What is user generated content? Why is it so important?
When you think about social media, surely we’re consuming content all the time?
To an extent – yes! However, there are all types of content available across the many social media platforms. They can benefit your business and accounts for many different reasons.
The type of content we’re going to be talking about today is user generated content, also known as UGC. It can be an extremely beneficial tool and asset to your social media. We believe that everyone can try to implement it in some way!
What is user generated content?
Put simply, it is content that has been created by users. These users are your customers and followers, to be more precise. For the most part, user generated content consists of images and videos of your product, taken by your customers.
However, it can also cover testimonials and quotes, text and audio. Basically, anything that has been created, posted or sent in by your customer!
Why is it important?
User generated content is so important for showing your customers that you care about their efforts to engage with you, as well as your community and within your online ecosystem as a whole.
It’s extremely important to help connect your consumers and your community. It shows that you care about how they interact with your products, and reposting it gives them an added incentive to go out and to continue to share!
Furthermore, it shows authenticity and trust in your business, as customers make conscious choices about how they want to engage with brands. Seeing user generated content gives other consumers confidence in your brand. Although they may not go out and take pictures themselves, they trust other customers and will be incentivised to go out and purchase the products that have been promoted to them. Think of it as social proof.
How can you incorporate user generated content into your social media?
It’s as simple as encouraging them to go out and take raw content, straight from their phones!
Some customers take their own initiative to go out and capture content, but that doesn’t work for everyone. In some cases, it’s great to have a plan in place to encourage users to go out and share their own content.
That could be through a competition to help drive engagement, or a product focus where you share a range of USG created by different customers.
How do we utilise it for our clients?
We work with a range of clients, helping to showcase their products in different ways. One of our clients, Enjoy!, is regularly tagged in recipes from customers using their vegan and free from chocolate.
Their customers know that there’s a high chance that we will repost their content to Enjoy’s story or main feed. This not only gains the bakers some recognition, but also demonstrates to new and existing customers that the chocolate can not only be eaten on its own, but also used in a creative recipe too.
This therefore helps build a community, as well as creating a steady flow of fresh content for us to use on Enjoy’s social media channels!
Can it be used for service based businesses?
As we have suggested with our client example, it can be very easy to utilise if you’re a products based business. It can be something as simple as encouraging customers to take photos with your product, whether they’re using it in a recipe (like Enjoy!), or wearing a certain piece of jewellery (like with another client, Boho Betty).
But what if you’re a service based business?
Understandably, it can appear to be more difficult to post and encourage user generated content. This is where you just have to think outside the box a bit more! As we prefaced earlier on, user generated content can take on many different forms. Some examples can include:
- Customer testimonials: whether that’s a video review shared or creating a social media graphic out of one written beforehand.
- Taking your own photos of the happy customer (with their permission): in their brand-new kitchen, on site as part of an ongoing health and safety service, or standing outside their new home.
- Encourage users to share by having a presence on all social media platforms: you never know where you could be missing out on content!
No matter your business offering, type or model, you can benefit from user generated content.
With a regular stream of user generated content coming in, this is effectively ready-made content available to go out on your social media channels. USG is a powerful tool in the digital marketing toolbox. Don’t be afraid to use it and encourage it from your customers!
Need a hand with your strategy, or want more on how you can implement user generated content? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with your inquiry!
