How To Make the Most of User Generated Content (UGC)

User generated content (or UGC as it’s commonly called) is a social media trend that’s exploding right now. In fact, 80% of consumers said in a 2021 survey that it highly impacts their purchasing decisions. And why wouldn’t it? It allows brands to build an authentic relationship with their audience, with consumers being 2.4 times more likely to view UGC as authentic compared to content created by a brand.

So what exactly is user generated content and how can it best be used as part of your social media marketing strategy? We’re going to talk about all of this in today’s post.

User generated content is content that is organically created by the users of a platform or service, rather than the platform or service itself. This could include photos, videos, reviews or testimonials, which can then be reposted by the brand. As long as it’s not made by an official representative of the company, it’s considered UGC.

For example, if you’re on Instagram and you post a picture of yourself drinking coffee from your favourite coffee shop, that would be user generated content.

This type of content has become increasingly popular in recent years as an effective marketing strategy for a number of reasons.

Most importantly is its tendencies to build trust between a brand and their audience, establishing brand loyalty and growing community. In this way, user generated content is essentially the modern day equivalent of word of mouth marketing, and can play a large role in increasing conversions. People are much more likely to trust an honest review made voluntarily by their favourite influencer than advertising produced by the brand directly.

Equally as important, UGC gives consumers the opportunity to participate in a brand’s growth and awareness, opening up a conversation between brand and customer that has rarely existed before. It encourages a high level of engagement, which is always a win for your social media strategy.

So how can you use this powerful tool to improve your social media marketing?

The most important factor is to have a strategy, just like you would with any other content you share. What’s your aim for this content? Do you want to inspire, or inform your audience on how to use your product, or do you simply want to share honest reviews? Be intentional with what you choose to share.

To help with this further, you can even set out guidelines for content creators about what kind of UGC you want for your brand, to help them know what to make if they choose to. Make these easily available somewhere on your online presence, rather than sending them directly – this will allow the content to stay authentic as creators have still chosen to produce it themselves, rather than being asked to.

The next step is to find the user generated content about your brand. Some content management systems, such as Later and Hootsuite, has in built features for this. But the essentials are to browse your mentions, tags and hashtags for posts that you want to re-share. And before you do, remember to always ask the user’s permission to post their content! It’s important to credit them in the description and tag them in the post. It’s also a good idea to share content by a variety of users – this diversity will make your brand and products more relatable and accessible to a wider audience.

Of course, here at Incite we’re big proponent of video content, and UGC is no different. Video content generally performs better than still images, particularly on platforms like Instagram with its preference for Reels over any other form of content.

So, if you’re encouraging your customers to produce UGC, try to put an emphasis on the creation of video content. You could help by giving them some tips on how to do this using simple tools that they will already own, such as how to make great video content with their mobile phone.

Taking advantage of the user generated content trend can have great benefits, and we hope that the information we’ve shared here will be helpful and encourage you to introduce it into your content marketing strategy. Let us know if you have any thoughts on this topic, or if you’ve already implemented UGC, we’d love to get a discussion going.