In the fifth installment of our Five Layers of Community Protection blog series, we dive deeper into how producing meaningful Transparency Reports both internally and externally can help your organization measure and guide community management decisions to stay ahead of evolving trends and legislation.
Layer Five: Transparency Reports
The Five Layers of Community Protection are a holistic approach to health and safety in digital communities. In prior blogs, we learned about the first four layers:
By applying all five layers to their digital communities, platforms maintain their commitment to safety by design and create an inclusive community where all users are free to interact without fear of discrimination or harassment.
Layer 5 is focused on better understanding and measuring the health of your community over time. Producing Transparency Reports will build trust within your organization and with your community.
Why It’s Important
The world is not static, and neither is your online community. Monitoring and maintaining your community help to keep it healthy and safe as it continues to grow and evolve. Data can be one of your most valuable assets in evaluating the wellness of your community. It can inform improvements to your customer experience and help guide your community’s success.
An active and engaged community builds the foundation and potential for a successful business. Releasing data that encapsulates the areas of focus and outcomes of your Trust & Safety operations demonstrates your organization’s commitment to your community’s continued health, wellness, and safety which, as we know, directly corelate to player engagement and retention.
Data Drives Decisions
Data and insights are critical components for making better community management decisions. At Two Hat, we know we are adding true value for our customers when we provide them with strategic insights into their community, which becomes a leading indicator of their company’s future growth.
Through Two Hat’s reports, our customers have:
- Spotted & addressed inconsistencies in moderator decisions. This resulted in meaningful improvements to their community operations.
- Observed an increase in subversive chat, which led them to discover bot activity that was disrupting their community.
- Delivered new insights during staff meetings, highlighting all the negative content they have protected their community members from.
Accessibility is Key
Releasing Transparency Reports frequently and making them accessible to everyone on your platform is key to building trust within your community. Inclusive reports are formatted so that they are accessible to all members and written using plain language to ensure comprehension. By making these reports inclusive and easily accessible, your organization is letting ALL users know that they’re an integral part of your community and that you are taking them into consideration in all your initiatives.
Increasing Transparency
Transparency reports demonstrate to users that your organization is taking strong, proactive action against inappropriate and harmful content. By doing so, you’ll foster a community of trust and openness, which keeps users engaged and promotes a powerful brand image that values its community members.
Major technology and communications companies, such as Google, Reddit and Microsoft, regularly publish transparency reports, which disclose the amount of data that government agencies request over time and how the data is used. This ensures that platform users maintain visibility and oversight into whom their data is being shared with and when.
Additionally, transparency reports help organizations stay compliant with existing user privacy rules and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and Communications Decency Act (CDA). These reports also help anticipate evolving legislation by disclosing information to and building trust with your users before your company is required to do so.
A Holistic Approach
To learn how you can holistically build a healthy and thriving community, we encourage you to read the rest of our Five Layers of Community Protection blog series. You can also request a live demo of our Community Sift platform to learn how you can you protect your online community and improve your users’ online experiences.