User-generated content (UGC) has become an important social media component for all types of business. It moves away from traditional branding, giving social media followers a more authentic and unique view of products and services.
When businesses engage in UGC, they not only change the dynamic of their marketing.
They directly involve customers, creating a deeper trust with them.
This encourages more followers and customers to share experiences, opinions, stories, and reviews. What’s more, UGC is generally branded with custom hashtags or direct mentions of your brand.
Social media marketing is difficult enough without adding complicated campaigns and cumbersome content to the Rolodex. UGC effectively connects with your audience, increases reach, boosts engagement, and broadens brand awareness. To boot, most of the work is done by your followers.
In this article, we delve into the process of sharing UGC and provide tips on making it a standard part of your social media content management strategy.
UGC is content curated or shared by customers or followers that relate to your brand. This includes content such as social media posts, reviews, unboxing videos, blog posts, or even branded hashtags or mentions.
An important distinction of UGC is that it’s unpaid and doesn’t involve sponsorship. Therefore, the content is one hundred percent authentic and genuine, originating from your brand’s followers, which makes it all the more credible.
In the above example, this follower, a digital marketing company, shared its three most valuable tools, including Sendible. While the post is humorous, it directly validates Sendible’s product from a reliable source, giving it credibility.
Pro Tip: For a more in-depth look at user-generated content with real-life, applicable examples, check out our article, What Is User-Generated Content and How to Get Your Hands on It
When it comes to social media, marketers are overwhelmed with options. It has become increasingly difficult to know where to focus your efforts.
Do you teach your entire staff the latest dance craze for TikTok virality? Or, should you dedicate most of your time to editing high-quality promotional reels for Instagram?
The answer to those questions depends on your specific brand. However, one thing is for certain: all brands can benefit from UGC. In short, here’s why.
For many marketers, the first thing that comes to mind when you mention UGC is reposting stories on Instagram or mentions on TikTok. While these are two common examples of UGC, the content can be far more nuanced.
UGC has many forms and can be used strategically in a variety of ways.
Let’s dive into different types of UGC and look at how you can use them to benefit your business.
User-generated photos and videos on social media are the most standard forms of UGC. These types of posts typically show your products or services being used by the customer. This is a form of social proof, giving your brand more authenticity.
User-submitted content is extremely valuable because it’s easy to make. All users need is a phone. A shoutout can be effective even if your brand or products aren’t visible in the post. What’s more, simple photos and videos suit virtually all major social platforms, like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X (Twitter), and LinkedIn.
Unboxing videos are a perfect example of UGC. If you haven’t heard about them, here’s the deal. Users film themselves opening a box to a new product. They provide live, raw commentary about their first impressions.
Unboxing or video reviews give viewers a sense of excitement, making them want to experience opening the box themselves. Unboxing videos are one of the most influential forms of content for social media users (fourth) when making buying decisions.
Naturally, you’ll want this type of content to reflect on your brand in a positive light. Unboxing videos also prove to be effective as a paid advertising concept.
You can encourage followers to share UGC, leading to photos and videos being created by your audience, as mentioned above. This can be done with social media posts, flyers, or ads in which you explicitly say things like, “Share your thoughts with us on TikTok”.
However, one of the best ways to accumulate a variety of UGC is to create branded hashtags and slogans. Essentially, these extend the vocabulary related to your brand, making it easier for followers to remember them.
Just take Nike, for example. Followers might create a post to show off their new track shoes. In reality, the image or video is enough of an advertisement for Nike. Yet still, the company is known for its many slogans and taglines, namely, “Just Do It”.
Mentioning Nike directly or using the slogan has the same outcome. Viewers know the brand being referenced. If you can do this with your brand, your content instantly becomes more shareable.
Come up with tags and slogans, especially when you launch a new campaign. You can also create branded filters for Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok, making sharing even more convenient. Not only can it help with sharability, but it will make it easier to track campaign progress.
