Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Are you looking to start your own eCommerce business but don’t know where to begin? Look no further than Shopify! With over one million businesses using the platform, Shopify is the go-to trusted option for entrepreneurs looking to create their online store and sell their products. In this article, we’ll guide you through the process…
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Here we go again. If you work in social media, it’s nothing new to adapt and change your strategy based on the ever-changing algorithms and the rise and fall of social networks. (Who else was on Vine? 🙋🏻‍♀️) But, of course, we wish you didn’t have to.The latest wave for social media marketers and creators is that TikTok might be banned in the U.S. The short-form video app has become one of the most widely-used social media platforms and is credited with impacting trends and cultural shifts.However, there has been an ongoing battle in the U.S. over privacy concerns for the Chinese-owned company. Currently, TikTok’s parent company is being asked to sell the company or potentially be banned in the United States.TikTok is a beloved platform by creators and users because anyone can go viral and build an audience without tons of initial followers, unlike other social networks. As of late, most companies have a TikTok strategy, and there is no shortage of examples of TikTok assisting with business growth or skyrocketing someone into a full-time creator.At Buffer, many folks in our community take advantage of our TikTok scheduling in their social media strategies. So, what would it mean if TikTok were banned in the US, and how can social media marketers prepare? We’ll attempt to answer these questions below. What does the potential TikTok ban mean for Buffer users in the U.S.?There are a lot of unknowns around what it would mean for TikTok to be banned in the U.S., so we’re not entirely sure what it would look like for Buffer, either.There is no precedent for the U.S. banning an app outright. What will happen to U.S.-based Buffer users’ connected TikTok accounts will depend on any action the U.S. government or TikTok takes. We will keep this blog post updated as we learn more. How can marketers prepare for a TikTok ban?There are still a lot of unknowns, but if you are the type that wants to prepare in advance, we understand that. Here are a few steps you can take to start preparing in case TikTok does get banned. 1. Download all your TikTok videosRegardless of whether or not TikTok is banned, it’s a good idea to back up your content, as you don’t want to lose all of the great videos you’ve created so far. If you used Buffer to post your content to TikTok, then you will have access to all of your content in the Sent Posts tab. If you want to go the extra step, you can save your videos to your phone’s camera roll or upload them to a cloud storage service like Dropbox. Download your TikTok videos by:Click on the video you want to downloadClick on the three dots in the bottom right cornerClick “Save video” You’ll see a confirmation that your video is downloading and when it is finished being saved.Downloading videos also means that you have access to them if you want to repost them to other social channels — a smart social media strategy that we recommend. 2. Tell your audience where else to find youIf TikTok is where you have a majority of your audience, you’ll want to tell them where else they can find you if you or they lose access to the app. Make sure that you’ve shared the top other social networks and owned channels, like your website, link in bio, and newsletter, so they can keep in touch. Here’s an example from UnderTheDeskNews, who talk about the potential TikTok ban and point their audience to their podcast. @underthedesknews #tiktok #tiktokban #biden #socialmedia #breakingnews ♬ original sound – UnderTheDeskNews 3. Update your link in bioUpdate the link in your bio on your TikTok profile to be an evergreen link. If TikTok is banned, there’s a chance you won’t be able to update this link, but international viewers might still be able to see it and click through, so make sure that’s a link you can leave up on your TikTok account.We recommend using Start Page as a quick and free link-in-bio tool that you can keep updated. 4. Evolve your social media marketing strategyIf TikTok is a part of your overall social media marketing strategy, you’ll need to start making shifts if you or your audience can no longer access the app. We recommend investing in growing a few social media networks, like Instagram and LinkedIn, alongside TikTok. If short-form videos are your jam, then start looking at Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, the two other leading platforms for sharing that content style.TikTok potentially being banned is also an unfriendly reminder of the importance of growing an audience on the platforms and services you have more control over. It’s a good time to keep your website up to date, get set up with a link-in-bio tool, and ensure you’re leveraging your newsletter to its fullest potential. This situation is still in flux, and we don’t know what the outcome will be. For now, the best thing to do is stay informed and prepare for potential changes. We’ll keep this blog post updated as we learn more.

Every minute, 240,000 images are shared on Facebook, 65,000 images are uploaded on Instagram, and 575,000 tweets are posted on Twitter.

Simply put, tons of user-generated content are posted in various forms daily, and moderating what finds its way to your brand’s online platform can be overwhelming and tedious — unless you leverage AI content moderation.
AI can optimize the moderation process by automatically classifying, flagging, and removing harmful content.
To help you determine how your brand should leverage AI content moderation, let’s walk through what content moderation is and the different AI technology available.

What is content moderation?
Types of content moderation
How AI Content Moderation Can Help Your Brand

It’s common for AI content moderation to implement these guidelines.
Now that you know what content moderation is, let’s explore the different types of content moderation and how AI can play a role in scaling the process.

Types of Content Moderation
To understand how best to use AI to moderate content, you first need to know the different types of content moderation.
Pre-Moderation
Pre-moderation assigns moderators to evaluate your audience’s content submissions before making them public.
If you’ve ever posted a comment somewhere and it was restricted or delayed following approval, then you saw pre-moderation at work.
Pre-moderation aims to protect your users from harmful content that can negatively impact their experience and your brand’s reputation.
However, a downside to pre-moderation is that it can delay conversations and feedback from your community members due to the approval process.
Post-Moderation
With post-moderation, user-generated content is posted in real-time and can be reported as harmful after they are public. After the report is made, a human moderator or content moderation AI will flag and delete the content if it violates established rules.
Reactive Moderation
Some communities rely solely on their members to flag any content that violates community guidelines or is disliked by most users. This is called reactive moderation, a common process in small, tight-knit communities.
With reactive moderation, community members are responsible for reporting inappropriate content to the platform’s administration, consisting of community leaders or whoever runs the site.
Administrators will then check the flagged content to see if it violates any rules. If the administrators confirm the content violates the rules, they will manually remove it.
Distributed Moderation
Distributed moderation consists of community members voting on user-generated content submissions to determine if the content can successfully be submitted. The voting is often done alongside the supervision of senior moderators.
A positive takeaway from distributed moderation is that the process encourages higher participation and engagement from the community. However, it can be risky for brands to trust users to moderate content appropriately.

