What is 'UGC'?

It couldn’t be more simple - content generated by users. It can be any form of content, including images, videos, and reviews published online to social media.

It can easily help you drive awareness, engagement and revenue and be used as a marketing tool to provide reliable and effective social proof in marketing campaigns.

Here are some ways to maximise user-generated content :

Rating and Reviews

Would you believe that over 70% of consumers say they look at product reviews before making a purchase? We bet you’re one of them! And so you should be - reviews could make or break the purchasing decision.

You should encourage your customer to leave reviews about your brand, either on your website under the specific product, Facebook page or third-party review sites.

Video Content

Video is a really effective way to create UGC, it can help your audiences connect with you in ways other creative content can’t. They offer real-life, original perspectives to your product and services, which results in giving more credibility to your brand.

User-generated videos have immense potential for share-ability, which can help boost your following substantially. They provide audience-trusted insights into your business’ genuineness and integrity.

Challenges and Games

This requires users to complete a few tasks and are then rewarded and recognised for their participation. The aim is to make users complete tasks and share their achievements - prizes can be given to the winners of the games like offering them special discounts, awards, unlocking badges, leaderboards and many more!

Small incentives inspire users to put extra efforts to do things they otherwise wouldn’t and as a result, you increase brand engagement. This allows you to build a long-term relationship with your clients and helps to transform followers into loyal customers, encouraging them to make a repeat purchase.

Check out one of our recent campaigns that involved users taking part in a challenge of videoing themselves in the product with a chance to win a $500 gift card.

Customer Recognition

It’s important to keep the conversation going about your product or services, especially when they are using it religiously - this is a great way to get UGC and at the same time appreciate your customers!

You can ask your customers to share their progress and improvements that your product has made to them. You can then repurpose this content and share it on your own channels. This is a great way to get reliable social proof and reviews about your product.

In the long run, you’ll end up with trust worthy customers that will want to continue supporting your brand

So they’re some of the most relatable, engaging and shareable ways to share UGC, and the greatest way to increase conversion.

But sometimes we question why people feel compelled to create content for companies when they are not getting paid to do so…

This implies the overall benefits are hugely overlooked and are not acknowledged as much as they should be.

With the likes of your competitors, it’s important to make your brand stick out from the others and promote what makes your product or service better.

Benefits:

• Take Advantage of Content Curation - you have the power to share the best and most relevant third-party content with your audience with the intention of adding value.
• Boost Social Media Reach and Growth - increasing social traffic through likes, shares and comments. Think about it, if people love your product there’s a chance they will want to share it on their socials and their followers, just like a free ad. Meaning more social media reach and engagement results in more brand awareness, eventually leading to more sales.
• Gain Audience Insights - this type of content generates honest opinions from the consumers without prompting them for a review. It is a great way to easily understand your audience, pain and pleasure points, and even the type of content they interact with.
• Gain Trusted Recommendations - The statistic shows that 92% of consumers trust organic, user-generated content more than traditional advertising. Reliability plays a big role in the decision-making process when consumers are considering making a purchase, they are actually more likely to make a purchase if they can check trusted social proof.
• Generate High Conversions Rate - user-generated content converts traffic at a higher rate than brand produced content. If there happens to be an easy way to increase conversions, you have to do it, right?

But...

We would be lying if we said there could be some potential issues to be aware of, including...

• Negative Content - you can’t please everyone, it’s almost guaranteed that user-generated content could lead to some negative comments or reviews that will end up being shared online.
• Constant Monitoring - discussions can start quickly online and people can turn nasty so it’s important to quickly deteriorate to avoid online mudslinging.
• Legal Issues - although the content contains your product or brand it belongs to someone else, so you will need their express permissions if you want to share other people’s content on your business social media pages.

Well there you have it…

The benefits clearly outweigh the issues and there are plenty of creative ways to get your audience sharing your brand.

Don’t forget - people are more likely to trust and rely on what others are saying about your product or service before making their decision to buy.

It can work wonders for your content marketing!