Entrepreneurial Moderation: Turning Volunteer Work into Career Capital

At All Things in Moderation 2024, MIT researcher Anna Gibson shared her initial findings around the concept of "entrepreneurial moderation." Her research sheds light on how volunteer moderators of online communities, particularly Facebook groups, are translating their unpaid work into valuable career capital.

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MIT Researcher Anna Gibson.

Anna began by tracing the evolution of Facebook groups, highlighting their significance as a platform feature. Introduced around 2010 as Facebook’s answer to popular forum offerings around the web, Facebook groups let users to connect around shared interests beyond their social networks.

These groups have been instrumental in providing support and community for marginalised groups, individuals with health conditions, and diasporas.

Though there are growing numbers of professional online community managers and moderators around the world, there are vast numbers of people engaging in aspects of this work in volunteer settings at any given time (an estimated 70 million globally on Facebook groups alone). These moderators perform a crucial role, operating between commercial content moderators, regular users and the higher echelons of Facebook's policy makers.

Understanding Volunteer Moderators

From interviews with 41 volunteer moderators and admins, along with ethnographic field notes, Anna uncovered three main discourses in the ways that these volunteers perceive and justify their work:

1. Civic Discourses: Emphasising ideals of democracy, free speech, and procedural justice.

2. Familial Discourses: Highlighting community and harmony.

3. Entrepreneurial Discourses: Viewing moderation work as labour capital that can be leveraged towards career goals.

Entrepreneurial Moderation

Anna defines entrepreneurial moderation as the understanding and translation of volunteer moderation work into career advancement. This concept is facilitated by the central network position of moderators and the creative, collaborative nature of their labor. It involves two key types of translation:

1. Management and Leadership Experience: Moderation experience is framed as management and leadership skills.

2. Community to Audience: Groups and communities are viewed as audiences, enhancing the moderator's social capital.

Practical Examples

Anna shared two practical examples from her interviews:

• Simon: Initially a lurker, he became more involved in the community after becoming a moderator. This increased involvement provided him with untapped opportunities, and enriched his experience of the community.

• Hermione: She cited her moderation experience in a job interview, which impressed the interviewers and helped her secure the job.

Anna discussed how platforms like Facebook facilitate this entrepreneurial translation by providing moderators with gatekeeper status and promoting their groups. This networked position allows moderators to gain knowledge, resources, and social distinction.

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, Anna explained how moderation experience is legitimised through social processes. This involves the translation of embodied knowledge into institutional cultural capital, recognised through certifications and formal qualifications.

Implications for Community Managers

Anna's research has some interesting implications for both professional and volunteer community managers:

• Career Development: Volunteer moderation can be a stepping stone to career advancement in community management and other fields. We have seen numerous examples of this across Australian communities, where active members are recruited by community managers into assisting moderator roles, and have then parlayed this into paid community management roles.

• Skill Recognition: Platforms and organisations should recognize and validate the skills gained through volunteer moderation.

• Training and Support: Providing training and support for volunteer moderators can enhance their effectiveness and career prospects.

Anna Gibson's concept of entrepreneurial moderation highlights the potential of volunteer moderation work as a valuable asset for career development. By understanding and leveraging this potential, community managers can not only enhance their professional growth but also contribute to the legitimization and recognition of community management as a vital field.

Key Takeaways:

• Volunteer moderation work can be translated into valuable career capital.

• Platforms play a crucial role in facilitating this translation.

• Recognising and validating the skills of volunteer moderators can enhance their career prospects (which may offer incentive for community managers looking to engage surrogates).

• Providing training and support for volunteer moderators is essential.

  All Things in Moderation ran online 16-17 May 2024 and featured over 25 expert contributors from around the world and across practitioner, academic and policy disciplines.