What is User Generated Content?
This is one of the most asked questions we receive today and the concept of it may seem foreign, but the results of positive UGC can supersede any other forms of marketing significantly.
User Generated Content is simply put, when a person posts on social media about a business. It is any form of content that is created by users or consumers about a brand or product.
Consumers today are significantly influenced by their friends and family’s recommendations when it comes to making purchases. This is the concept behind UGC.
There are other advantages to UGC as well. Consider the exposure your brand is given if someone else posts about your product or service. That photo will not only have brand trust recommendation from that person, but will also reach all of their followers. Whether that is a couple hundred or thousands, chances are they are reaching the types of consumers that would benefit them. And the amount of UGC photos that have stunning imagery nowadays are surprisingly significant. People take pride in their own personal content as well.
For example, beloved local restaurant, Avanti’s, ‘broke the internet’ with some recent user generated content.
Avanti’s shared a picture that a customer posted(with their permission) of their cute children having a parking lot party recently. With over 850 likes and 36 shares, Avanti’s saw their highest reach and impressions on Facebook yet with this post.
I mean, how could you not love an adorable parking lot party?! They brought their own picnic table and they even have the restaurant and logo in the background!
Naturally, sometimes the best content is just genuine and in the moment. But we have put a list together of tips to try and encourage UGC from your customers.
1. Create a contest or giveaway. Ask followers to enter by posting a photo with your product and have the picture with the most likes win a gift certificate or product. Be sure to have proper guidelines in place for your contest post. For example, “like, comment and follow our page to enter.” Please note that if you intend on using a custom hashtag that their post privacy MUST be set to public or else the hashtag can not be viewed by a business page.
2. Find out where your customer are. Be conscious of which social media platform best suits your brand and where most of your engaging customers are. Depending on the type of industry you are in will greatly affect where your users are. Whether it is Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest, Twitter or other, you will want to engage in the channel that best suits your brand.
3. Use Influencers. An influencer is perfect for guaranteed, quality UGC. You are basically paying for just that. And not to mention, you can pick out which influencer to use. So it is the upmost importance to use an influencer that will benefit your brand best. This does not necessarily mean that they will be the ones with the most followers.
4. Look for it. Sometimes UGC is already sitting there for the taking. Especially if you haven’t already, do a sweep of your current social media accounts. Look up posts that have tagged you, post recommendations and if you have custom hashtags, look them up regularly as well. Be sure to ask permission before using their content but most people are more than happy to share!
We as an agency are constantly brainstorming ideas and mindsets for bridging the gap between UGC and traditional media. We feel that this is a trend that will continue to grow in importance and will eventually become as natural as social media itself. And if you think about it, we are all influencers in a sense already!
So for a limited time, we are offering a Giveaway Management Package for any local business who would like a little sneak peak of what we can offer. This is a limited time offer that will promote UGC for your business and we will walk you through the steps of setting up the content, which social channels would work best with your brand and personalizing the best strategy for YOU! Email us at kristin@inspyragency.com to set up a consultation today.