As long as they’re positive, reviews are among the most powerful forms of UGC. These days, there are a range of ways to create a review, whether it’s on Google, as a social media post, as a YouTube video, a TikTok, or otherwise.
By sharing customers’ experiences, you make your products and services even more attractive to review. Those who create reviews will know there’s a strong chance of you sharing them or interacting with them. This is a great way to build a loyal audience.
Your business is left in an interesting position if you receive negative reviews. Negative reviews give you ample opportunities to react, improve, and learn. In fact, dealing with negativity and a proactive and positive way can be even more beneficial for your brand in the long run.
UGC involves more than just social media. Blog posts or articles about your products and services can promote your brand. In fact, blogs or articles may be more useful in certain industries.
LinkedIn is a popular platform for professional articles. They’re used to convey insights, voice opinions, or note experiences on given topics. Blogs and articles can give an in-depth look at products and services from unique standpoints.
Repurposing content is also a major trend in digital marketing. Blogs and articles can be dissected and repurposed as snippets for social media or other advertisements.
Podcasts have emerged as viable marketing platforms for a wide range of businesses. With over half a billion global listeners, you can reach your target audience through its favorite podcasts. Around a third of podcast listeners opt for video-based shows, giving your ads further weight.
Although podcasts are typically used for targeted paid adverts, they can be considered as creators of UGC, especially in certain industries. Hosts or guests may share ideas or opinions about your products or services, expanding your reach.
Forums and community discussion platforms, like Reddit, are underrated UGC sources. The main reason is that these platforms revolve around discussion. You can gain direct insights through shared experience and discussion about a product or service.
Businesses that are in tune with forums and places where their content is being talked about often join in the discussion. Again, this is doubly effective as it demonstrates that you genuinely care about your customers and their opinions.
Hosting a Q&A (questions and answers) session on Reddit or a similar platform can be a great way to interact with followers and generate some content.
Sharing content on social media is straightforward. Platforms are built for sharability, so you only need to hit the relevant share symbols to post UGC on your profile.
The tricky part is sharing the right content for each platform.
While you might have just one social media target audience, different segments will favour different types of content on select platforms. For example, your Facebook followers will likely resonate with a different type of content than your TikTok audience.
You should have a unique UGC sharing strategy for each platform. Below, you’ll find tips on how to get the most out of each.
Instagram is the go-to UGC platform for many businesses. It is the ultimate social channel for visuals. With the explosion of reels in recent years, it’s also an excellent video-sharing resource.
Create or join campaigns through tags and hashtags to get the most out of UGC on Instagram. Instagram allows you to follow hashtags, so if you get involved in several big hashtag campaigns, you can garner a lot of viewers.
You should also encourage followers to mention your brand in their stories and posts. This means they tag your username. Once you’ve been tagged, sharing the content to your stories or reposting is easy.
A simple but effective way to get to share UGC on Instagram is to create a weekly campaign where users tag or send you content.
Starbucks does a great job at this.
Regardless of the season, Starbucks has a hashtag and a new range of drinks it wants its followers to share on social media.
TikTok is a haven for UGC. As a platform operating on trends, everyone on the app seeks engagement.
To boot, TikTok videos are inherently rough and ready. There’s no need for refined videos with hours of editing work behind them.
Engaging with existing trends is an excellent way to encourage UGC on TikTok. In addition to participating in trends and making videos of your own, it’s important to get involved with your community directly. This means commenting on your audience’s content, reposting videos from other creators, stitching them, or creating Duets.
X (Twitter) is another platform designed with reposting UGC in mind.
One of the most popular ways of engaging with content is to hit “Repost” (previously called “Retweet”).
You can then decide whether you want to simply repost the content or “Quote” repost. Quoting allows you to comment on the content you’re reposting.
X is best suited to organisations that post frequently and host events so information, images, and videos can be posted live.
Although it’s not known as a visual platform like Instagram and TikTok, it’s an excellent place for sharing images. This is mainly because it’s so easy to reshare or comment on content.
