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What is Polling?

Polling is an interactive activity which aims to survey public opinion about a particular topic. A poll consists of a question and response options.
It is like an item of a multiple choice type of examination. Like an examination, the respondent is requested to pick an answer from the given options.
Say for example this poll about your favorite singer: “Is Lady Gaga deserving to win 3 Grammy’s? A. Yes! B. No! C. Undecided.”
All answers from respondents are gathered and classified.
The result is then showed to the respondents. Results are analyzed statistically and are used to decide on recommendations and future actions.
Who conducts polling? Authorities and businesses do.
During elections, polling is being used. People cast their votes to identify who are their choices to be the next leaders in the state. Thus, results of election polls name who the next President is.
Businesses use polling also to know whether their customers are satisfied with their service or not. Through polls, businesses are able to identify whether their service performs well in the market or not.
Some businesses use their in-house research department to conduct polls. However, some hire polling companies to do it for them. Say for example US businesses using Poll iT, a polling service offered by New Media Services.
In the last decades, polls were done in the paper-and-pencil approach. Respondents answered the poll question on the paper provided for them. Hosts of polls needed time to look for respondents and travelled to places where the respondents live.
Now, technology does it for lazy man. Polling can be done with the use of the internet and mobile devices.
With this new system, people do not need to knock from door to door. What you need are simply computer sets, polling software and Information Technology (IT) specialists to manage the whole activity.
In this new system, polling is much easier. First, you must prepare the question and the response options. Then, IT specialists publish the question and response options in your business site or web communities. Thus, when respondents visit the sites, they can answer the poll question immediately.
Respondents can also receive the poll question and response options via Short Message Service and via e-mails. In web polling, respondents just click their answer in the website where the poll is published. In a few seconds, they can see partial results.
In mobile polling, respondents text their answer back, as stated in the instruction.
One special type of mobile polling is voice. The respondent’s mobile number is dialed manually and the question is delivered verbally. This is more accepted in statistics. However, some countries prohibit this kind of mobile polling.
Respondents can also access the website where the poll is posted using Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) browsers. Web polls can be customized for mobile viewing.
Instead of manual tallying, computer software gathers all answers from thousands of respondents around the world and tallies them. The software also publishes the results of the poll in the host website, via e-mail or SMS.
Businesses use polling for two main purposes. First, they want to know if their customers like their service or not. They want to know the level of acceptance of their service especially the new ones.
Second, they want to generate information about their customers. Through polls, businesses can come up with databases of names, locations and contact details of their customers.
Polls also appear in popular social networking sites like Facebook. Users of these sites enjoy rating their favorite celebrities, asking themselves if they like a certain politician, and even reflecting on how strong their faith is.
In Australia, most notable polling organizations include Newspoll, Roy Morgan Research, Galaxy Polling and AC Nielsen Polling. These organizations tackle questions evolving around politics, entertainment, sports, lifestyle and business.
To respondents, it is fun answering poll questions. But to businesses and other hosts of polls, it is a serious evaluating tool and a means to create good relationship with their constituents- a foundation of success in the trade.

Different types of Moderation

Moderation is the process approving, monitoring and modifying contents of a website to ensure that the website does not contain any undesirable item. Moreover, it is a management function of assuring that no online item can damage a business’s reputation.
Nowadays, anything published online can be viewed by millions around the world. A simple error can create serious damages to your business. Thus, it is a need to moderate all contents of your website to make sure that all items in your website, from articles to videos to comments, are in line with your objectives and existing laws and will not create any controversy.
Moderation is a big task. The good thing about technology is that you can also moderate other sites. That is with the help of content moderating services like WWW Moderation from New Media Services.
Basically, the first items that should be moderated are the words that you use in your website. From titles to paragraph words that you publish or have published, these need to be checked and reviewed. Moderation makes sure that the texts in your websites are all right and desirable to your business. Text moderation makes sure that texts do not spark legal suits. That is the most common type of moderation.
Another type of moderation is chat moderation. In some websites, chatting is permitted to increase the interactivity of website. Thus, you must assure that no one in the chat space is degrading your service or anyone participating in the chat space. Foul words and undesirable slang expressions should be minimized.
Moreover, pictures are needed to be monitored also. In some social networking sites, pictures are filtered to avoid those with themes on sex, crimes and prohibited drugs. You need to approve pictures that your customers contribute.
In some instances, you must remove pictures that viewers think are degrading to a race, gender or an individual. In picture moderation, some pictures- that you think are not offensive but viewers think are, are also needed to be removed.
Like pictures, videos should also be moderated. You must pick decent and original videos that your contributors send. This will minimize morally-degrading videos and pornographic clips. Remember, there are some videos that humiliate big personalities.
The worse thing is that there are times that you do not realize that a video is humiliating and upon publishing, you receive complaints. These can be managed with video moderation.
Websites with commenting and posting features also promote interactivity among viewers. However, some comments and posts may contain offensive remarks about your business. With comment and post moderations, “bad” posts and comments can be removed. Using some powerful software, these remarks can be deleted even though they are posted in other websites.
In forums, moderation is also a need. Topics must be helpful to the business. Moderation includes starting a relevant topic. Opinions must be checked before and after these are published in the forum space. When a forum message meets protests from viewers, the message needs to be removed immediately. That is what we call forum moderation.

