User-generated content (UGC) can offer you an authentic, economical, and simple way of generating marketing materials. People have more faith in what your users are posting on social media because they are the ones who have used your services/products, and they can say well how they feel after using them. Their posts are not only entertaining but also informative and prompt.
Are you wondering- how to create user-generated content? Please read my blog to get a complete idea about it.
How to Make User-Generated Content?
User-generated content (UGC) is content created and shared by users on social media platforms such as photos, videos, reviews, comments, or blogs. It’s generated by individuals rather than the platform or brand and is important for creating engaging and interactive experiences for users.
I’m explaining this to the users who will generate the UGC for your company. Storytelling can be a highly workable way to create influential UGC. Mainly, the following steps are involved in this process:
Step-1: Think about how to make your audience read your content and stop scrolling. How you grab your audience’s attention like this is known as a thumb-stopper. You’ll require a powerful camera movement or intro visual statement. Take time to develop the thumb stopper and think about what will work well for both your followers and the target audience of the brand or company you are working with. The brand or company might want to view multiple intros, that’s why brainstorm as many ideas as you can.
Step-2: Focus on the major problem or issue the service or product will resolve for its users. Ask a simple question regarding a general issue, and then show how using the brand’s service or product will solve that problem.
Step-3: Display the product’s demonstration. You can let your authenticity shine as an actual user of this product here. Tell the story interestingly to entice the audience and explain how the service or product has offered you an improved life. Try to focus on as many features and advantages as possible in the demonstration.
Avoid sounding like a salesperson. Just be yourself and use a natural tone to make the content reliable.
Step-4: This is the last step. Add a CTA or call to action. Mention to your target audience how and where they can get or download the services and products. Invite your audience to click or swipe and thus, create an effect of urgency. Check carefully if the brand has any discount codes or limited-time offers because these are proven calls to action.
If you can make a speculative advertisement for the brand you are working for and in case, they like your creativity, you’ll be golden. Speculative ads are also known as spec ads. These ads are not commissioned by an agency or brand rather it’s done to show or advertise the ad maker’s skills.
Now, that you have come to know how to create UGC as a user, I’ll focus on the tips to create a UGC content strategy for the companies or brands.
Focus on the UGC Strategy
- Select the Exact Social Media platform:
It’s crucial for you because you need to know where your audience likes to spend their time mostly and plan your UGC strategy according to that, or your strategy will fail. Generally, Instagram is the most suitable place for your campaign because of its high visibility. Photos, stories, videos, and GIFs work well for Instagram and Facebook. Again, LinkedIn is mainly for infographics and text content, while YouTube is for videos.
- Identify Your Goals:
UGC content will help you develop your brand recognition and enhance your engagement. Again, it will help you grow your audience. It can aid you in several ways. You need to set your goal accurately before developing your UGC campaign. You’ll be able to plan your strategies accordingly for your UGC campaign after you’ve set the goal.
- Provide Direct Instructions to the Audience:
Provide direct instructions to the audience so that they can give you exactly what you want from them. Directly mention what is the deadline, the hashtags to be used, and what should be the content form such as text, video, images, TikTok videos, Tweets, blog posts, online reviews, comments, and the like. Don’t hesitate to be specific or you won’t get what will meet up your requirement. According to a survey of Offerpop, 53 percent of consumers prefer that the brands mention clearly what they need from them.
- Plan the Organization:
Collecting UGCs from different social media channels will be quite a tedious task. This same task won’t be so hard if you have an organized method for this collection. You won’t like it for sure if you liked an amazing post on social platforms but you haven’t taken any note of that and lost in tons of new posts. So, an organized plan will always be preferable.
User-Generated Content Ideas
If you are a brand or company, you can succeed by following these ideas:
1. Ask users to demonstrate that they are using your product
Ask the users of your products and services they share videos and photos while using them. If they do so and include a short description with them, that will create an authentic impact on your audience’s minds. Your audience will take it positively and they will believe that your product or service is praiseworthy.
Apple had a worldwide campaign in January 2022, and they named it iPhone Macro Challenge. It asked its customers to post their best photos with their iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max. Then it shared the winners’ photos on the Instagram account of Apple and billboards.
2. Case studies
Case studies can be a suitable idea for your UGC content strategy. Your audience will believe that your product/service has a reputation when they’ll see multiple users using it.
3. Reuse customer videos and photos
You can reuse customer videos and photos and share that on social channels and tag and mention the concerned users and give them credit.
