using it................................................................................................... 4
Demographics............................................................................................................................. 4
Google+ across the globe - which countries have the most pages?..................................... 4
What type of brands are active on Google+?........................................................................... 5
Google+ growth........................................................................................................................... 5
Projected growth......................................................................................................................... 5
What industry sectors are leading the way on Google+?.................................................................. 6
The top ten brands in November 2013...................................................................................... 6
Fast facts for prominent brands................................................................................................ 7
How does Google+ benefit your SEO.................................................................................................. 8
Why your business should have a Google+ page............................................................................... 9
Community connections............................................................................................................ 9
Going local................................................................................................................................... 9
Getting started with Google+............................................................................................................. 10
Different examples.................................................................................................................... 11
Tagline........................................................................................................................................ 12
Introduction............................................................................................................................... 12
Best practice on Google+................................................................................................................... 14
Content is king.......................................................................................................................... 14
So what should you share?...................................................................................................... 14
What do other companies share?............................................................................................ 14
Responding to user comments................................................................................................ 16
Under the bonnet of Google+............................................................................................................. 17
What are circles?....................................................................................................................... 17
+1 Button.................................................................................................................................... 17
Google+ Communities.............................................................................................................. 17
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3. Guide to Google+ for brands
Keeping your house in order.................................................................................................... 18
Closed communities................................................................................................................. 18
Tags............................................................................................................................................ 18
Google+ automatic tagging...................................................................................................... 19
Ripples....................................................................................................................................... 19
What is the Dashboard?........................................................................................................... 20
The YouTube connection.......................................................................................................... 20
Broadcast Hangouts On Air................................................................................................................ 21
Quick tips and tricks for Google+...................................................................................................... 22
Additonal resources............................................................................................................................ 23
About eModeration............................................................................................................................. 24
About Tamara Littleton....................................................................................................................... 24
Contact us............................................................................................................................................ 24
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4. Guide to Google+ for brands
What is Google+ and who is using it
Google+ isn’t just a social network; it’s also part of a social platform that integrates with applications
such as email, YouTube, Chat, Hangouts, Google Docs and a whole lot more. It was launched as an
invitation-only service in June 2011, and opened up to everyone in September 2011.
In October 2013, just two years after launch, Google+ had over 300 million active users, with 1.5
billion photos uploaded every week.
The 2013 Social Brands 100 Report states that in “August 2012 Google research found that 90% of
our daily media interactions were screen based, with digital and social experiences dominating our
waking hours”. And any brand that wants to interact with its fans and customers needs to embrace
community and social media platforms, including the expanding Google+.
Demographics
In November 2013, the Google+ user base was 60% male and 25% female, with the remaining 15%
being “other” or unknown. The average age of a Google+ user is 28.
Here’s how its audience stacks up against the other leading social networks.
Network
Male
Female
Average age
Users
Google+
67%
33%
28
300 million
Facebook
40%
60%
30
1.5 billion
Twitter
40%
60%
28
213 million
Pinterest
20%
80%
25-34
70 million
Source: http://blog.zogdigital.com/2013/05/01/social-media-marketing-101-network-user-demographics
Google+ across the globe - which countries have the most pages?
Source: http://www.circlecount.com/statistics - December 2013
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5. Guide to Google+ for brands
What type of brands are active on Google+?
In 2012, 49% of the Social Brands Top 100 were active on Google+. Results from the 2013 survey
indicate that figure has risen to 69%, and about 70% were planning to increase their activity on this
relatively new platform last year.
According to Digital Insights, 40% of marketers use Google+, while 70% are keen to learn more and
67% plan to increase their Google + activities.
Google+ growth
As of September 2013, Google+ had 300 million active monthly users. This is a 37% increase since
May, when the number stood at 190 million.
This rise is sure to continue, and as Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product management at
Google+, puts it: “Google is not just focusing on building the largest social network. Google+ is
also an important tool that helps the company identify and authenticate users across all its services,
including search, Gmail and YouTube.”