How AI Content Moderation Can Help Your Brand
It’s no secret that AI-powered tools like the ones available at HubSpot can boost productivity and save marketers time. This is especially true when it comes to content moderation.
Sifting through large amounts of inappropriate, malicious, or harmful content can take a toll on you and your colleagues.
And relying solely on humans can leave room for human error or result in damaging content remaining public for an extended time before it’s finally taken down.
AI content moderation can quickly remove or block various forms of content that clash with your brand. Below are some of the ways AI can optimize your content moderation.
AI Content Moderation for Texts
Natural language processing algorithms can decipher the intended meaning behind a text, and text classification can categorize text based on the content.
For example, AI content moderation can analyze a comment to determine if the text’s tone indicates bullying or harassment.
Entity recognition is another AI technique that can moderate text-based user-generated content. The method finds and extracts companies, names, and locations.
The AI can be used to track your brand’s mentions and your competitor’s mentions.
AI Content Moderation for Images and Videos
Computer Vision, also known as Visual-AI, is a field of AI used to extract data from visual media to determine if there is any unwanted or harmful content.
Furthermore, natural language processing and computer vision in tandem can analyze texts within an image, such as street signs or T-shirt slogans, to detect any suggestive content.
Both forms of AI content moderation can moderate user-generated videos and photos.
AI Content Moderation for Voice Recordings
Voice analysis is the technology used to evaluate voice recordings and their content. It combines several kinds of AI-powered content moderation tools.
For example, voice analysis could transcribe a voice recording into text and run a natural language processing analysis to identify the content’s tone and intention.
In short, AI content moderation can evaluate user-generated content more quickly and more efficiently than manual processes.
It allows your marketing team to spend less time sifting through content and more time crafting your next marketing campaign.
Using AI to optimize your content moderation process also protects your audience, brand, and team from harmful content, making for a more enjoyable experience.

Your marketing strategy can’t stay stagnant if the people you’re selling to are changing their behavior — you have to adapt and learn how to cater to them. Marketers should look for observable differences in buyer behavior to continue meeting their needs.
To help marketers and other business professionals make more data-informed decisions, we’ve conducted a bi-annual survey of 600+ U.S. consumers to better understand how adults spend their money.
Using HubSpot Blog Research from our Consumer Trends Report, we’ll explore the nature of the biggest consumer behavior changes between May 2022 and January 2023 so that you can keep up.
Biggest Consumer Behavior Shifts
1. Consumers are warming up to purchasing products through social media apps.
In May 2022, only 12% of consumers preferred purchasing products through social media apps like Instagram Shop or Facebook Marketplace. In the past three months, 41% of social media users have shared that they feel comfortable purchasing on social media platforms.
That behavior shift is astounding. More than ever, social media marketers are more likely to impact consumer behavior by sharing content that builds interest and trust through these channels.

HubSpot Blog Research also found that the most popular social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, are the most preferred platforms for social shopping. Social shoppers also say Instagram and Facebook have the best in-app shopping experience.
These apps have very easy-to-use shopping interfaces, and it’s plain to see why they can sell or influence users. When consumers watch or interact with the content they enjoy and receive ads relevant to their interests, the products seem more valuable to their hobbies and lifestyles.
2. Gen X and Boomers are shopping through social media more, not just younger gens.
29% of Gen X (up 16% from May 2022) and 16% of Boomers (up 60%) say social media is their preferred product discovery channel. This shift is huge for generations that typically claim to prefer learning about products through TV ads and internet search.

Social media usage isn’t just something teens use every day. Older generations use it just as often. Social networking provides entertainment, community, and a more dedicated space for window shopping.
3. Support for small businesses isn’t dying down — it’s growing.
42% of consumers have chosen a product based on it being made by a small business in the last three months, up 8% from May 2022.

The later effects of the pandemic may be behind this behavior shift. Many consumers saw some of their favorite mom-and-pop shops close due to lost funds from decreased traffic and customers. Now that the worst of COVID is over, many consumers haven’t forgotten to support smaller businesses.
Another reason for supporting small businesses is the shopping experience itself. Many consumers enjoy shopping small due to:

Product diversity that chains don’t offer
More hands-on and personable customer service
The positive feeling of giving back and building a community

4. Consumers are shopping more consciously, supporting businesses with corporate responsibility.
Along with support for the local community, consumers are giving more of their money to companies that take a political stand on issues they care about. These three causes are among the most important to them:

Racial justice
Climate change initiatives
LGBTQ+ rights

Consumers want to support a company that pays it forward. They want to impact the world around them as they become more informed on news of global political unrest and other issues.
Businesses have much to gain from implementing socially responsible initiatives, programs, or donations to attract and retain customers. It may be the leading decision factor behind your next customer’s purchase between you and your competitor.
Keep Up with Consumer Behavior Trends
One of the most significant risks a marketing team can make is failing to adapt to changing consumer behavior shifts. Stay informed on your customers’ behaviors and ensure you meet their needs — even as they change.