4. Organize a contest for created designs for the customers
Starbucks arranged a fantastic contest by releasing plain red cups, that were only available on Saturdays at Starbucks stores to encourage the users to create their unique designs. It asked its users to take a snap of their unique designs on their red cups and post them on their Twitter and Instagram accounts mentioning the hashtag “#RedCup Art.” The company selected 13 designs from 6 countries out of 1200 submissions from 13 countries. The company used those designs on holiday cups in more than 25000 Starbucks stores in 75 countries.
You can also encourage your users to design your company logo, branded company banner, and the like.
5. Make daily customers your models
No need to pay higher for professional models, or stars for your brand promotion. You can make your customers your models and make your ads more authentic. Skincare, makeup, and clothing brands like Dove, Unilever, and the like use this strategy. The potential customers are asked to share their feelings and comments after using the product/service on social media with their photographs.
6. Enclose photos on the homepage
Ask your potential customers to share their photos on social media with your product, select the best photos through a lottery from there, and enclose those photos on the homepage of your website, and social media pages. Vivadogs, a renowned manufacturer of dog-related products organized a similar campaign with the hashtag “#vivadogs”.
7. Include a social awareness view
If you can include a social awareness message with your UGC campaign, you’ll be golden because such campaigns get a suitable response from your audience such as saving water, saving electricity, saving gas, and the like.
8. Inspire try-on
You can inspire your users by offering try-on such as a famous prescription glass retailer Warby-Parker offers its customers to try on 5 pairs of glasses at their homes before purchasing their favorite one. They used this as a UGC strategy and asked their customers to post photos on their Instagram accounts with their comments along with the hashtag- “#WarbyHomeTryOn”.
9. Include feedback and reviews in social media posts
Ask customers to give their feedback and reviews on your social media posts. Include a review section on your website so that your customers can review your services and products. You can also use them as your UGC.
10. Give a personalized service or product
Try having a personalized product strategy and ask your customers to post photos on their social media accounts with your special hashtags and their feelings. For instance, Coca-Cola had a campaign named “Share a Coke” encouraging customers to post their photos on social media with a Coke can have their names on it. This campaign turned out to be a global success. Coca-cola company ran this campaign in over 80 countries and they gathered UGCs on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
11. Unboxing videos
Ask your customers to post their videos while unboxing your product or service, with their feeling on their social media accounts using your brand’s specific hashtags. It’s also a great idea.
12. Event content
Ask your customers to post photos, or videos on social media using your product on a special event, with your comments and your brand’s unique hashtag.
13. Holiday celebrations of your user
Similarly, ask your users to share their photos or videos while celebrating holidays using your service or product, mentioning your special hashtag.
14. User artwork
Ask your users to share their artworks mentioning their feelings after using your product or service with your special hashtag on their social media accounts and select the best ones from there and post them on your website and social media pages.
15. Resource Library
Use your resource library as a source for creating UGC for your audiences. Your resource library will have various UGCs and you can select the best ones from there and then use them in a new way. It’s quite like the third method.
16. Launch an Employee Engagement Program
Creating an Employee Engagement Program focused on obtaining user-generated content is vital for fostering a positive work environment. By empowering employees to share their expertise and experiences, organizations encourage collaboration, enhance internal communication, and strengthen their brand reputation.
This program recognizes employees’ contributions, increases job satisfaction, and promotes knowledge sharing. Through authentic testimonials and innovative ideas, user-generated content becomes a powerful tool for attracting top talent and building a positive company culture.
17. Arrange an Ambassador Program
To create user-generated content through an Ambassador Program, follow these key steps. First, identify passionate and influential employees who are willing to be brand ambassadors. Provide them with guidelines and resources for creating a different type of content that aligns with your organization’s goals. Encourage them to share their experiences, expertise, and stories related to the company. Recognize and reward their efforts to further motivate participation. Regularly promote their content through various channels, such as social media, newsletters, and company events. By empowering ambassadors, organizations can generate authentic content and impactful user-generated content.
18. Paying attention to customer trends
When you pay attention to customer trends, you gain valuable insights into their preferences, interests, and behaviors. This understanding enables you to align your user-generated content (UGC) strategy with what resonates most with your audience.
By creating UGC that reflects current trends and addresses customer needs, you increase the likelihood of capturing their attention, engaging them, and ultimately achieving better results with your UGC efforts.
In essence, staying attuned to customer trends empowers you to fine-tune your strategy and optimize your UGC content for maximum impact and success.
Final Words:
Now, you must have become confident about how to create user-generated content. If you have any queries please go through the FAQ section and need any assistance regarding content writing services, or any other digital marketing services, please contact digiSocial.