When it comes to social media, content is everything. It’s what gets us likes, follows, engagement rates, impressions – anything and everything under the sun that matters in the marketing or advertising world. If you don’t have good content, then kiss all of your hopes and dreams goodbye (probably not that dramatic, the point is bad content = bad outcome). Lucky for you, we’ve created a user friendly guide for one of the easiest types of content to gather and showcase your product or services, and you don’t even have to spend a dime on it.

It’s called User Generated Content (UGC). 

The Four Types of UGC 

So let’s break down some of the main types of User Generated Content, although you’re most likely already familiar with them – call this a crash course.

1. First, we have social media, the bread and butter of UGC. Customers post with their product or service on any platform, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and then you as a brand can (with permission and credit given) repost it onto your feed. You didn’t have to do anything and your consumer is already showing off how much they like whatever you do.

2. Next up,  reviews and testimonials. This stuff is going to appear with any brand service or product because we love to talk about things. You can quote reviews, put testimonials on your product’s page, have a whole separate tab on a website dedicated to people’s thoughts and comments on just how awesome your brand is.

3. So let’s talk now about blog posts. A good example here are lifestyle blogs dedicated to how to’s and tutorials. If someone mentions your product in a tutorial post or a review post, that’s UGC. If it’s a good write up, you can even mention it on your website or your feed, so other consumers can go and read about a genuine positive experience, and therefore directing more traffic your way. Tip: always be sure to ask permission!

4. Our last type of UGC here is video content. It’s pretty self explanatory, but any sort of video content on any platform of social media qualifies as such. As long as you didn’t pay the person to put up a camera and talk about/mention your brand, this is one of the best kinds of UGC to have.

The Benefits of UGC 

We could go on here about the benefits of UGC, but for the time being we’re gonna keep it short and sweet. Simply put, UGC is like having a spokesperson in the room of every consumer and potential consumer you have. This is why influencers on YouTube have grown to become vital in some agencies marketing plans.

It’s more influential to have someone speak about your brand in real time on video, or on a social media post, than traditional marketing is. People trust what they can see more than what they hear.

Additionally, this is further proof of your brands message and success – if someone is going out of their way to talk about it, more people are going to go out of their way to use it.

LBMG and UGC 

If there’s any testimonial to how great UGC is, just read this paragraph. We’re literally here, using UGC, to talk about UGC, in a way that falls under a UGC category (UGC Inception?).

Up first, Contender Boats. We created a hashtag that consumers can use so that it’s easier for us to find content from any Contender Boat user. We’ve done the same thing with Salon Mantra (#MadeByMantra), with their newest social media campaign.

What the creation of brand specific hashtags does is not only allows you to go find content you can use, but also potential consumers can browse through it and see other people using it too.

Another great example of UGC is Jeep. It helps that they have a widely recognized and unique name, but their brand has built a lifestyle around their product that they can create a hashtag such as #ItsAJeepThing that allows them to find and use UGC of passionate jeep followers and users.

How to Inspire UGC 

The best way to make consumers want to post content about your brand is to make them feel like they’re apart of a club – a brand club. You can do this by creating specific campaigns geared toward having people talk more about the brand, especially with hashtags and tagging you in the post.
Additionally, you should respond to as many people who post about or with your brand. It makes people feel as if their voice is being heard and they aren’t being unappreciated as customers.

One of the best ways to make your customers feel appreciated is to have giveaways or photo contests as rewards for being enthusiastic consumers and as a way to get people involved in your product.

So with this we end our Users Guide to UGC. From the different types to how to use them to how to inspire them, we hope you got something out of this. UGC is fast, it’s helpful, it’s a testimonial to your brand. So go on! Create that hashtag, monitor those reviews, see who is talking about you. Marketing is a lot like the cafeteria in high school – you just gotta know what’s being said about you and how you can make that something to use.

Interested in learning more about UGC and how it can help your brand? Shoot us an email at hello@thelbmgmarketing.com.

Blog written by Kyla Patton.