However, social media guru Jeff Bullas points out: “Facebook still dominates 70% of account
ownership, but Google+ is not far behind at just over 50%. Keep in mind though that a Google+
account is mandatory whenever you create a new Gmail account. This is pushing up the account
ownership stats. No other social network has Google’s web assets leverage.”
Projected growth
Search and social analytics specialist
Searchmetrics reported in June 2013
that the sharing of online content by
users on Google+ is set to surpass
sharing by Facebook users by
February 2016.
The study is based on a comparison
of the average monthly growth in the
number of Facebook ‘shares’ and
their equivalent, ‘+1s’, on Google+ in
the US. It covers the six-month period
from November 2012 to April 2013.
During this period, the number of
Facebook shares in billions grew
by almost 10% per month, while
Google+’s average growth of ‘+1s’
was almost 19% per month.
Source: http://www.realwire.com/releases/Social-sharing-on-Googleto-overtake-Facebook-by-2016-predicts-new-study
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6. Guide to Google+ for brands
What industry sectors are leading the way on Google+?
The Social Brands 100 Report declares that retail brands appear ready to embrace new platforms,
and those that responded to the survey were more likely than average to have a presence on
Google+ (85% have a profile), Pinterest (95%) and Instagram (65%).
In contrast, FMCG brands reported a higher than average presence on Pinterest (73%) and a lower
than average presence on Google+ (36%).
In November 2013 the following brands had the fastest growing profiles on Google+:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Android
Red Bull
Kit Kat
Marvel Entertainment
DC Comics
The top ten brands in November 2013 (by followers) were:
Source: http://www.socialbakers.com/google-plus-statistics/group/brands
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7. Guide to Google+ for brands
Fast facts for prominent brands
HM
The popular fashion brand has
achieved 3.3 million followers.
Its growth for the past six months
is shown to the right.
Source: http://www.socialbakers.com/google-plus-statistics/
h-m-115900903196483234016
Mercedes Benz
The luxury car brand has notched
up 3.1 million followers. Its growth
for the past six months is shown
is shown to the right.
Source: http://www.socialbakers.com/google-plus-statistics/
mercedes-benz-106129845850785943761
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8. Guide to Google+ for brands
How does Google+ benefit your SEO
Given the close integration between
Google Search and Google+, it
stands to reason that Google rewards
social actions from within its social
network with better page ranking in
search. This is particularly visible within Google’s personalised search results: +1 an article and it is
pushed up the rankings for people who have you in their circles.
This is highly effective if one of your articles or sites is given a +1 or posted on Google+ by someone
who has been added to a large number of circles.
Ensuring your content is submitted to your brand page, or promoted by your staff to their personal
Google+ networks, becomes a valuable activity, which directly affects your company’s SEO.
If you already push out content or links to your site via Twitter and Facebook, the impact on search
visibility is greatly increased by doing the same on Google+, validating participation over other social
networks.
Google also offers a way to link up your Google+ profile and any content you create for websites and
blogs you contribute to. This helps to quickly identify content written by recognised topic authorities
in search by displaying their name and face next to the articles, and will promote their content over
others.
As well as providing a major incentive for bloggers and journalists to use Google+, this by default
minimizes the impact of participation on other social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Blaise
Grimes-Viort, eModeration’s Vice President of Community, goes into more detail about that here.
Google also recommends that linking from your Google+ page to your website and vice versa helps
build relationships with friends and followers. Importantly, this also gives Google information that it
can use to determine the relevance of your site to a user query in a Google web search.
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9. Guide to Google+ for brands
Why your business should have a Google+ page
Community connections
Setting up a Google+ page enables your company
to connect with fans and prospective customers
on a one-to-many basis, and makes it possible
for you to foster a personal relationship with
consumers.
By creating a Google+ page you can share
updates about your company, or details about
your new products and services, directly
with people who are searching Google for that information. It also enables you to reach out and
ask customers for feedback. Having this direct conversation enables you to build long-lasting
relationships and brand loyalty.
Going local
If your business serves a particular local area, it’s worth noting that according to Google, “97%
of consumers search for local business online”. So creating a local Google+ page gives you the
opportunity to connect on a one-to-one basis with those local customers via search, Google Maps
and their own Google+ account if they add you to their circles.
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10. Guide to Google+ for brands
Getting started with Google+
So, now you know why you need to get on board with Google+, we’ll help you get up and running
with a page for your brand. Here’s how.
Step 1
nn Create your Google+ personal profile here.
You need a Google account to align with your
page. If you don’t have one already, you can
set one up in the process of creating your
page. It can be a personal email or a brand
email.
nn Pick the category for your page, but choose
carefully. For instance, if you have a physical
store or premises, or you supply services or
products within a specific local area, choose
the ‘Local Business or Place’ category. Businesses in this category are eligible to show up on
Google Maps.
Step 2
nn Next drill down into your niche business sector. For instance, if your
company makes games and toys, choose that from the drop-down
menu. There is an ‘Other’ section if your business sector isn’t on the
comprehensive list.
Step 3
nn Now look at the information you want
displayed on your page. Pick a name for your
page, and then add a link to your company
site. Most companies go with their brand
name.
nn Once you’ve done that you must identify who
your page’s content is appropriate for. Choose
from:
- Any Google+ user
- Users who are 18 and older
- Users who are 21 and older
- Page will contain content that is alcohol
related.
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11. Guide to Google+ for brands
Step 4
Now it’s time to add the bells and whistles and customise your page. You do this by adding a profile
and cover picture, as well as a description and information about your company or business.
nn Profile picture – choose your logo or an image that clearly identifies your brand or business.
nn Cover picture – this is displayed at the top of the page. Some brands show off their creativity with
this, while others keep it simple. Either way, your cover photo should make a statement about
your brand, and set the tone for your page.
nn The recommended size for your cover photo is 1080x608 pixels, but you can also go smaller or
bigger; the maximum size is 2120x1192 and the minimum size is 480x270.
Take a look at some different examples:
Huggies
Dell
Mini UK
Oxfam America
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12. Guide to Google+ for brands
Cheerwine
Remember, your Google+ cover and profile pictures must comply with Google’s User Content and
Conduct Policy, so check out the guidelines before you start. Unlike Facebook, you can include
unlimited text, calls-to-action (CTAs) and contact info on your cover picture.
Tagline
You only get 10 words, so choose them very
carefully. Your tagline sums up your business, your
brand and its unique selling point, so it’s worth
spending the time on getting it right.
As you can see from the examples below, taglines vary from a literal description to a brand emotion,
or, in some cases, both.
Cheerwine: Born in the South. Raised in a glass.
Ford Motor Company: The official G+ page for Ford. Go Further.
MTV UK: New music videos, reality TV shows, celebrity news, top stories.
Sony: Official Google Plus page for the best of Sony’s electronics, gaming, entertainment, and
music news.
nn Virgin: Loads of news and other good stuff from Virgin.
nn Huggies: Enjoy the ride of parenting. The official Huggies® brand Google+ page.
nn Walmart: We save people money so they can live better.
nn
nn
nn
nn
Introduction
This section does what it says on the tin. Use it
to convey information about your page and your
company.
For example, German technology company
Siemens explains in great detail what it does on its official ‘Welcome to Siemens’ page on Google+.
‘This is the place to go on Google+ for interesting news on Siemens. You can also get quick access
to other Siemens Google+ pages on a wide range of topics. Follow your favorite pages, where the
latest news and interesting discussions await.’
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13. Guide to Google+ for brands
Siemens then goes on to share details about the company, and lays out the ‘House Rules’ for the
page.
In contrast, US retail giant Walmart keeps it brief,
and displays just a single paragraph of company
information.
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14. Guide to Google+ for brands
Best practice on Google+
Content is king
It’s true. The first 45-50 characters of posts in Google+ appear in Google search results. In fact posts
are crawled and indexed almost immediately, compared with platforms such as Facebook, where
privacy settings mean posts may never be crawled or indexed at all (we cover how these settings
work in the section on Google+ Circles).
