SEO Spot

Marketing has evolved a lot. UGC plays a vital role in the content marketing strategy of most of the leading brands all around the world. Most of the top brands of the world are running UGC campaigns to market their product in a better and more effective way. There are many successful examples of user-generated content campaigns that worked great for brands.

The marketing potential UGC holds is beyond the imagination of ordinary people. UGC can serve you as a goldmine if you use it properly. Nowadays, brands are running UGC campaigns on social media and turning to the general audience and ask them to create content for them, and they will showcase it to the world. There are many examples of user-generated content websites that embed UGC along with regular content.

So, in this article, we are going to discuss what is of user-generated content definition, it’s importance and some thriving examples of user-generated content.

So let’s go!

User-Generated Content Definition

Any type of content that is created by the users of the brand over the Internet to share their reviews with the brand is known as user-generated content. UGC can be of any type like photos, texts, videos, testimonials, etc.

People generally create UGC because

To share their reviews with the brand.
To showcase their creativity to a larger group of people.
Sometimes to win something.

People share UGC with their own free will, and they are not paid for this by the brands.

Now let’s discuss the benefits of user-generated content.

Benefits Of User-Generated Content

UGC plays a crucial role in today’s online marketing worlds. Around 60% of the people trust texts and photos posted by real users. There are endless benefits of UGC, but today, we are going to discuss some of the significant benefits of user-generated content.

1 Cost-Effective

One of the most significant benefits of UGC. Marketers don’t have to pay to the audience for the creation of UGC. People do it with their own free will. They create UGC to showcase their creativity to a larger group of audience. Brands have to encourage its users for creating the UGC and manage it properly.

2 Authentic

Authenticity is one of the essential things in today’s online marketing world. People no longer trust marketers. Instead, they depend and believe in the content that users of the brand. According to a report, 85% of the users are more influenced by the UGC than any other form of content.

People find UGC more authentic than any other form of content because they can relate with the UGC in a better way, and the brands do not pay people. Hence, UGC is the most authentic form of content in today’s online marketing world.

3 Unique & Fresh Content

The best thing about UGC is that it is fresh, real, and unique. People are creative, and nowadays, they have 24*7 mobile access so they can create fantastic content for you. Sometimes they can create better content than your marketing team.

Embedding UGC on the website also helps to get better SEO perks. The search engine gives preference to the sites that embed UGC along with the regular content. So there is more than one benefit of integrating UGC on the website.

Examples Of User-Generated Content

1 Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is one of the leading soft drink brands all over the world. The marketing team of Coca-Cola came up with the idea of the #ShareACoke campaign. The campaign was first launched in Australia in the year 2011. Under this contest the company print 150 common names on the bottles and ask its users to share a coke with their loved ones and post their photos on social media.

The campaign was very well accepted by the people and was an instant hit. The company then relaunched the campaign in different parts of the world based on their culture and background. This is one of the best examples of user-generated content.

2 Starbucks

In 2014, Starbucks launched its #WhiteCupContest. Under this contest, people were asked to draw the white cup, and the winner of the white cup contest would be selected as the limited edition template for the cup design of Starbucks.

The campaign was an instant hit, and Starbucks received more than 4000 drawn cups in 3 weeks. #WhiteCupContest is one of the most successful campaigns of Starbucks.

3 BMW

BMW is the leading luxury car brand all over the world. Owning a car of the brand is considered as aN achievement for the people. To showcase the success of the people, BMW started a campaign #BMWRepost.

Under this contest, the customers were asked to share the photo with their cars and share it under the hashtag #BMWRepost. The best photos were then reposted on the official social media account of BMW. This campaign makes to feel the people unique.

4 Apple

Once Apple users were dissatisfied with the average camera quality of the photos shot in low light. Apple was quick to spot this mistake and to redeem the trust of the users, and Apple launched their #ShotOnIphone campaign.

Under this campaign, Apple asked its users to share their photos and videos shot in low light. The campaign was for both new and pro users of the brand. People actively participated in the content and shared their photos and videos.

