You may have seen different brands and businesses share user-generated content on their social media profiles. If we look at it from a marketing standpoint, it is a brilliant strategy. This is because not only does it help you establish your credibility, but it enables you to expand your reach, gain more exposure, maintain relevance, and promote your brand in a cost-effective yet creative way each time.

However, this is only possible when you use user-generated content the right way and leverage it by employing strategies so that it fits within the broader marketing framework. 

If you want to understand how to leverage user-generated content to establish trust, it is vital to first learn why it works and how you can get your customers or audiences interested in creating content for you. In this post, we have addressed all the pertinent questions you may have regarding user-generated content and how you can leverage it for your growth.

Understanding User-Generated Content and Why It Works

User-generated content is exactly what the term suggests—It is the content generated by individual users rather than the brand. The content can be in the form of blogs, text-based posts, images, or videos. User-generated content comes in various forms which we will discuss in later sections.

In the past, brands relied heavily on word of mouth to promote their products. Customers tend to lean more toward a product or service that they have heard good things about. When they hear positive reviews about your brand from a user who has had a firsthand experience, they will be compelled to engage with your brand. The same principle can be used in the digital age via user-generated content. 

From a brand's point of view, having user-generated content means you have your work cut out for you. If you have made content, you would know the time and effort it takes to create good content. Given the competition on social media, making average or routine content, even if you do it regularly, is no longer sufficient. Users have a myriad of choices on social media and will obviously prefer to invest time and pay attention to the content that piques their interest more. With user-generated content, you can share fresh, unique, and engaging content regularly without the legwork, thereby keeping the audience hooked. 

However, this is not all user-generated content does for you. Here are a few reasons why user-generated content often yields far superior results than your branded content and why it is beneficial to incorporate it into your broader marketing strategy:

People Find UGC Relatable

One of the foremost benefits of user-generated content is that people find it more relatable. Think about it—as a customer, you would be more inclined to believe a customer than the brand. When people hear reviews from an average user, they can picture themselves using your product and service and enjoying the same benefits as the original content generator. 

On the other hand, while you may generate exceptional content to promote your brand, your prospective customers will always receive it with a touch of doubt and hesitation, especially if they have not engaged with your brand before. 

People Find UGC More Engaging

Branded content, in most instances, is promotional. Even if you were to make content with the intent to post it on social media, the message is mostly promotional and highlights only the good things about your brand, which we must admit can get boring at times. On the other hand, user-generated content is more engaging and unique. 

Every individual content generator would perceive your brand from a different perspective and make content accordingly. This way, you get unique content for your brand every time without putting in much effort. 

UGC Can Help You Improve Your Ranking

User-generated content often comes in the form of reviews and surveys (more on that later), which can help boost your visibility on the search engine result pages. You can leverage them to boost your SEO as well. Customers usually post reviews on blogs with backlinks to the product or service website. You can then analyze keywords and phrases that customers use to search and incorporate them into your site to improve your keyword optimization. 

UGC is More Cost-effective

User-generated content is also significantly economical as compared to branded content. If you prefer to create content via your in-house team, it takes considerable time, not to mention the investment required to maintain the team as well as the equipment. Similarly, if you outsource it, you will need to pay for the professional equipment and photographers as well as for the writers if needed. 

On the other hand, with UGC, you do not have to worry or pay for any of these things. The content comes your way automatically without you having to put in any effort at all. 

This organic content generated by users who are trying to convey their personal experiences can help you build a stronger bond with your audience than any other form of content. It helps you gain their trust and establish your credibility as a legitimate and trusted brand. In 2017, a survey done on 1,000 individuals revealed that around 90 percent of shoppers' purchase decisions were impacted by user-generated content. This is the power of UGC, and if you have not been using it, the time to start is now.

Different Kinds of User-Generated Content

As we mentioned earlier, user-generated content takes on various forms. In this section, we have highlighted some of the most commonly used ones. Learning about these may give you ideas about how you can leverage user-generated content for your brand. Let’s have a look!