So what should you share?
For starters, post updates about your product, or your company.
Share content that will engage your Google+ community and customers. This could range from
requests for product feedback, seasonal promotions and competitions. Remember that visual
content is compelling too, so share videos or podcasts of company events, chairman’s speeches,
your latest ad campaigns or employees’ testimonials.
What do other companies share?
Walmart
Walmart posts strong socially responsible messages about health and well-being, alongside perennial
favourites such as recipes. It chooses images to include with its posts that create a visual experience
for its users.
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15. Guide to Google+ for brands
Cadbury
Cadbury’s page makes a great play of imagery that, for obvious reasons, gets users drooling. The
brand also utilises tags in its posts which helps drive traffic (more about tags later). The social media
team kick off conversations by posing questions to the Cadbury audience.
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16. Guide to Google+ for brands
HM
HM uses its posts to engage with users by posting pictures of its clothing and asking people
questions such as “What are you in the mood for?” This generates lots of comments, and often
results in users engaging with each other by commenting and ‘+1ing’ each others’ posts.
Responding to user comments
If you are looking to create a page so you can interact with your customers and fans, it is important
that you engage with people carefully. It’s likely that users may come to your page to post complaints
and ask questions, and if they do, you need to ensure that you respond to those comments in a
timely and helpful way. We recommend taking no longer than an hour.
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17. Guide to Google+ for brands
Under the bonnet of Google+
What are Circles?
Google+ Circles are a way to group people you
follow in related categories. By placing them in
a specific Circle, your updates and content can
be restricted to a single circle, ensuring that
information is targeted and relevant.
It’s also possible to ‘lock’ posts made to a Circle,
which would prevent others from sharing that post
outside that group. When you post a new update
on your page you can choose the Circles with
which you want to share the update. You can also
use Circles to section off groups of members with
shared interests.
Circles could work very well for brands which
have a personal relationship with their customers
– luxury jewellers, high-end hi-fi retailers, or
personal trainers, for example.
Until larger brands are able to profile their members more accurately, however, it’s hard to see how
Circles will be able to help them target content more effectively.
+1 Button
The +1 button is the Google+ equivalent of the ‘Like’ button on Facebook. Followers of your
page can click this to show that they’ve liked the content that you’ve shared.
A +1 button on a website acts in a similar way to Facebook’s external ‘Like’, in that a user
is publicly recommending your content. You will see the number of ‘recommendations’
displayed above the button.
Google+ Communities
Your Google+ Pages and Communities are separate entities.
Businesses can set up a community, and use their brand page account
to post in the community, but the two are not connected to one another
in any functional way.
If you’ve ever used a message board (and we’re going back 20 years!),
you’ll be familiar with Google+ Communities. If you haven’t, they’re
simply a way to connect with other like-minded people who share your
interests.
Communities are usually built around a central topic or interest, for
instance vegetarian recipes, baking or DIY. In the same way a Google+
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18. Guide to Google+ for brands
community allows brands and fans a space where they can come together and talk about things they
are interested in.
We recommend creating a Google+ Community for your business, your fans, and your customers
to engage more deeply with you and with each other. Anyone in your community can post and start
threads, and you will be able to target posts and content more effectively than on your main Google+
or Facebook page.
Keeping your house in order
However, a note of caution: if you are providing a group for individuals to connect with one another,
you will need some moderation to keep the community a relevant and safe place for interaction. It’s
good practice to establish a set of ‘House Rules’ to set out guidelines for acceptable and appropriate
behavior when they are interacting in your community.
Closed communities
In November 2013 Google announced the ability to create restricted Google+ communities that
only users in your organisation are able to join. This is an invaluable way to privately share company
information, such as project milestones, between work colleagues.
Michael Cai, Product Manager for Google+, explains:
“You can decide if your restricted community will be open to everyone at your
company or private, joinable by invitation only. While administrators can set
restricted communities as the default for your organization, you can always
choose to create communities open to people outside of your domain, so
clients, agencies or business partners can join in the discussion.”
