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As the importance of social platforms to businesses continues to grow, so does the need to monitor these online communities for spam, negative reviews and not-so-nice behavior by community members. As a result, there has been an ever-increasing supply of online moderator jobs.
While some of these remote jobs are considered only entry-level without a lot of pay, there are some interesting gigs out there that may even offer full-time hours and benefits.
What does an online moderator do?
In the most basic sense, a moderator is observing some type of online activity on the lookout for inappropriate behavior or issues that need immediate attention. A few examples could include:
- Monitoring a website’s chat room feature for technical or customer service issues
- Monitoring a business’ social media account, such as Facebook or YouTube, for tech issues or inappropriate or negative comments
- Engaging an audience during an online event or virtual focus group
- Reviewing user-generated content and comments uploaded to a website or forum
- Twitch moderators watch for offensive or spam comments during broadcasts
- Monitoring an online forum like Reddit for improper user-generated content
In essence, a moderator’s job is to ensure everyone visiting a business’ website or social media platforms has a good experience free of not only technical issues but also disturbing content or harassing behavior posted by others.
You may be wondering what the difference between a community admin, or administrator, and a moderator is. On Facebook, for example, an admin is typically a role assigned to someone giving them the ability to approve or remove new community members. This person may also be able to handle other top-level tasks such as changing community settings, assigning roles to members and even creating other groups. A moderator, however, is often only assigned the role of monitoring, approving and deleting member-submitted content. Depending on the size of the community, one person may handle both duties.
What skills are required to land an online moderator job?
Many of the remote job opportunities available do not require any special training. They do require basic skills such as:
- Excellent written communication skills
- Great customer service skills
- Significant knowledge of the Internet, online forums and social media platforms
- Native English speakers
- Tech-savvy
- Ability to keep your cool under pressure or in heated situations
The ability to follow instructions is also a key requirement to becoming a community moderator. Most companies will provide strict guidelines for how each situation should be handled. Moderation isn’t just about maintaining a company’s appearance, after all. It can also be about online safety and the legalities of content left by users.
How much an online moderator can earn
As with many online jobs, the pay range can vary substantially. Some moderator roles are very entry-level requiring only minimal training or commitment and therefore the pay reflects that. Other opportunities may require a degree, fluency in a second language or full-time availability. Those jobs often pay more. According to ZipRecruiter, most of the online moderator jobs they see posted pay between $26,000 and $46,000 per year.
Where to find remote online moderator jobs
There is so much more remote work available in this industry than in years past. When hitting up the job boards in your search, you will want to include a variety of phrases currently used by companies to describe this role:
- Chat Moderator
- Content Moderator
- Social Media Moderator
- Forum Moderator
- Community Moderator
- Online Chat Moderator Jobs
- Content Reviewer
As this job evolves, more terms may be used to differentiate roles. A few companies with recent home job postings include:
- TELUS
- Sutherland
- Yelp
- ModSquad
- Teleperformance
- RealSelf
- Kaplan
- Vivid Seats
- The Social Element
- ICUC
You can find more recent remote work leads for human moderators on job boards like Indeed and FlexJobs. [Add affiliate link]
As you gain experience, you may find social media is an exciting and intriguing remote opportunity that you want to learn more about. The good news is that this is an ever-evolving field with a lot of opportunities for growth. With a little online learning, you may be able to market yourself as a social media manager or ad expert. These jobs come with increased responsibilities but also a chance for a lot more pay. And these are skills you can readily learn online [link to training such as VAClassroom or one of Gina Horkey’s trainings] with the need to head into a traditional classroom.
