Social Media Moderating

Right off the bat, I know this is super late. Life, right? Rather than get into my list of excuses, let's dive right into our breakdown of working for Respondology.

Respondology is a third-party social media moderation company. I'm not sure what social media platforms they cover, but I do know they at least moderate posts on Facebook and Instagram. Respondology isn't the moderation company Meta uses, but rather is hired by other brands who don't want to moderate their own pages, or don't have the manpower to.

Respondology has an application to fill out if you want to work for them. They currently have a waitlist, and it's important to note that moderating comments with them is an independent contractor position. "Responders", as they're called, are paid per comment moderated. The base pay is half a cent per comment. I've worked for them for roughly two years, and in that time, they've only raised that pay once. It was for a limited time, and only pertained to certain comments, so keep that in mind. Once you're off the waitlist, there's a training course to take, followed by a test. You have to score high on the test, or you won't be hired.

Once you're hired, you're given login credentials for their app. The job must be done from a phone or tablet. While this makes it a great opportunity for those on the go, it does get frustrating to feel like all you've done all day is stare at your phone. Remember to take frequent breaks to avoid eye strain.

Inside the app, there are different tabs. "My Guidelines" will direct you to the list of brands currently using Respondology's platform. Clicking on one of the brands will show you what type of comments they want removed, and what they want kept. After reading these, there are options to either practice or take a test, which is usually ten "test" comments. It's important to note that while a lot of brands may have similar requirements, there can be differences. Don't test into too many brands at once or you risk getting them confused.

After you've tested into some brands that seem interesting, you can go back to the main page and begin moderating! Shown below is what the app interface looks like, complete with a green thumbs up button for accepting a comment and a red thumbs down button for removing a comment.

There's also a tab within the app for viewing the dashboard, which lets you know things like your ID number (used for navigating the awkward tables displaying weekly earnings and performance), which brands need more Responders, what days and times are expected to be busy, and other helpful information.

Respondology pays weekly through Stripe. Remember to check and/or update your Stripe account regularly. One week my paycheck got delayed because Stripe wanted me to update my banking information. Outside of that, both Stripe's and Respondology's support teams are amazing and quick to respond. If you have an issue, reach out.

With the platform overview done, let's review how much you can make. Their own weekly earnings table displays everyone's earnings, so while you can see people making hundreds of dollars a week, that doesn't tell you how much time those workers are devoting. So, in order to give as accurate a review as possible, I worked for forty hours on the platform to get an hourly breakdown.

In 40 hours, I made $185.82. This breaks down to $4.65 an hour. Is that great? No. Is it horrible? Also no. Like I said earlier, there are times that are busier than others. I had four of my forty hours left yesterday, so I decided to get them all done that day. I think in those four hours I made four dollars. If you don't learn what times are best, there will almost certainly be times where you're staring at a blank screen for minutes on end waiting for new comments to come through. Besides that, I only have a couple dozen brands on my list of brands I've tested into. There are over a hundred more I could do if I wanted.

This could be a great side job for stay-at-home moms or anyone looking to make some extra money. A word of caution, though: it can be mentally draining. Besides the fact that some comments are completely unhinged, I have some ethical issues with the work itself. There are brands using Respondology to delete any comment that could be "damaging" to the brand itself. This means that theoretically, a brand could scam every one of its customers and as a Responder, you're in charge of deleting comments saying the brand is scamming, which enables the brand to keep going. On the other hand, there are some brands that feel good to moderate for. For instance, if you're passionate about LGBTQ rights, moderate for the Trevor Project!

Survey Junkie is up next for me to review! Stay tuned for realistic breakdowns of hourly earnings on various work from home opportunities, and feel free to request other reviews in the comments! It does take sometime for me to get them done, but they will get done!