One other thing to note is that if you’ve chosen to create a public community you will be unable to
change it to private community at a later date, and vice-versa. You can find out more about how
private and public communities work here.
You can find more information about how to create a community, and establish its privacy settings
here.
Tags
Hashtags are a way for Google+ users to easily find content. For example, “Take a look at the
pictures I took in #Paris,” or “I went to visit #Washington today.”
By clicking on the hashtag a user will be taken to the page that lists related content. You can include
hashtags in your posts to draw users to your content, and help build conversations around your
page.
Grey coloured hashtags are those used by the author of a post, while blue coloured hash tags are
added by Google+ based on the content of your post. You can also add related hashtags to your
posts, for example, adding #France to your post about #Paris.
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19. Guide to Google+ for brands
Google+ automatic tagging
Google looks at the text in an update then adds hash tags that it thinks are relevant to your content,
highlighting the post for people searching for similar topics. The best part is that it knows how to
apply relevant tags, even for words you haven’t used in the update.
You can see that in action on a
recent MTV UK update where
it’s added the ‘Zerrie’ tag (for
Perrie and Zayn!) despite the
fact that the word isn’t used
anywhere in the text.
Ripples
The Ripples feature creates an interactive graphic of the public shares of any public post or URL on
Google+ to show you how it has ‘rippled’ through the network. It’s a useful way to discover new and
interesting people to follow. Note that Ripples only displays information for any public data shared,
not if a user has shared the information via a private circle. By using Ripples you will be able to view:
nn who has publicly shared a post or URL and the comments they’ve made
nn how a post or URL was shared over time
nn statistics on how a post or URL was shared
To view Ripples for a public post in your stream, click the drop-down arrow at the top of the post that
you’re interested in and click ‘View Ripples’.
To view Ripples for a specific URL, open the Ripples dialogue, and in the top corner enter the URL
that you want to see Ripples for.
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20. Guide to Google+ for brands
What is the Dashboard?
Dashboard is a tool for Google+ page owners and
managers to leverage their online presence. It is
also the Google+ entry point for local business
owners to manage, verify and edit their business
listing, learn how customers can find their
business on Google, and promote their business
with Offers and Adwords Express.
You can access the Dashboard by clicking on
the Pages icon in the left-hand column of your
Google+ account.
The Dashboard isn’t overloaded with functionality.
It allows you to manage your page, including
adding new Managers (Admins in Facebook
terms). There are three categories of administration rights: Owner, Manager, Communications
Manager.
The YouTube connection
In September 2013, Google integrated YouTube’s commenting system with Google+. In order to
comment on a video, users are now required to link their YouTube account to a Google+ account.
The good news is that this will undoubtedly increase the adoption rate of Google+, providing a larger
audience for your brand.
The integration allows you to embed anything that already exists on YouTube. For raw uploads, you
can upload as many videos you want as long as they don’t run for more than 15 minutes and which
have a resolution of 1080 pixels. Any higher or longer than that will be taken out of your Google
Drive capacity. Your first 15GB are free, after that it costs about $4.99 a month for 100GB. We’d
recommend you just put your videos on YouTube and embed them in your posts.
Google also stated that the integration would improve the quality of comments and reduce the
spam that has always plagued YouTube. Unfortunately, in the immediate weeks following the launch,
Google acknowledged there was actually an increase in spam comments on YouTube. This will
hopefully be resolved as the algorithms are tweaked.
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21. Guide to Google+ for brands
Broadcast Hangouts On Air
Do you want to host a question and answer session with fans and
followers, or invite a group of experts to share tips about your services
or products? Then Google Broadcast Hangouts may be perfect for your
business. You can invite 10 people to participate and a live player of
your broadcast will be displayed on your Google+ page and YouTube
channel.
Your Hangout On Air will be recorded as a public video and once the
broadcast is complete it will be available on your Google+ home page
so followers who were unable to catch the live broadcast will be able to
watch the recording. You can also edit the recording once the Hangout is over.
