Got a brand new outfit you’re excited to flaunt? Chances are, you’ll snap a picture and share it on your social media. Perhaps you received a cutting-edge gadget and are eager to create an unboxing video for your YouTube followers. Whether you realize it or not, these are both examples of user-generated content (UGC).
Still scratching your head? No worries, we’ve got you covered.
In this guide, we’ll explore the world of user-generated content, answering the key question: What Is Ugc? We’ll also delve into:
- The compelling advantages of incorporating UGC into your marketing strategies.
- Real-world examples of how brands, both large and small, effectively leverage UGC.
- Actionable best practices to transform user-generated content into enhanced engagement and conversions for your brand.
What is User-Generated Content (UGC)?
User-generated content, frequently abbreviated as UGC and also known as consumer-generated content, is any original content specifically about your brand that is created by individuals, rather than the brand itself. This content is then publicly shared on social media platforms or other online channels.
UGC encompasses a wide spectrum of formats, including compelling images, engaging videos, insightful product reviews, authentic testimonials, and even podcasts. Essentially, it’s content about your brand, made by your users.
Here’s a prime example of UGC. A customer created this post and planner brand Day Designer then reshared it on their Instagram:
Source: thedaydesigner on Instagram
Types of User-Generated Content: Organic and Paid UGC
User-generated content is rapidly becoming a cornerstone of successful marketing strategies. Its versatility allows brands to tailor it to their specific needs and objectives. While UGC comes in various forms, it can be broadly categorized into two main types: organic UGC and paid UGC.
Organic UGC: Authentic Customer Voices
Organic UGC is the purest form of user-generated content. It’s content genuinely shared by your customers, driven by their own positive experiences and enthusiasm for your brand. This type of UGC is highly valued for its authenticity and is often the ultimate goal for brands seeking to build trust and credibility.
Reviews and Testimonials: Building Trust Through Social Proof
Online reviews are a fundamental type of UGC. Positive ratings and reviews act as powerful social proof, building trust and influencing purchasing decisions. Brands can strategically showcase these reviews across their websites and social media platforms. Furthermore, compelling testimonials can be transformed into visually engaging graphics for social media sharing.
Photos: Visual Proof of Product Satisfaction
Photos are among the most prevalent forms of UGC. These typically feature customers actively using your products or showcasing the positive outcomes they’ve experienced. Encouraging the use of a branded hashtag simplifies the process of discovering and resharing these valuable visuals across your brand’s platforms.
Videos: Engaging Product Showcases and Stories
Social media videos, particularly on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, offer dynamic forms of UGC. “Product haul” videos, where users showcase recent purchases, often feature multiple brands within a single video. Sharing these videos, or even snippets that mention your brand favorably, effectively highlights customer sentiment and product experiences.
Social Media Content: Amplifying Brand Mentions
Even simple, positive mentions of your brand on social media can be repurposed as valuable UGC. On platforms like X (formerly Twitter), retweeting positive mentions is a great strategy. For platforms like Instagram, screenshots of positive mentions can be transformed into shareable graphics, amplifying positive brand sentiment.
Blog Posts: In-Depth Reviews and Brand Mentions
Bloggers may organically feature your brand or products within their content. This could range from dedicated product reviews to brief mentions within broader articles. Sharing excerpts or quotes from these blog posts on social media or your website effectively leverages the blogger’s voice and extends the reach of positive brand mentions.
Paid UGC: Collaborating with Content Creators
Paid UGC represents the second major category. It’s an increasingly popular strategy, particularly for newer brands aiming to rapidly build a library of user-generated content when organic submissions are still developing.
Paid UGC is created by UGC creators. These creators are distinct from traditional influencers. Paid UGC aims for the same level of sincerity and authenticity as organic UGC, but involves a direct financial agreement between the brand and the creator.
Brands can proactively seek out UGC creators through platforms like Fiverr or Upwork. Alternatively, brands with an existing fanbase may find creators reaching out to them directly, proposing collaborations. Once a collaboration is established, the content created by these UGC creators can be strategically utilized across the brand’s website and social media channels, effectively functioning as user-generated content.
Why User-Generated Content is Important: Building Trust and Driving Conversions
UGC plays a crucial role across all stages of the buyer’s journey, effectively influencing engagement and boosting conversions. This customer-centric content is highly versatile and can be strategically deployed across social media and various other channels, including email marketing, landing pages, and even checkout processes.
Authenticity: Cutting Through the Noise
In today’s digital landscape, brands face a constant battle for online visibility. Competition for audience attention is fierce, and buyers are increasingly discerning about the brands they choose to engage with and purchase from.
In this environment, authenticity is paramount. No other content type resonates as genuinely as UGC originating from your own customers. Remarkably, 86% of consumers are significantly more likely to trust a brand that showcases UGC, compared to a mere 12% who are inclined to purchase a product endorsed by traditional influencers.
However, brands must resist the temptation to fabricate user-generated content. Audiences are adept at detecting inauthenticity, and fabricated UGC can severely damage brand reputation. Instead, prioritize genuine UGC sourced from your customers, brand loyalists, or even employees.
