Have you got some cool new clothes to show them off to the world? If yes, you would probably take a snap of them and upload them on social media. Whether you know it or not, this is user generated contentor simply UGC. This is becoming the most popular form of marketing nowadays. The brands themselves do not post the promotional content and snaps of their new clothes. The people do this for them. The user generated content has proved to be an effective marketing strategy for brands. Today’s topic is all about this type of marketing in which the brand is not involved. It will discuss different types and platforms for user generated content marketing. So, before moving on towards the details, let’s begin our topic with the definition of UGC.
What is meant by user-generated content?
In its simplest form, user generated content is any content created by the people, not the brands. It can be a text, image, video, blog, review, or testimonial. The content is original, and only the customers of a brand generate it. The customers publish this content on different platforms involving social media.
For example, the Coca Cola beverages company launched a campaign“Share a Coke.” The brand asked its consumers to take a photo while drinking a coke.Coca-Cola posted those images of its consumers on their pages and used them for advertisement. This campaign was a strategy to market the product through customers. The coke consumers generated the content, and the brand enjoyed high sales. So, this is the meaning of user generated content.
What are the types of user generated content?
There are many types of user generated content. They all fall under three categories. Those categories are text, image and video. A brief description of all the types of this content is as follows as shared by a best assignment help service;
Social media content
The first type of user generated content is social media content. Millions of people around the world use social media, and they post things on those platforms. Social media has taken the internet by storm due to its adaptability. People share different content on social media platforms, and it is called social media content. It can be about a resort you visited last summer or the cloth you wore at a wedding. All this content falls under the user generated content. You are promoting the resort by posting the visuals of it on social media.
Reviews and testimonials
Feedback and reviews are the second types of user generated content. It falls under the text category of this content. You write a review about some product you have used recently. The customers give reviews on the website or social media handles of the brand. Regardless of their nature, those reviews play their part in the marketing of the brand. The positive testimonials about any service make the brand more credible.
Blog posts
The blog posts fall under the category of user generated content. In this type, the consumer writes a blog on the product or service of the brand. Remember that it is not the brand that writes these things. The blog posts can be a review of something or an explanation of the brand’s new product features.
Bloggers who write blog posts often display products with their “how to use” tutorials. It involves both text and video content. Such content acts asuser generated content, and it gives recognition to the brand. Popular bloggers can affect a larger audience through their blog posts, hence, increasing the brand’s reputation.
Video content
Video content such as Instagram and YouTube videos also come under user generated content. You would be amazed to know that YouTube has twomillion users every month. All the video creators create videos content on different topics and products. Instagram has about onemillion new users every month. All these users are contributing towards brand marketing through their content. The users make videos on different topics or wearing clothes of a brand. Such videos have a lasting effect on other people’s minds.
Hashtag campaigns
The hashtag campaigns are the most successful content marketingcampaigns. The brand initiates a hashtag, and its consumers participate in the trend. Hashtag campaigns are simple promotional events. In such campaigns, the brands use the content posted by consumers to show their products.
The Coca-Cola used#ShareACoke campaign to market the new coke bottle. Other brands like Redbull and Gatorade also use such campaigns to promote their products. Many consumers participate in such a campaign making the product or service of the brand a success. So, this is also the type of user generated content.
What is a user generated content platform?
Nothing can market your product better than user generated content when it comes to marketing. There are different platforms available where brands collect this content. A user generated content platform is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product. It assists the brands in collecting all the UGC about a product in one place.
Moreover, a UGC platform helps you own the content rightfully. It helps you manage the rights with their Right Management system. Also, such platforms let you display the user generated content on your websites. Now, the question is, what are those user generated content platforms? A brief description of the best platforms is as follows;
Taggbox
It is one of the best UGC platforms available in 2022. It can assist you to enhance user engagement, build trust and drive conversions for your brand.The main feature of this tool is that it helps you collect, manage and display the user generated content. Through Taggbox display feature, you can display the UGC on your website. This display can inspire the visitors of your website and power up your brand marketing.
The amazing features of this tool help you in the customisation of the UGC. You can choose different themes to display the content on your website. The analytics’ feature of this platform helps you track your brand’s performance.