Customer Reviews and Testimonials

When Amazon allowed customers to post their reviews regarding its products and services back in 1995, many questioned the idea and wondered what the retail giant was thinking with such a bold move. However, over time, it became clear that this tactic worked in Amazon's favor and only increased its credibility in the eyes of the consumers. This was the first time customer reviews were used by a business. 

Today, customer reviews are the most powerful form of UGC that can even make or break your brand. Businesses usually post customer reviews on their websites, while many even share them on their social media as well. You may have often seen smaller brands post customer reviews in their stories, save them as highlights, and even on their feed to promote their brand further. 

For prospective users, these reviews serve as valuable insights regarding the quality and authenticity of your brand, which helps them make informed decisions. According to a survey by Bright Local, the majority (around 91%) of individuals relied on customer reviews to make purchase decisions.

Many times, brands are tempted to remove negative reviews to safeguard their reputation. While this may safeguard your reputation in the short term, it may not be as helpful in the long term. The same survey revealed that users preferred brands that responded to feedback. So whether good or bad, engage the audience on those reviews by responding and encouraging more interactions. When you accept and respond to reviews regardless of whether they are negative or positive, it improves your perception in the consumers' minds and may impact future purchase decisions as well. 

Photo Reviews

What is the first thing you notice when you look at a certain page? For most people, it is the images depicted on the page that catch their eye before anything else. This is why user-generated picture reviews hold significant weightage. 

However, this comes with a catch. Not all users have the capability or the requisite equipment to capture high-quality images. This is why if you plan to use user-generated images, it is best to use the ones with striking visuals or a creative touch, as onlookers are easily turned off by poor-quality images. Better pictures always garner more engagement as they can snag more attention, while the average or low-quality ones are quickly disregarded. If you are collaborating with influencers for user-generated images, you can always ask them to take high-resolution photos that you can share on your social media and your site. 

Video Reviews

Next, we have video reviews that are a very powerful way of promoting your brand through your users. Brands like LuluLemon and GoPro ask their customers to make videos and take pictures while using their brand, which these companies then use in their respective marketing campaigns. It is a great way to involve your audience and make them feel like they are part of something big. 

When you collaborate with influencers to make video reviews, it is important to ensure that the quality of the videos is at par with professionally made content so that you can display it on your social media profiles or your website. 

Photo Contests

Photo contests are quite popular on platforms like Instagram, where brands ask the customer to pose with their product or services and use a certain hashtag to become part of the contest. These picture contests are a great way to increase your brand awareness, encourage engagement, and get some great visual content that helps enhance your visibility online. 

Campaign Hashtags

Another very effective form of UGC that has the tendency to make you viral is campaign hashtags. Renowned brands, as well as new entrants and smaller setups, rely on campaign hashtags to increase awareness and encourage engagement and participation from their audience. 

Using hashtags helps you organize similar content under one umbrella. If you manage to garner more attention for your campaign hashtag, it can significantly boost your visibility in a short time. This is because you are able to increase your reach beyond your network to the audience who may be interested in the same keyword or phrase as the hashtag. 

Influencer Content

Influencers hold much power on social media today, and as a brand, it is up to you to leverage influencer clout to promote your brand. Influencers are honed in their use of social media and are familiar with the nuances of quality content creation, so using influencer-generated content is an effective way to promote your brand or a specific product or campaign.

The important thing, then, is to find an influencer who is a good fit for your brand. While you may be tempted to work with influencers with large followings, sometimes working with micro-influencers can help you tap into a targeted segment, which may be highly beneficial for you in the long run in terms of conversions.

How to Use User-Generated Content to Yield Desired Results

Now that you have an idea of the different forms of user-generated content, let's look at how you can leverage UGC to promote your brand and expand your reach. But first, it is important to learn how to encourage users to create content for you.

Getting Users to Generate Content

If you are a highly popular brand, you may not have to put in too much effort to encourage users to create content for you. Everyone wants to be associated with a well-known name—as some may want to create content for their gains, while others may do it out of love for the brand.

However, for smaller businesses or lesser-known names, the content may not come that easily. Think about all the effort and time that goes into making quality content. No one would like to do it unless they have an incentive to do so. 