Lastly, blog moderation targets blogs about your business and service. Blogs are widely read like Twitter tweets and Facebook posts. Blogs are even longer so a blogger can expand his point. Imagine a blog counting top ten reasons why its blogger hates your business. This kind of blog can bring damages into your business so before more can learn about the blog, it should be removed immediately.
One similar goal of all types of moderation is to increase the interactivity of a website. Moderators are obliged to answer queries of viewers in posts, comments, forums and even blogs. Moderation takes charge in satisfying questions from viewers. Thus, moderation can be part of customer relations department of a business.
Before damages and controversies arise, you need to make sure that what is published online is not giving you bad remarks. Remember, online messages are like flu viruses that can spread in just seconds.

Success Behind Online Moderation

Because effective moderation unlocks a successful website and effective online presence, you should know how to moderate your online moderation.

First of all, you should know the three different roles in your website department. You can impose dozens of roles but do not forget to have this three: author, moderator and publisher.

The moderator approves the work of the author. The moderator checks if the work of the author is free from any chance of creating negative issues. The publisher posts all approved items to be included in the website. The publisher also replaces some posts after the moderator modifies them.

When should you moderate? There are six answers to this. First is before, or what we call pre-moderation.
Before an article, forum message, picture, or video is published in a website, the moderator reviews it. Pre-moderation should be done if your market is children. Moderators check if the pictures are free from themes on bullying or sexual grooming. Moderators check if messages in comment spaces, blogs, and chat spaces are free from things that have negative influences to their growth and development.

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People Behind Moderation

Moderators are skilled people developing your business website to make sure that no item online will give your business bad image. They are granted access to the content of your website to make sure no item online contains undesirable remarks about your business.
Because they have the access to the content of website, one of their concerns is to answer questions of viewers about your business and service. They stay awake, 24/7, to monitor forums and posts that ask specific things about the business and its offers. They also process complaints from viewers.
In a website, we have administrators, moderators and publishers. The administrators manage technical details in running the website. They hire employees to supervise all online activities like moderation. Administrators can act as moderators also since they know the rules on acceptable pictures, articles, blog topics and other items that can be included in the website. The publisher is in charge of posting all “moderated” items from the moderators. Sometimes, the moderators can also be the publishers.
For websites with chat services, a chat moderator heads the flow of the interaction. He greets all viewers and invites them to join the chat. He gives instructions to viewers how to start chatting with other viewers. Most often, he opens up a relevant topic that participants can give comments to. He makes sure that every opinion from a participant is given attention to. He answers questions of participants also about the business and its service.
In the process of chat moderation, the moderator screens messages that need not to be posted. He tells the publisher which messages should be and should not be published in the chat space. Unpublished messages either humiliate another participant or are very abusive and sensitive to be shown in public. He has also the power to block abusive participants. He manages the flow of the chat.
Same through with a chat moderator, a forum moderator usually opens up a topic. He makes sure that the topic is interesting to entice viewers to share their opinion about it. He also answers queries and makes sure that all remarks from participants are given attention to. He filters messages that are undesirable to both the business and forum participants.
Picture and video moderators take charge in approving pictures or videos worth viewing. A picture moderator approves the publishing of a picture in your website. A video moderator also approves the publishing of a video. They make sure that the pictures and videos are not pornographic and not degrading to any race, gender, age, place or even an individual. They must be aware also of copyright laws that can spark legal and social issues.
Picture and video moderators have strategies in knowing whether the published pictures and videos are worth-viewing. They can conduct polls asking viewers to rate an item from 1 to 5. When they find that a picture or a video receives very low rate, they can slash it out and replace another item.
They also make sure that they hear from viewers. They are obliged to record remarks from people. Sometimes, they cannot tell whether a video clip is pornographic or not without comments from people. From viewers’ opinions, moderators can come up with decision whether to remove an item or not.
For comments in websites, they are being monitored by a comment moderator. The comment moderator makes sure that no comment is too offensive to the business and to any person. That is why most comments in a business website are all positive about the business. The negative ones are slashed out by the moderator.
Nowadays, post and blog moderators have now friends in their work. Some companies offer software that assists moderators in guarding their businesses against negative posts and blogs in other websites. One of the companies that offer this service is New Media Services. With its WWW Moderation, posts and blogs inside and outside a business website are monitored. Positive remarks are maintained and the negative ones are deleted.
In the internet, there is complete freedom of speech. People can tweet and post any comment about your business. Your website writers and publishers can also commit mistakes. Before any error will be exposed to millions of people around the world who may be your customers or future customers, there is one thing that you can do: moderate.

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