The Ins And Outs Of User-Generated Content And How To Make It Work For Your Online Business

When businesses reached online, they opened the gate for new opportunities for brands and set them up on the globe. Anyone from any part of the world could have access to these brands’ catalog and make purchases.

But as the number of online businesses kept increasing, so did the number of online frauds. People started feeling skeptical before making any purchase online.

Brands that were based entirely online started seeing a decline in sales. That’s when user-generated content came into the online scene and became a breakthrough.

Let’s understand what UGC is before we jump into how you can make it work for your online business.

What Is User-Generated Content?
User-generated content is any content created by a consumer. It can be a photo, a video, a product review; if the author is a consumer, it becomes user-generated content. These are usually customers’ experiences with brands that they share with the online audience. It can be positive or negative.

Brands have started repurposing this content and strategically sharing it with potential customers to generate leads, increase conversions and create brand engagement. UGC has turned out to be so effective and result-driven that many brands have shifted entirely towards it for their marketing strategies.

Want to know how you can make UGC work effectively for your online business? Keep reading to find out.

Ways To Make UGC Work Effectively For Online Businesses
Choose The Right Social Platform
Many social media platforms have emerged in the digital space, and all of them have their form of content. Instagram focuses on visual content, and Twitter focuses on textual content whereas Facebook is a combination of both.

In that case, you need to choose your focal social media platform wisely as per the kind of content you want your brand consumers to create. Moreover, social media users are spread unevenly among the platforms.

You will find more of Gen-Z on Snapchat, and you will find more of Boomers and Millennials on Facebook; identify who your target audience is and focus on creating your social presence on that platform for maximum UGC results.

Utilize The Existing UGC
If you are an online business with a good social media presence, you must have customers who love you and talk about you on social media. These are the advocates of your brands who have shared their views around you with their followers.

Choose a social media aggregator tool that can help you collect content using your branded hashtag or business account handle in a unified manner.

By doing so, you will be able to extract all the content your customers have created for you and then repurpose it for all your marketing campaigns and benefit from everything UGC has to offer.

Create Hashtag Campaigns
Tell your audience the kind of content you want them to create and get an abundance of user-generated content by organizing hashtag contests and campaigns. Many brands conduct hashtag contests as they have proven to be very beneficial.

It creates a social media presence and produces a humongous amount of content brands can use for future marketing purposes. The best part is that you get to tell the audience what kind of content you want them to create by setting up certain rules for the hashtag contest that they have to abide by to win the contest.

You can collect this UGC and display it on your business website to engage your visitors, repost them on your social media platforms and utilize them during events if you organize any.

Create UGC Galleries For Website
If you are an online business, you must have an ecommerce store. Many user-generated content platforms allow brands to curate captivating UGC galleries for their ecommerce website. These galleries are highly engaging and impactful.

When your website visitors come across the UGC galleries, they see the real-life experience of their peers, which creates trust among them and helps them make positive purchase decisions. You can also curate UGC galleries for particular products and embed them on the products’ pages to make them more impactful.

Moreover, when your existing customers come across these UGC galleries, they get impressed that you give so much importance to your customers’ views, encouraging them to create content for you.

Acknowledge The Negative Feedbacks
User-generated content is not all about positivity. It is normal to receive some negative reviews.

Besides, these reviews help you improve as a brand and work better for your customers as they come directly from them. So, you must not ignore them and rather acknowledge them.

It creates a good image for your brand online and helps potential customers trust you. Too many good reviews seem like a hoax; a balance between negative and positive reviews brings more authenticity and gives more meaning to your user-generated content.

Over To You
Reaching the end, we hope that now you have a better understanding of user-generated content and how you can leverage it into your online business and gain success.

User-generated content can bring in many benefits if you know how to use it effectively. So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to acquire the above mentioned ideas and get started.