Think of UGC as the modern evolution of word-of-mouth marketing. People inherently trust recommendations from their peers and fellow consumers far more than overt advertising.
Brand Loyalty: Fostering Community Connection
Humans naturally crave belonging and connection. Creating and sharing UGC empowers customers to become active participants in a brand’s community, fostering a stronger sense of belonging and brand affinity. This sense of community is pivotal in cultivating long-term brand loyalty.
UGC also facilitates direct conversations between brands and consumers, nurturing meaningful brand interaction. This two-way communication is instrumental in building and expanding an engaged community around your brand.
Actively sharing audience-created content strengthens the bond between audience and business, deepening relationships and driving enhanced brand loyalty.
Social Proof: Leveraging Peer Influence
Remember the infamous Fyre Festival, marketed as an “immersive music festival over two transformative weekends,” only to devolve into a chaotic scene of rain-soaked tents, lacking basic amenities like electricity and food? This debacle underscores why consumers are increasingly skeptical of traditional marketing and advertising claims.
In fact, trust in traditional media is at a record low. Only 32% of Americans express a “fair amount” or “great deal” of trust in the media, mirroring a record low point dating back to 2016.
In this climate of skepticism, brands must work harder than ever to establish themselves as trustworthy entities. Social proof emerges as a powerful tool in this endeavor. Social proof is a well-documented psychological phenomenon where individuals tend to mirror the actions and preferences of others, particularly when those actions are perceived as positive or popular.
UGC perfectly embodies social proof. When potential customers witness existing customers expressing satisfaction and enjoyment with your product, they are psychologically more inclined to try it themselves. Seeing is believing, and UGC provides that visual and experiential validation.
Content Curation: Expanding Content Reach and Impact
The strategic value of UGC extends beyond social media marketing. User-generated content can be effectively integrated into a variety of marketing channels to amplify its impact.
Consider incorporating UGC images into cart abandonment emails. Visually showcasing satisfied customers using your products can provide the extra nudge needed to convert hesitant shoppers into paying customers. Similarly, strategically embedding user-generated content on key landing pages can significantly improve conversion rates by building trust and demonstrating product value.
Calvin Klein took UGC integration a step further by creating a dedicated landing page solely for user-generated content. By showcasing real customers styling Calvin Klein apparel in their everyday lives, shoppers gain a relatable perspective. They see how the products look on diverse individuals, rather than solely on professionally styled models, enhancing product appeal and purchase confidence.
Cost-Effectiveness: Maximizing ROI
The investment in traditional influencer marketing can be substantial. Hiring an influencer can easily cost millions of dollars. In stark contrast, the cost of encouraging your customers to share posts showcasing their positive experiences with your product is minimal.
UGC emerges as a remarkably cost-effective strategy for scaling your business and diversifying your content library. It minimizes the need for significant investments in expensive advertising agencies or elaborate marketing campaigns.
UGC allows you to directly connect with your most valuable asset: your audience. Most customers are genuinely excited and flattered to be featured on a brand’s official channels, fostering positive brand sentiment and advocacy.
For smaller brands or businesses in their early stages, UGC offers a far more budget-friendly and manageable alternative to large-scale brand awareness campaigns. It allows them to build social proof and authentic connections without straining marketing budgets.
5 Inspiring Examples of UGC Campaigns
Brands of all sizes are harnessing the power of user-generated content to boost brand awareness, drive conversions, increase social engagement, expand their reach, and achieve cost-effective business growth. Let’s explore some compelling examples:
GoPro: Fueling a YouTube Channel with UGC
GoPro, the renowned video equipment company, strategically utilizes UGC to populate its thriving YouTube channel. Notably, their top three most viewed videos are all originally filmed by GoPro customers. As of March 2024, these three videos have collectively amassed over 400 million views.
This impressive viewership was achieved with content that cost GoPro virtually nothing to produce.
In fact, UGC became such a significant asset for GoPro that they now host their own annual awards show and promote daily photo challenges. These initiatives actively encourage their community to get creative with GoPro products and share their experiences.
lululemon: #thesweatlife and Brand Ambassadors
Canadian athleisure brand lululemon, famous for its premium leggings and yoga apparel, effectively leverages UGC to expand its social media reach. They encouraged their followers and brand enthusiasts to share photos of themselves wearing lululemon garments, using the hashtag #thesweatlife.
This campaign generated a wealth of easily searchable UGC content that lululemon could readily repurpose. Furthermore, by sharing content from brand ambassadors and everyday customers, lululemon organically broadened its brand awareness and social media reach.
This Instagram post, in particular, resonates with lululemon’s audience by showcasing inspiring moments from their ambassadors throughout 2023:
LaCroix: #LiveLaCroix and Relatable Content
Sparkling water brand LaCroix employs a similar UGC strategy, utilizing the hashtag #LiveLaCroix to discover user-generated content across social media platforms. However, LaCroix’s approach differs slightly from lululemon. LaCroix shares content created by a wider range of users, not exclusively brand loyalists or ambassadors with large followings.
