If you are a tech-savvy, then you have surely stumbled across different brands’ Instagram accounts and pondered how they have a massive following or from where they got amazing visual content from?

For digital marketers, managing social media accounts is a huge challenge – Beautiful images, engaging content, strong fan base and incredible user engagement.

One strategy that works best for many brands to gain a strong following is implementation of user generated content (UGC).

In this blog, you will find some easy steps to incorporate user generated content so that you can create an effective digital marketing strategy and see better results in increasing number of followers and user engagement.

What Does Use Generated Content Mean?

User generated content can be of variety of shapes and types. From simply sharing a personal photo of a user, to photos of products, to company reviews, many famous brands are now experimenting with user generated content in different forms.

Now brands are getting the most out user generated content and taking the best UGC from the web and posting it on their social media accounts while mentioning the original user.

And the amazing fact about UGC is that they get thousands of likes and shares on social media. If truth be told, UGC has an enormous potential to capture the attention of audience.

Why UGC Matters to Your Brand

User generated content is important for brands for two major reasons:

1.       Building a lively and engaged fan base with content that your audience loves
2.       Adapting to the tech-savvy and socially-dependent audience that has more buying power

An Engaged Fan base

Social media is basically the doorway that lets companies to connect with their target audience at a personal level. By using UGC, companies give real users the opportunity to share their real stories that is usually overlooked by brand generated content.

This way, brands plays a role of communicator by cleverly telling the user journey.

According to a study from Crowdtap and Ipsos, “millennials and other socially-dependent generations trust user generated content 50% more than other types of media.” UGC content is authentically attention grabbing because the user has no hidden reason than to simply share his/her point of view.  

Adapting to Tech-Savvy Generations

These days, millennials have more purchasing power than any other generation. Look at these fascinating stats:

•         84% of millennials say that UGC on brands’ websites has a great impact on what they purchase and where.
•         43% of users are more likely to make a buying decision when they have heard about it through friends, family or even social media platforms.

UGC has the power to influence buyers to take desired actions from social media or other digital media platforms.

Steps to Create a Successful UGC Campaign for Your Brand

If you are totally convinced that UGC will help you greatly in increasing your followers, user engagement and purchase ration, then its right time to create a digital marketing campaign for your brand.

• Determine Your Target Audience

One of the best things about UGC is that you can create it in different ways, but first, you need to decide what your brand would like it to convey with this type of content. Of course, UGC will not be the same it will change from time to time as new trends comes and what your audience loves to read and share.

But it is important to understand what do you want to reflect on your brand, product, and organization culture with user content. Keep in mind, your brand serves as a navigator that tells about user journey.

Therefore, use content or images that make your brand, products, company culture unique. Come up with some amazing and engaging ways to tell people about your brand or product. Tell all the unique specialties of your brand or products that your competitors don’t have.  

• Find the Perfect Content Type

Whether you are digital marketing agency, small business owner, fashion blog, or SaaS startup, it is highly advised to experiment with UGC for your campaigns. You can collect the best UGC by holding social media contests and giveaways or simply searching for users using hashtags or sharing their UX on different social media platforms.  

• Held Contests and Use Hashtags

Today’s socially-dependent generation of millennials love to share their own stories with hashtags and they love stuff offering for free. This is the best combination for creating amazing content for your brand. You can get started with giveaways and contests by gathering user generated content.

• Brand Oriented Hashtags

Creating brand generated hashtags can give users an easy way to submit their own stories. It can also give your brand a unique voice and social exposure. Try to come up with some interesting hashtags that are specific to your brand and ones that will promote users to submit their engaging stories and user journey.

• Photo Contests with Free Stuff

A photo contest with giveaways can be an amazing way to collect and share user generated content. This promotes users to submit their engaging photos on their own accounts using a specific hashtag produced by your brand. Offering giveaways can drive massive engagement, growth on social media and delight customers.

• Searching for UGC

User generated campaigns take some time to gain momentum. Your content could not be interesting at first, your hashtags and contests are new for users and users will not be as convinced to tag their friends as they would be with big brands like Nike, Zappos Birchbox.

So, use social media tools to find great UGC. Instagram, Tagboard, Talkwalker are the social media tools that help digital marketers to search the type of content they are looking for their brand.

They can gather a number of social media posts within seconds. It is advised to reach out to users and requesting the original photo for sharing purpose. This way you can build a strong relationship with your prospects at a personal level.

Summing Things Up

If you really want to make your brand stand out, increase its exposure, and boost engagements, UGC can really help you out. Try incorporating user generated content into your digital marketing strategy with these amazing hacks and see the difference!