Yotpo
The next user generated content platform on the list is Yotpo. It is an e-commerce marketing platform that helps brands with visual marketing, customer reviews and referrals. It collects all the data related to these things and helps the brands improve themselves. Yotpo helps the brands to increase trust, increase sales and earn customer loyalty. Many brands are already using this UGC platform to get insights into their business. To no surprise, this platform is giving them great results. Based on the collected reviews, the brands make informed decisions to power up the marketing.
CrowdRiff
CrowdRiff is also a type of user generated content platform that operates for hospitality and travel brands. It helps brands discover all user content and display it on their websites. It collects the brand-related user content from different social media platforms and displays it in one window. You can choose the right set of content from that window based upon the liking of your site visitors. The AI-based system of this platform automatically displays the posts with high attraction. This feature generates performance reports of your brand.
Turn To
Turn to user generated content platform provides some new methods to manage the user content. The four innovative applications of this platform are as follows;
- Ratings and review
- Visual reviews
- Check out comments
- Community Q&A
The community Q&A feature in particular allows the users to ask questions about a brand’s product. The existing or old users can give their answers. This platform is more like a Q&A forum. The main motive of the brands is to provide new customers with reviews, ratings and answers by the old users. Every aspect of this platform requires the users to give their reviews about the product they have purchased.
How do I use user-generated content?
You can use user generated content in many ways. One of the best use of this content is to enhance the marketing power of your brand. It can power up the marketing of your products and services. More than seventy per cent of customers say that they buy things after reading the reviews and ratings of a product. The reviews and ratings can help you increase the sales of a particular product.Therefore, you should encourage your customers to leave reviews after buying the products. The positive reviews become user generated content and attract more customers.
What are the benefits of user generated content?
Among all other tools of brand promotions, the user generated content tool is the most potent. It is a statement of confidence in a particular brand. Below are some of the benefits of this content;
- Win-win situation: One of the most important benefits of user-generated content is a win-win situation for both the brand and its customers. Customers know that the brand hears their voices by telling their stories. On the other hand, the brand is promoting its products using the reviews of its customers.
- Social proof: The user generated content serves as social proof. The reviews from the original customers increase the brand’s credibility.Also, they bring the brand’s promises into perspective.
- Trustworthy:Consumers find user generated content more trustworthy. The real reviews and ratings help the new customers look deeper at the brand. Also, the content is generated by the people, not the brand. This satisfies the new customers the most and attracts them. This is because the brand can manipulate things but seeing original feedback, it becomes trustworthy.
- Budget: The user generated visuals can supplement your branded content. Often the budget of the brands is very thin concerning the marketing. The user content does not leave a dent in the budget of brands. The brands use the pictures shared by the customers for marketing.
- Open to the conversation:By using the UGC, you tell your customers that your brand is open to the conversation. It builds a deeper and more authentic relationship between customers and brands.
What is the difference between social media and user-generated content?
There exists a huge difference between social media and user generated content. Social media content is something that brands cannot curate or control. Everyone can post a comment for their benefit and get fame. Sometimes companies use different software to analyse the social media content related to their brand. But it does not come under the user generated content. In fact, it is against the privacy policies, and brands should seek formal permission from the content creators first.
On the other hand, the user generated content is specific to promoting or powering up the marketing of a product. By writing a review or making a video, the users give permission to brands to use their content. The brands, in turn, use this content on their social media profiles to attract new customers. So, this is the major difference between social media and user generated content.
Is user-generated content credible in content marketing?
The user generated content is the most credible in content marketing. Content marketing is all about sharing videos, texts and images about something. The users also share their experiences of different brand products on different platforms. Due to its experience-driven nature, user generated content is the most reliable in content marketing. It is the most trustworthy, reliable and authentic content than other brand-based content. The brands only write content to promote their business. You can expect some kind of biasness in this. In the case of the UGC, you will not find biasness. It is purely based on experience. So, user generated content is credible in content marketing.
Conclusion
In the upcoming times, you will see a boost in the user generated content. The marketers must get used to this form of marketing. More than seventy per cent of the customers now buy things based on the reviews of past customers. You can imagine the importance of this content from the above discussion. The benefits of the UGC make it the top priority of marketers. Thus, UGC is a secret ingredient that every brand must use to enjoy success.