Apple picks the best photos and videos and then repost them on their official Youtube. By doing this, Apple was able to restore its trust among its users. This is another good example of user-generated content.

Marketing has evolved at a rapid pace in the last few decades, and user-generated content is the new active player in the market. The power of user-generated content is beyond the imagination of common people. No marketer can deny its importance in today’s content marketing world.

So, now let’s first discuss the general definition of user-generated content.

User-Generated Content Definition

User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC) is any form of content that is created by the users of the brand to share their experience with the brand over online platforms. The term “user-generated content” became popular in the mid-2000s. UGC can be of any type like

Texts
Photos
Testimonials
Videos
Blog Posts
Tweets
Social Media Content

UGC has established itself as one of the significant marketing players, and no marketer can deny its importance in today’s online marketing world. UGC plays a substantial role in the content marketing strategy for big brands.

Now, let’s discuss the benefits of user-generated content.

Benefits Of User-Generated Content

1 Cost-Effective

The best thing about UGC is, marketers, don’t have to empty their pockets to get the content from the audience. People create UGC for free with their own free will. The brand does not pay them for creating UGC. People create UGC for

Share their experience with the brand.
To build a community of like-minded people.
Sometimes to win something.

Brands have to curate the UGC and manage it properly. UGC can serve you as a gold mine for the brands if they use it properly.

2 Authentic

Authenticity is one of the essential things in today’s online marketing world. People no longer trust marketers. Nowadays, the audience doesn’t depend upon the paid ads of the brands to make their purchase decision. Instead, people believe the content created by the other users of a brand.

According to a study, 63% of the consumers said that they would buy from a company that is more authentic over a competitor.

3 Solve The Problem Of Content Crush

Creating unique and original content is always a challenge in content marketing. Content is filling on the Internet at a rapid pace. So creating unique and innovative content is still a challenging task for the content creators. UGC can solve the problem of content for marketers.

UGC is the content created by the users of the brand. So it is highly authentic and real. The audience, especially the youth, can create fantastic content for the brand if you encourage them to do so. Sometimes the content generated by the audience of the brand is better than your marketing teams content.

According to a report, 36% of the content marketers face the problem of content crush every day.

User-generated content can help you to solve the problem of content crush. People nowadays have access to smartphones, and they can create fantastic content for you.

4 Increase Social Reach

Every big brand wants to grow their followers on social media so that they can showcase their product or service to a broader group of audience. UGC can help the brands to achieve this goal.

Social media platforms are one of the best places to organise a UGC campaign. People actively participate in the UGC campaigns on social media because they get the platform to showcase their talent to a larger group of people. Organizing UGC content on social media can help you in the following ways

Increase Fanbase
Create Brand Awareness
Increase Traffic
Increase In Authenticity

5 Boost SEO Score

Embedding UGC on the site can boost the SEO score of the website. According to a report, 25% of the world’s Top 20 brands embed UGC on their website to get better SEO perks.

The search engine also loves to see UGC on the website, and it gives preference to the site in the ranking that embeds UGC along with the regular content. Reviews and ratings on the ecommerce website can help you to generate more sales.

6 Better Engagement

People love UGC than any other form of content. They love to get engaged with the UGC campaigns on social media. You have to be smart to maximize the reach of your social media contest. You can offer some price to the winner of the contest to get higher engagement.

Many big brands like Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Apple, Netflix, embed UGC on their website. UGC has helped these brands to get higher engagement. This is one of the biggest benefits of user-generated content.

7 Helps You To Built As Brand

One of the bad news for marketers is that people no longer trust them. Paid ads are no longer useful as they earlier used to be. People prefer to trust UGC than any other type of paid content. UGC acts word of mouth for the brands, and it also helps to gain trust among the users.

By embedding social media campaign feeds on the website, you are showing the social side of your brands to the audience. This will help you to connect better with the audience and thus helps you to create trust among the users. Hence, all these will ultimately help you to built as a brand.