Get user-generated content your customers will love – here’s how!
How to Get User-Generated Content for Your Marketing
User-generated content, or UGC, is something every brand can leverage for marketing. It promotes trust and loyalty among consumers, drives engagement from your community, and influences purchase decisions. There are lots of ways to connect with your audience through UGC, but first you need to know how to get user-generated content that feels authentic and valuable.
Here are a few strategies for finding content created by your own users, followers, and customers that you can repurpose for your marketing strategies.
Learn How to Get User-Generated Content
Look on social media. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are full of user-created content. People enjoy sharing their experiences with products and services with their friends and family, and social media users have come to expect this type of content while using the apps. So, your first stop in finding user content is to look on social networks to see what people may have already shown or talked about in relation to your brand.
Here's a product share from a real customer for Crate & Kids, a brand that sells furniture and décor for kids’ rooms:
After finding the content on Instagram, Crate & Kids then asked permission to use it on their own page to show followers how customers are using (and loving) their merchandise:
This is a great approach because it helps you go beyond professional images of your products (which are valuable for catalogs and websites) to photos of everyday homes and people, which are easier for customers to imagine in their own lives.
Ask for it. If you can’t find any customer-generated content online or want more of it, then simply ask your customers to create it for you. There are a few ways you can do this:
Encourage customers or clients to share a testimonial of their experiences with you. Not all UGC has to contain a visual, and you can use testimonials as social proof on your website or other marketing materials.
Request social media followers to post a review, recommendation, image, or video of your product or service along with a custom hashtag.
Host a contest where you ask the audience to share their experiences with your brand in exchange for a chance to win a prize.
Host an event. Whether it’s an online-only webinar or a full-scale conference, your brand events are excellent opportunities for learning how to get user-generated content. Beginning with the sign-up thank you page, you can invite registrants to publish content about your event to social media. It’s a fun way for participants to show their own followers what they’re up to while encouraging them to join them at the event, which extends your reach by leveraging user-generated content. During the event, you might even give participants an easy way to capture photos of themselves at the event, tag your event or brand in it, and even include a hashtag if it makes sense.
More on How to Leverage User-Generated Content
If you’re wondering about other ways UGC can help your marketing, be sure to read:
