One of the social media trends that is causing a lot of ripples is the use of User-Generated Content (UGC). This can be attributed to the fact that brands have realized it is more effective than traditional ads. Social media users also suggest that they trust UGC more than other kinds of content. 

According to one study, 85% of social media users say they trust content created by other users than brands. Therefore, UGC should be part of your social media marketing plan. This article will guide you into user-generated content and show you how to leverage it.

What is User-Generated Content?

This is content generated by users other than brands and published on their private accounts. It showcases the creator using a company's products or providing a review. This can be in videos, images, testimonials, or reviews. When creators post content on a brand's product, they easily influence their followers' buying decisions. 

At times, users create content even without the brands' knowledge. Since people always share about their favorite brands, it's up to you to decide how you want to leverage the content to your advantage. For instance, you can acknowledge the creator and send them free products as a sign of gratitude for their word-of-mouth marketing.

Why UGC Matters

One reason UGC matters is its authenticity. According to a Nosto report, 79% of social media users suggest that UGC affects their buying decisions. Consumers, too, consider UGC to have a 9.8 times greater impact than content by influencers when making a buying decision.

This indicates that both marketers and consumers agree that the influence of their peers affects their buying decisions more than ads. However, for your community and audience to trust your brand, you can add user-generated content as part of your content marketing strategy.

It's important to note that there is a difference between sponsored posts and user-generated content. Sponsorship means a transaction has occurred that needs to be clearly disclosed. If you notice an Instagram post featuring a Sponsored tag, this is either sponsored monetarily or brands have sent them products to showcase on their channels. 

It's also worth noting that the line between content created by influencers and  UGC can be a bit blurry. The main factor that differentiates the two is the size of the audience and the platform where the content is posted. It can be helpful to understand user-generated content on Instagram vs. professional photos.

How to Make the Most Out of User-Generated Content

When considering the right way of using UGC in marketing, you must consider it a modern-day form of word-of-mouth marketing. Just as people trust word-of-mouth marketing from their family members and friends, it's the same way social media users trust their friends online.

However, you should avoid faking user-generated content, as this can harm your brand more and result in a crisis. It could, therefore, cause serious damage to your reputation. Social media users hate it when you are being fake, which could affect your brand’s reputation. That said, here are ways to make the most of user-generated content.

Remind Customers to Share

According to Tintip's study, half of consumers would be happy to have brands guide them in content creation. Brands can guide customers in several ways, such as:

• Starting a challenge, trend, or contest. Adding gamification through challenges or content can go a long way in making your audience take part.
• Creating a hashtag. Ensure that you regularly remind audiences of the existence of the challenge.
• Adding a request for UGC. On your website or app, encourage users to submit their UGC.

Instead of waiting for customers to decide the kind of content they would create, you can inform them of the kind of content you want them to create.

Rewards Users for Sharing

Even when you haven’t stipulated that in your UGC guidelines, reward UGC content creators. At the very least, you should feature them on your brand’s social media pages. Offering a reward for creators can encourage users to participate. It doesn't have to be an expensive reward. You can have something as simple as an entry ticket to an event or a 50% discount code for your products. When considering a reward, think of something that can be sustained in the long run and will work for your audience, budget, or brand.

Involve Your Staff, Too

UGC takes more than showcasing your products or services. To add to the authenticity of the UGC, ensure that even your staff are participating. After all, these are the people who work directly with the product. According to one study, 33% of employees post pictures, videos, and messages about their employers without encouragement from their organization. When they get encouragement from the employer, the number rises to 50%.

You can, therefore, encourage employees to create content about your brand and products in different ways. They can create content about their workday and behind-the-scenes images of what happens in the product creation process.

Do More than Just Share the Content

When social media creates UGC, you should do more than just retweeting and reposting it. Instead, you can ask for the creator's permission to reuse or repurpose the content for marketing efforts. You can reuse UGC content in different ways, such as:

• Ads. Customer content can be a good source of authentic and relatable ads for the web, social media, or other formats. Sometimes, a customer’s tweet highlighting the benefits of your product may be more effective than a video or picture ad.
• Website. You can add your customer's content to your website. You can add it to product photos to showcase your product when a real person uses it.
• Email campaigns. Another place you can showcase UGC content is on your email list content. You only need to send out emails that showcase your customer’s UGC.

Since UGC can also be testimonials and product reviews, you must find a way to use these other formats in your UGC content. For instance, you can add reviews to your websites. 

Implement UGC Best Practices

Even though UGC can help promote your brand greatly, it can also cause a social media crisis when not done correctly. Some of your followers may feel alienated if you don't follow these best practices.

• Ask for permission before using the customer’s content. Don't assume that since they shared the content on their walls, customers will be happy if you share it on yours. Therefore, before posting a user’s content, contact them through comments, emails, or direct messages. Doing that will ensure that you have written approval in case an issue arises in the future.
• Credit the creator. Even after you are given permission, remember to credit the original creator. This will show your respect for them and show others they can expect the same courtesy when creating content for your brand.
• Have a good strategy. You don't have to repost or retweet user content. If you have a variety of content, you can easily be overwhelmed by the large content volume. Therefore, you need a proper strategy for using UGC.
• Consider diversity. Instead of sharing only one kind of content, have a diverse range from different people.

Remember that UGC is a form of social listening. Understanding the customers' views and using the products is possible. You can also check the social trends of the audience and learn how to keep up with them.

Provide Value to Customers

No matter how good your offer is to creators, you will struggle to get positive responses if you are not giving value to your customers. To ensure your audience is enthusiastic about creating UGC, you should have a product they are happy to recommend. 

When you do that, you will not even need to contact customers to create content about your brand. As long as you work hard to create value for your customers, they will have no problem creating content for your brand.

Steps to Follow in Implementing a UGC Strategy

Here are the steps to follow in implementing the UGC strategy:

Understand Your Business Goals

When implementing a UGC content strategy, you must determine your business goals, objectives, and target audience. It is also important to understand the style and tone of your brand. With these key assets, you can easily identify the right platform and channel to find and curate UGC.

Determine the Content Guidelines

You should create clear guidelines on the type of content you need for your UGC strategy. This should align with your brand’s objectives, past content performance, and audience preferences. For instance, you might realize that product reviews, recommendations, and unboxing videos performed well in the past. Do you need more images, text, or video content? What channel do you need to use for UGC?

Set Goals

Like any other digital marketing strategy for lead generation, you need to have a goal for what you plan to achieve with the UGC content. Is it to drive engagement, increase brand awareness, or increase sales? Like any other area in life, you should set smart goals (Specific, Measurable, and Time-bound).

Once you have a goal for your UGC content, you need to start thinking of how you will source content. You can source by monitoring social media hashtags and channels relevant to your brand. You can also contact creators who request to use their UGC. Many will not have a problem with content used by their favorite brands and will even share the posts with their friends.

Another way to find UGC content is to incentivize consumers to share pictures or videos when using the product or service. You can even run a social media user-generated contest.

Curate Your UGC

After getting UGC opportunities, you need to curate the content carefully. Find content aligning with your brand's values, style, and message. The content should also be authentic, high-quality, and comply with legal requirements, such as copyright laws.

Start Using UGC

After curating the UGC content, you need to leverage it across different marketing channels. You can use UGC to create social media posts, in-store displays, website banners, and more. You must also provide the right attribution for the content creators and comply with relevant copyright laws and other legal requirements.

Drive Community Engagement

To make your UGC strategy successful, you need to drive community engagement on social media. You can do that by responding to their messages and comments to showcase UGC and give feedback to provide a better brand community. You can also encourage the creation of more UGC content.

Check Your Content Performance

You must track whether your UGC marketing strategy works by checking key performance indicators. These include engagement rates, conversions, revenue generated, and more. You can get an idea of your UGC's performance by checking engagement metrics such as comments, shares, clicks, and likes.

Analyze and Improve

Business analytics play an important part in digital marketing. You can use different analytics tools to track the engagement and reach of your UGC over a particular period to determine how it evolved. You can see the content that performed well and the one that performed poorly. You can then use this data to adjust your content strategy, including the requirements, sourcing, and sharing. Remember to keep repeating what is working to improve your UGC campaigns.

Conclusion

UGC content can help take your brand to the next level when well utilized. It is one of the digital marketing trends you cannot ignore. However, properly implementing a UGC strategy requires proper planning, curation, and implementation. When you do that, you can effectively use UGC to increase customer loyalty, engagement, and conversion. You should also keep engaging with your community and showcasing your brand to content creators and loyal customers.