This inclusive approach makes LaCroix’s user-generated content exceptionally relatable. Audiences see themselves reflected in these photos, fostering a sense of connection and authenticity, rather than perceiving the content as solely aspirational or influencer-driven.
Well Traveled: Member-Generated Content in the Travel Industry
UGC isn’t limited to established, large corporations. Smaller companies also successfully integrate UGC into their social media campaigns. Well Traveled, a community-driven travel brand, leverages member-generated content to showcase the benefits of membership, highlight the quality of their property partners, and promote exclusive offerings.
Laura DeGomez, Director of Partnerships & Brand Marketing at Well Traveled, emphasizes the impact of UGC in the travel industry: “As a service in such a visual industry, the ‘proof’ provided by member content is immeasurable. The beautiful trips discovered, planned, and booked on Well Traveled are a phenomenal marketing and retention tool.”
DeGomez strategically utilizes UGC to visually engage both current and prospective members, enhance brand awareness, expand reach, and cultivate a strong community.
She further notes, “No one tells our story better than our members. The Well Traveled community is the key here. Whenever we can let their experiences shine, we do.”
Edloe Finch: UGC on Product Pages for Social Proof
Boutique furniture brand Edloe Finch effectively collects UGC through the hashtag #EdloeFinch. They also provide a direct submission option on their website, allowing customers to easily upload their photos. Edloe Finch then strategically displays these customer-submitted photos directly on their product pages.
By showcasing customer content on product pages, Edloe Finch empowers potential buyers to visualize how their furniture pieces look in real homes. Purchasing furniture online can be a significant decision, and these authentic customer photos serve as compelling social proof, building confidence and reducing purchase hesitancy.
Source: Edloe Finch
4 Best Practices for User-Generated Content Campaigns
Integrating user-generated content into your marketing strategy is a smart move for any business. To maximize the effectiveness of your UGC efforts, keep these essential best practices in mind:
Always Request Permission: Respect Content Ownership
Obtaining explicit consent to share content is non-negotiable. Always ask for permission before republishing or utilizing a customer’s content in any way.
While customers might use your branded hashtags, they may not always be fully aware that you are actively running a user-generated content campaign. Resharing content without explicit permission is a surefire way to damage goodwill and alienate even your most enthusiastic brand advocates.
Requesting permission demonstrates that you value the content creator and their contribution. It also builds excitement around having their post shared with a wider audience. Furthermore, seeking permission protects you from potential copyright infringement issues.
Credit the Original Creator: Recognize Contributions
When you share user-generated content across your social media channels, always provide clear and prominent credit to the original creator. This includes directly tagging them in your post and explicitly stating whether you are sharing their visual content, written words, or both. Always give credit where credit is due.
If you intend to share UGC across multiple social media platforms, inquire about the creator’s preferred method of attribution on each platform. For instance, if you want to share an Instagram photo on your Facebook page, ask the original creator if they have a Facebook page that you can tag for proper credit.
Providing proper attribution is a crucial way to acknowledge the effort and creativity of content creators. It ensures they remain enthusiastic about engaging with your brand and continuing to create and share content.
Furthermore, clear attribution enhances transparency and allows your audience to easily verify that the content was genuinely created by someone outside your company, reinforcing authenticity.
Be Clear About What Kind of Content You’re Looking For: Guide Content Creation
UGC creators are often eager to have their content featured by brands. Make it easy for them to contribute effectively by clearly communicating the type of content you are most likely to share.
Don’t hesitate to be specific. Providing clear guidelines and direction makes it simpler for people to create content that aligns with your brand’s needs and campaign objectives.
Be Strategic and Set Goals: Align UGC with Marketing Objectives
Before launching a UGC campaign, define your strategic goals. How will user-generated content contribute to your broader marketing strategy? While visually appealing customer photos are valuable, consider how UGC can directly support your key marketing objectives.
Start by reviewing your existing social media strategy document. Identify specific areas where UGC can effectively align with and amplify your established marketing goals. Then, craft a clear and concise statement that communicates to your audience the specific type of content you are actively seeking.
Once you have a well-defined UGC “ask,” actively promote it across all relevant touchpoints where people interact with your brand:
- Your social media bios
- Within other user-generated content posts you share
- Your website
- Your physical store locations
- Your product packaging
A successful UGC strategy extends beyond simply understanding the types of content you desire from your customers. It requires aligning your UGC campaign with your overarching social media and marketing goals.
For example, are you primarily aiming to increase brand awareness, drive more conversions, or achieve a combination of both?
Measure the success of your UGC campaigns using analytics tools like Hootsuite Analytics, or social listening tools such as Hootsuite Listening, to gain insights into brand sentiment and customer trust.
Ready to leverage authentic user-generated content across your social channels? Hootsuite empowers you to effortlessly publish and schedule posts, discover relevant conversations, engage your audience, measure results, and achieve more. Try Hootsuite free today.
With files from Chloe West.
