For the People, By the People: User-Generated Content
As an audience member, you understand the interests of your peers. This is what makes user-generated content (UGC) so effective. Beyond the innate understanding of you audience, UGC is a preferred-content type for businesses for other reasons. B2C contributor, William Comcowich, explains:
User-generated content can be an enormously effective – yet affordable – marketing strategy. Some leading brands post almost nothing but user-generated content. Since people place little trust in brand advertising or marketing, amplifying photos, videos or recommendations of other consumers offers a superior strategy. The key is to solicit positive brand mentions or uncover them through social media listening.
You’re probably not stockpiling audience-created content today, so here are some tips to help establish a flow of UGC.
Incentivize: Budget might not be available to encourage your brand advocates to create content- but you don’t necessarily need it. People are motivated by different things, so find a group that cares about individual recognition and compensate them with praise.
Keep it Simple: As with anything, asking people to jump through hoops to complete things is going to result in a lower engagement rate. Iterate down to the most frictionless process possible and stick with that.
Don’t Go Blind: While big brands can benefit most from listening for mentions, all companies can and should use Talkwalker, Google Alerts, or a similar tool to find where you’re company is mentioned. Surfacing positive brand mentions is the ultimate low-hanging fruit for UGC.
Want to dial in a better user-generated content program? Check out Comcowich’s original post below.
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