ModSquad

ModSquad
Private Company
Industry Social Media Consulting
Founded 2007[1]
Headquarters Sacramento, California[2], United States
Area served
 Global
Key people
 Amy Pritchard, CEO
Mike Pinkerton, COO[1]
Services Digital Engagement Strategy
Content Moderation
Social Media
Community Management
Customer Support
Social Listening
Crisis Management
Members 10,000 Mods
Website ModSquad.com

ModSquad is a global social media management services based in the United States.[3][4] The company currently has over 10,000 moderators on staff.[3][4] ModSquad offers digital engagement services and teams across online, e-commerce, in-game, and social media channels.[3][4][5][6]

History

The company was founded by attorney Amy Pritchard in 2007,[1] to provide brands with a way to give the members of their online communities a more relevant, personalized experience. Looking at the step change that today's brands could make in managing their online communities as akin to the London Mods youth culture,[2] with COO Mike Pinkerton she created a service based around remote community managers and moderators (Mods), to staff virtual sites.[3][7] The firm originally specialized in providing avatar staffing,[7] but soon expanded to supplying forum moderation and customer service across a wide range of brands.[3][4] By 2010, the company had 500 experienced Mods working on more than 100 clients' sites.[3]

Present

Presently the company has over 10,000 "Mods," or moderators, in its network, a 24/7 operations center in Sacramento, California established in 2010,[2] and an office in Brooklyn, New York City,[7] and an operations center in Derry, Northern Ireland.[8] In November 2015, the company, formerly known as Metaverse Mod Squad, changed its name to ModSquad. Clients include Warner Bros. (including Gossip Girl and Harry Potter),[7] Harper Collins, the Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, the National Football League, Reel FX Entertainment (parent firm of Webosaurs), Electronic Arts, enVie Interactive, and the United States Department of State.[2][4][9][10]

Operations

The company operates by providing services via over 10,000 "Mods," or moderators, in its network via a series of outsource-provision contracts. Operating under a predefined customer service brief, vetted and trained Mods manage a variety of online community activities, specializing in digital engagement from forum chat through to customer service,[2] maintenance tickets, and quality assurance.[11] Mods help to maintain and shape clients unique online communities by assisting with community events, assisting users with problems both technical and social, orienting new arrivals, and channeling community concerns and feedback to corporate clients.[12]

Mods take both an active position in forums by acting as the corporate client to provide services, as well as passively looking through the end user experience to monitor social media and quality assurance testing. In active mode Mods:[7] moderate content; chat with customers; manage communities; protect child safety (approved by Safe Kids USA);[5][6] monitor game experience;[13] provide customer support; check for bugs; and buzz in social media. Using a variety of Customer Relations Management systems,[14] Mods work from anywhere in the world with secure internet access, to enable services to be provided in local natural language during peak traffic and activity hours.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Our Culture". modsquad.com. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Mark Anderson (September 21, 2012). "Web moderation firm expands into customer support". Sacramento Business Journal. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Larson, Christine (February 26, 2011). "A Patrol for the Web's Playgrounds". The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Metaverse Mod Squad". Bloomberg. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  5. 1 2 "Metaverse Mod Squad". Safe Kids USA. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  6. 1 2 "Izzy Neis, Director of Digital Engagement & Strategy, Metaverse Mod Squad". Digital Kids Edu. September 18, 2013. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Janey Bracken (December 12, 2008). "Metaverse Mod Squad In Big Demand". CNN iReport. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Londonderry gets 100 new jobs in Metaverse Mod Squad expansion". BBC. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  9. ↑ "Angel Selected by Metaverse Mod Squad to Enhance Customer Call Center Experience" (Press release by Angel.Com). Video Games Industry Today and Yahoo Finance. Mediawire. February 23, 2011. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  10. ↑ "FUNGOPLAY PARTNERS WITH ONLINE KIDS SAFETY EXPERTS METAVERSE MOD SQUAD". Develop Online. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  11. ↑ Dimitri Onistsuk (April 10, 2013). "Meet the partner: Metaverse Mod Squad". Shipwire. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  12. 1 2 Starratt Scheetz (September 9, 2013). "Metaverse Mod Squad". The Work from Home Reporter. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Metaverse Mod Squad". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  14. ↑ Shamila Janakiraman (September 19, 2008). "Parature and Metaverse Mod Squad Enter Integration Partnership". TMC.net. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 2/15/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.