Like Instagram, X allows you to capitalise on hashtags and trends using keywords. That said, X isn’t as universally popular for businesses. Some companies would benefit from investing their time and resources in other platforms.
Facebook’s algorithm is a tough one to crack with organic content.
Still, it’s a useful resource for sharing content and hosts various forms of media, from videos to photos to stories.
Furthermore, you can sync your Instagram and Facebook profiles to make sure your content posts on both sites.
LinkedIn differs from the other platforms mentioned in that it’s a professional social network. Therefore, you do not necessarily share the same content here as you would on TikTok.
Rather, you can use UGC that aligns more with your business from a professional standpoint.
Perhaps this is a review of your services or a video testimonial from a client. Alternatively, you could use UGC to publish a mini-case study.
LinkedIn is also an excellent platform for publishing and sharing articles.
If this article has got you excited to launch a UGC campaign, check out these tips for giving your brand the best chance of success.
UGC may seem like it doesn’t involve much thought, but to get the most out of it, it’s best to be strategic. Otherwise, your branding and messaging will get lost in the ether.
You may get tagged in nice photos from followers or featured in a video occasionally. Posting this type of content is important if it fits your strategy. However, make sure you know the overall goal of your UGC campaign.
For example, you might want to grow followers or increase brand awareness. On the other hand, you may be looking to generate leads, which will definitely require more strategic planning.
Branded hashtags make your content easier to promote and share. Whether you share a company slogan or a campaign-specific tag, make sure followers can easily think of a hashtag or caption when posting about your brand.
If followers are creating content about your brand, it’s important to post it. This gives them a sense of recognition and shows that you appreciate them as customers. Social media is an easy place to reshare UGC.
You can combine multiple pieces of UGC to form a larger piece of content, like a highlight video, every once in a while.
Developing a community that involves UGC requires trust. Build relationships with your potential customers by engaging with them on their favourite platforms. This means responding to DMs, commenting on other people’s posts, and reacting to comments.
You should share as much UGC as possible but this doesn’t mean lowering your standards. If content doesn’t fall in line with your goals or doesn't follow your brand guidelines in any way, it shouldn’t be shared.
One of the best ways to engage your followers is through incentivization. Frequent competitions for the best submissions are an effective method of gathering momentum with UGC.
If you’re sharing UGC for marketing purposes, establish guidelines and terms of use. Also, make sure you have all the necessary permissions when sharing content with music or potentially trademarked media.
Sendible is a comprehensive social media management tool that helps you scale your digital marketing efforts. Through efficient scheduling, posting, and analysis of your social media platforms, it enables you to post high-quality content efficiently. It gives you exactly what you need to launch an effective social media campaign.
Here are a few ways Sendible can help.
Sendible’s Content Library and its integrations give you access to a virtually endless supply of royalty-free images. You can save your favourites in our digital libraries powered by Google Drive. Plus, the Canva integration makes producing high-quality, edited images a breeze.
You can also save your most-used hashtags, eliminating the need to search for hashtag ideas with every post. Assign team members specific roles and permissions to ensure relevant people sign off all content before it goes live.
Sendible’s Smart Queues feature allows you to automate posts, which is perfect for evergreen content. For example, you can automate client testimonials regularly, keeping your credibility fresh in your followers’ minds.
Sendible’s dashboard gives you access to all of your social media campaigns in one place. Each campaign may be assigned a label or tag so it’s easy to identify and monitor.
Consider labelling UGC posts so you can track their performance. The data points you toward what’s working and what isn’t. Use this as a compass for future campaigns.
Sendible integrates with Google Chrome. You can curate and schedule content quickly and easily from any site without switching tabs. This saves time and elevates your digital presence with organised scheduling and sharing. Curate, schedule, and save UGC posts as soon as you find them.
User-generated content adds another dynamic to your social media strategy. If you’re curious about how Sendible can help, why not start your free 14-day trial? Witness the impact of our platform for yourself.