How to Encourage More User-Generated Content?

“Trust is the most important and the best possession a brand can have, so it is the time to welcome and motivate the source of trust, PEOPLE by user-generated content.”

Building an online presence for a brand has become easy with the ‘User-generated content’. It has quickly become one of the most desirable marketing strategies. By using your customers’ content, you can build trust in your brand and also build a great relationship with your followers. 

Spending more time curating content from followers is more efficient than creating your own!

We have gone through the advantages of user-generated content hold for us in the previous blog! I know you might be thinking about how we can encourage more user-generated content, right?

Well, for first we have the reviews that can be used! But what about the other content that you can drive from your followers’ and fan base?

A savvy digital marketer will tell you that working with user-generated content is tricky! Well, it is kind of, but all you need to do is integrate it with your overall social marketing strategies. As easy as it sounds, so let’s begin and get acquainted with the ways to encourage more user-generated content. 

01. Choose a platform first:

Every social media platform is different! Taking you back to a blog that I wrote a few weeks ago about hashtags! Remember? Well, even hashtags have different behavior on different platforms and so does the user-generated content. 

For a user-generated campaign to become super-effective, you must have a strong social media presence. As I explained in the introduction blog of UGC that if you don’t have a social media presence then you are losing a lot of customers. 

This is the way you can choose a platform for your user-generated campaign -

• The first thing you need to do is find where your audience is. Find where they spend most of their time on social media?
• Also, understand the anatomy of content on different social media platforms. This will make your decision easier and faster. 

For instance, here is what the research says about what works the most on the different platforms. 

• Facebook: Videos and curated content. 
• Instagram: High-resolution photos, quotes, stories.
• Twitter: News, blog posts, and GIFs.
• LinkedIn: Jobs, company news, and professional content.
• Pinterest: Infographics and DIY photo guides.

Once you have decided what platform to plant your user-generated content on, you can ask for content precisely from the audience or followers. Be clear and concise! People are always super-excited to share content with brands but with the happiness of getting featured, they forget the basic or specific guidelines given by the brand. 

Make sure you address the crowd in a clear, concise, and quite an interactive way that they get the message, and the procedure to take part in the campaign easily. 

02. Create interesting and unique hashtags:

Extremely valuable to your brand campaign and especially when you are strategizing on bringing more user-generated content via it. 

From the flashback - 

“Hashtags are not just some elements to decorate! These are the elements that help you master the art of social media. And, for this, there are many reasons -

• They build your company’s brand.
• They boost the marketing campaign.
• Connects you with the audience!”

If you don’t use a unique hashtag, and a hashtag that gives you brand name then you will loose on the valuable user-generated content. You ask why? These hashtags allow you to categorize your content and reach a wider audience.

A hashtag immediately widens the reach of your campaign or a tweet or a simple post! It reaches the audience who doesn’t follow you back!

What happens when you use a unique hashtag in your campaign for the motive of user-generated content?

User-generated content isn’t just about the brand, it is about the customers. So, when you use a hashtag in your campaign or create a unique hashtag for your brand, customers are more likely to tag an image with #YourBrandName. 

It will help you to create and promote a personal hashtag that brings the attention of your fans back to your brand. 

For instance, Forever 21 uses #FSxME! And, with it, it sees a consistent number of user-generated content from their social media followers and fans. Also, do you remember the one I always keep on telling you about, the “share a coke campaign” by Coca-Cola that got super famous because of its #.

03. Run a contest:

Do you remember being competitive in your school’s competitions? You would go further and take part in everything? Right?

Well, that is the unique thing about competition. It instills good energy in the environment and encourages everyone to take part in it! 

Yes, running a contest is equally effective if you wish to get more user-generated content. It can help the much-required spark and the much-required buzz about your brand or business. You get a good volume of participation or I may say user-generated submissions and also the quality is increased as everyone represents themselves the best. 

How to make the contest a success?

• Make sure the reward is really drool-worthy. 
• You have to give them FOMO. Yes, tell them that the prizes are limited and only the best ones will win. 
• Keep things simple and understandable.

These will give the best participation from your fans or followers and also they will give quality content. Like Starbucks white cup and red cup challenge. The contest was easy to understand, and people got super creative with the doodling and painting skills!

04. Collect reviews:

As I already mentioned, reviews are the one thing that people even see when they are about to walk into a cafe. Yes! Even I do it when I go out. I tend to look into different applications or see the Google reviews to see if the ambiance, food quality is the best of this place. 

Customer reviews are one of the best user-generated content one can get! According to research, it is found that -

• 91% of 18-34-year-olds trust online reviews more.
• 68% of customers see at least 4 reviews before trusting a brand. 
• 40% of customers will stop considering a brand if they read a negative response. 

So how to take advantage of this?

• Reviews are powerful whether they are bad or good! They are the perspective of a third person who is genuine and have used your service or products. For this, you can always make them fill a form or ask them to review the products or services you have given to them. Some people are really creative and give reviews with pictures. You can use them as an attraction on your social media platform!
• The next thing you can do is send free samples to the leading influencers in your brand’s genre. They will use it for a week and put up a video on YouTube or their IGTV. This will give exposure to your brand. 

05. Offer Rewards:

What is motivational after you have done a lot? An appreciation and a reward!

The reward motivates users more than anything else. So, when you put up a campaign to get more user-generated content, then you can offer a reward. It ignites an organic and spontaneous response from everyone!

Rewards do not always need to be EXPENSIVE!

Reposting their efforts on your wall, or resharing the story on your brand page featuring their hard work and creativity or retweet their request, these simple gestures are enough to get you tons and tons of engagement. Like the Rola Cola campaign which started by a retweet! It not only will make the fans or followers feel that they are a part of your brand, but it can attract new fans to submit content as well!

It is one of the best things about rewards! Plus, you posting their efforts also don’t require any extra effort. All it takes a quick video or just a good framed photo. 

So, that is the only thing, encourage your followers through your campaign and get amazing user-generated content easily. User-generated content is the future NOW. After the lockdown or COVID-19 ends, things won’t be back to normal, people will shift towards the online world. And, so it is the right time to engage in ‘user-generated content’ and learn it. 

If you wish to learn any of the techniques of the digital marketing world, then join the digital marketing course at the Orionators School of Learning – Asia’s fastest-growing digital marketing institute. We dive deep into the different modules. Join us and know the basics, tips, and tricks to all the modules including social media marketing, search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, and website design and development!