If you have a larger audience, users may be compelled to create content in hopes of being showcased on your social media profile. But if you are a small business with a small following, the motivation to share content may not be very high unless you offer them some tangible rewards. These can be freebies, monetary payments, or a giveaway, or if you run a blog, you can return the favor by an exchange post or backlink to their site, if any. 

The key is to incentivize and spark interest in the users so they are motivated to create content. For instance, you can reshare their original post, which shows their name. Alternatively if the user has submitted the post to you, you can use proper attributions to give credit to the original content creator. 

Here are some ways to use user-generated content:

Use Guest Posts

Does your site feature a blog? If yes, open it for guest posts! This can be beneficial in many ways. It helps you keep the blog active and updated without doing too much. Secondly, you can fill your blog with many unique and creative articles and posts that you may not have thought of otherwise. Your guests may bring their own perspectives and opinions to the table, which you can use to maintain an engaging and lively blog.

For the users, it gives them the chance to promote themselves without making it look like spam—hence a win-win for all! To ensure that the guest posts continue to come, you may have to do a little work initially. You can either reach out or mention on your site that you are accepting guest posts. You may also want to add a few guidelines for guest post submissions to save time and for their convenience.

Request for Reviews

As we have already established how important reviews can be for your business, consider using them to strengthen your credibility. While in many cases, customers are more than happy to share their experiences, sometimes it takes a little coaxing. You can encourage reviews by offering them discounts for their next purchase or sending a little reminder after their first purchase. 

Use User-generated Images and Videos

Using user-generated images and videos is the best way to establish social proof and enhance your credibility. If you offer physical products or a service, there is a high chance your customers have already taken a picture or made a video while using your product or service. 

There is also a strong likelihood that the pictures or videos may already be present on social media. In many cases, customers tag the brand, and if you come across any such picture or video, use it! But do ask their permission before resharing. 

You can also encourage users to create more videos or pictures via contests, challenges, and giveaways. When an incentive is offered in exchange, the rate of participation would increase dramatically. 

When hosting a contest or giveaway, be sure to provide clear guidelines for the participants so there is no confusion later. Also, encourage the participants to use the relevant hashtag so that the generated content increases your visibility and reach even further. 

Conduct Surveys

Besides blog posts and the standard images or videos, you can also get creative with UGC. You can ask users to pitch in their ideas for your next campaign, product, or service launch. Alternatively, if you run a blog, you can ask users to pitch in ideas for new content. This way, you may get some innovative ideas while your users offer their opinions and viewpoints, which can make for an effective form of content on its own. 

Some Considerations for UGC

As we have discussed earlier, user-generated content offers a myriad of benefits. However, it also comes with a few challenges that must be addressed to ensure the generated content works favorably for you.

For instance, there is the consideration of ownership! When sharing user-generated content, it is best to obtain the consent of the content creator before using their picture or video. Also, ensure that you are not violating content standards and have legal permission to use the content.

Another aspect that must be taken into account is the quality of UGC. It is important to ensure that the content you share from users is relevant to your brand and of good quality. Irrelevant or poor-quality content will only reflect poorly on your brand so do not just solicit any UGC and ensure you have a clear idea about what you are looking for in terms of UGC. 

Also, while it is a good thing to let users express their perceptions about your brand, it can be risky to give users free rein to share whatever they want on social media. You must have a plan of action in mind about how to respond to negative criticism and also employ some form of monitoring and control mechanisms to regulate the content that the public sees. 

Lastly, it is important to have a content management system to scale the content you get from users. While scalability can help build the content, it can easily get out of hand if you do not have mechanisms in place to regulate and manage it.

Final Thoughts

If you have not yet considered using user-generated content as a part of your marketing strategy, the time to start is now! If you are already heavily reliant on users to generate content for your brand, you must consider how you can leverage that content to maximize the benefits. 

While it is a wise strategy to be in control of your marketing efforts, it is a good idea to hand over the charge now and then to the audience. You never know how creative and engaging they could be, and there is only one way to find that out! So, think about how you can engage your audience and incorporate user-generated content in your marketing strategy to grow your brand and establish brand loyalty.