In order to host a Hangout on Air from your Google+ page, you need to connect your Google+ page
with a YouTube channel. You can find instructions on how to do that here.
To help create some advance buzz you can promote your Broadcast Hangouts on Air via a dedicated
‘Watch page’. In addition, you can moderate any discussions taking place in your Hangout by hitting
remote mute and eject buttons via a handy Control Room.
Cadbury frequently hosts Hangouts. Here is a
link to one that involved an interesting mix of
Cadbury and BMX fans which is worth checking
out as an example of how to run an effective
session.
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22. Guide to Google+ for brands
Quick tips and tricks for Google +
We hope you’ve found the information in this guide useful and it has given you the tools you need to
get your own brand page up and running.
If you are still undecided as to whether you need a Google+ page, go back to your audience
demographics. If you want to talk to Google+’s 67% male audience, your answer’s right there.
We have also noted the SEO benefits for your brand in being on Google+, and, as 2014 sees an
increase in paid-for advertising on Facebook, you might decide that Google+ offers a more friendly
experience for your customers and users.
Here are some handy hints for growing your presence on Google+:
nn Share relevant, engaging and exclusive content that is not available on your company website.
nn Include photos and videos.
nn Create a vanity URL for your brand page using the Page Management options. The format is
“google.com/+…” – for example, MTV UK is google.com/+mtvuk
nn Schedule a live question and answer session on Hangouts with your followers.
nn Drive traffic from your Google+ page to your company website and vice versa, offering a two-way
street and a unique experience on both.
nn If customers and followers post questions or concerns on your page, answer them promptly and
appropriately. Take any tricky conversations in to a private channel.
nn Set expectations for behaviour on your Google+ page and in any communities by posting house
rules.
nn Use tools such as Ripples to identify key influencers.
nn Utilise an editorial calendar to plan and schedule new content on a regular basis. You can
schedule posts through third party tools such as Hootsuite.
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24. Guide to Google+ for brands
About eModeration
eModeration is a social media management agency which delivers high-quality multi-lingual
community management and moderation services, social media consultancy, and crisis management
training and simulations. With offices in London, Los Angeles and New York, it works with some of
the world’s biggest brands across a wide range of industry sectors. These include: automotive, kids
and entertainment, FMCG, financial services, luxury brands, media, pharmaceutical, publishing, and
telecoms.
The agency works with leading global brands, including HSBC, Mind Candy (Moshi Monsters), MTV,
Sony Mobile, ITV, Hyundai, Smirnoff, the LEGO Group, Sprint and The Economist. It also works with a
growing roster of agencies, including Starcom MediaVest Group, Wieden + Kennedy, Ogilvy, Saatchi
Saatchi, DDB Worldwide, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Publicis Groupe.
Committed to providing a safe and engaging social media experience for children and adults,
eModeration’s CEO Tamara Littleton has over 11 years’ experience of community and social media
management and moderation. She has also advised the UK government on guidelines for child safety
and was shortlisted for the 2013 First Women Awards in the Business Services category.
eModeration contributes to the development of social media expertise via its white papers, blogs,
and sponsorships. It has also provided content for specialist training company Moderation Gateway
for its moderation foundation training course. The course is the first in the digital industry to provide a
certified qualification for professional UGC moderators.
About Tamara Littleton
CEO and founder
Tamara founded eModeration in 2002 to share her passion for making the internet a safer place. From
the early days of online forum moderation to the explosion of Facebook and Twitter, Tamara has used
her experience and expertise to help develop best practice standards for digital media on branded
online channels.
With a background in content management, publishing, consultancy and operations for the
pioneering BBC online communities team and Liberty Media (Chello Broadband), she has extensive
experience in community management, child safety, and social media consultancy and crisis
management.
She is a member of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), advising the British
Government on the moderation of communities. Tamara regularly blogs for The Huffington Post and
Econsultancy.
Contact us
Talk to us today about how we can help protect your brand.
Call Tamara Littleton on (+44) 0203 178 5051
Email info@emoderation.com
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