Substance and Style

    Basics of User Generated Content

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    What it is: 

    User generated content is content about your business or organization that isn’t created internally. It’s content about you created by other people. Asking for it can be risky because you lose control over the content, exposing you to potential badmouthing, trolling, and even liability. That said, the payoff can far outweigh the risks. Some examples of UGC are:

    1. Customer feedback. Testimonials, ratings, reviews, and customer opinions are all examples of feedback UGC.
    2. Product or service showcase. Pictures or videos showing product use, creative uses, before and after comparisons, tutorials, or anything else that showcases your products or services are this kind of UGC. 
    3. Anything posted in response to your prompts, questions, or other requests.
    4. Posts made with hashtags created by or about your brand. 
    5. User stories/narratives shared for any of the above reasons, and 
    6. Artwork or other creative works created for the same reasons. 

    Why You Want It: 

    User generated content is extremely valuable. In addition to it being content you don’t have to produce yourself (who has the time for all the content we need to produce?), it offers the following benefits:

    1. Consumers perceive it as inherently more trustworthy than brand produced content. UGC is produced by people who don’t have anything to gain by singing the praises of a company, so people trust it more. 
    2. It allows deeper connections with your audience. As you see what kind of approaches your customers take to producing content, you come to understand them better and form actual relationships with them. You start to know their real behaviors beyond what customer personas tell you, which allows you to target your marketing more specifically. 
    3. It invites engagement. Users will automatically want to talk to each other much the same way fans of bands or authors found each other on message boards 20 years ago. When you show people what they have in common, they naturally want to discuss it with each other. 
    4. It leads to more UGC. Because it encourages this engagement, it leads to more participation. When people see their peers posting, they want to post as well. 
    5. It improves SEO, sometimes dramatically. When people talk about you, the algorithm assumes you’re worth talking about. 

    The right way to get it:

    There are hundreds of examples of successful and unsuccessful UGC campaigns online. You’re really only limited by your own creativity and budget. Here are some ways to make the most out of any campaign: 

    1. Be strategic and thoughtful about the campaign. Make sure it fits your audience. The most important thing is to appeal to the people who already care about your business.
    2. Create rules and standards to protect your brand and limit your liability. Make following the rules a condition of winning any prizes offered. Examples include having people consent to having their content used, having photo releases signed, and making sure entrants are adults. Make sure you’ve been forthright with your audience about your intentions. The purpose of the campaign is to market your business; make sure that’s understood. 
    3. Highlight your core values in order to attract people who share them. One way to accomplish this is to tie the campaign to a charity or use it to raise money or awareness for a cause. 
    4. Create a community users want to be part of. The more you can make people feel welcome, the more engaged they will be.
    5. Develop an incentive that encourages participation. Prizes or benefits can be anything as long as they appeal to your target audience. Common choices are free products or services, trips or event tickets, and the chance to do something unusual (write a jingle, be a walk-on on a TV show, etc.). As long as you are tuned into your audience, you will be able to find a prize they’ll find valuable that also relates to your brand.
    6. Leverage relationships with influencers and creators. If you can get them involved, whether you pay them or not, you will reach their audience. Make sure to choose someone who appeals to your target market and whose association with your brand would make sense. 
    7. Involve your staff. Encourage your staff to promote the campaign and consider offering a separate incentive for them, such as extra vacation days or other perqs. 
    8. Advertise the campaign on your social media channels and website. Make sure to get the word out so participation is high.