A few years back, consumers used to be influenced by the content of large organizations that were created by professionals like photographers, videographers, and designers. However, these days, content creation is no longer bound to professionals anymore. As the digital era has rolled in, nearly everyone can now generate high-quality content of their own.
To put it better, consider that your customers have received the amazing product of your brand which they want to show off to the world. Hence, they might post a picture of the product on their social media accounts mentioning your brand, or they might even post an unboxing video on their YouTube channel. And that’s how the age of User-Generated-Content began. Overall, it acts as word-of-mouth.
But the big question is why does UGC or User-Generated-Content matter? Is there any possibility of success by doing UGC?
You can surely get the answer if you recognise how Wikipedia had made the grade while other traditional encyclopedias had a breakdown. Wikipedia quickly rose to prominence as a valuable source of curated information because anyone around the world can write, edit, and exchange information as they want. At present, Wikipedia has over 6 million separate articles. And it’s a matter of surprise that all of these articles are authored and evaluated for free by volunteers. And the founders of Wikipedia carried this off by perfecting the art of User-Generated-Content that acts as an innovative strategy for encouraging contribution and participation.
As a consequence, User-Generated-Content can surely lead the way to success. Consumers are now more engaged and knowledgeable than ever before, and their online interactions are influencing the brand’s strategic plan. Almost 90% of customers believe that user-generated content has a greater impact on them than any other type of brand content. Reasons behind why UGC is good for any brand include:
People rely on the real people rather than the marketers
Consumers these days are more inclined to find a suggestion credible from a friend than any sponsored material. For example, when customers shop online, they want validation of the product or service through the content posted by real people rather than marketers. Here, UGC can provide individuals with an honest and credible third-party perspective on these unseen features, assisting in bringing items to life in ways that feel real and meaningful to them and can give it a new, refreshing change from the traditional advertising method.
UGC is a strategy to have your message heard above the noise
Since people are flooded with countless advertisements and sponsored material on a daily basis, customers adopt banner blindness which means the ability to block out advertisements. Thus, it can be tough for a marketer to traverse the noise.
UGC in this case can be the strategy for re-engaging your customers without leading their eyes to glaze over. Customers regard UGC as more authentic since it is not merely promotional stuff.
UGC brings about a community
This point can be demonstrated clearly if we consider how the TikTok app operates. TikTok is fully based on user-generated content. TikTok’s key motive is to let people display their creativity by following the trend and hashtags. When it comes to creating a community of the younger generation TikTok has hit the nail on the head.
UGC ensures authenticity
User-Generated-Content entails users creating content spontaneously. Users like to generate content because they want to share quality content with others as well as give a recommendation. For example, there are a plethora of Youtubers who made review videos of series like Squid Game, Money Heist, Stranger Things and many more. In most cases, these video contents are unpaid and hold authenticity which motivated more people to watch these series.
UGC is cost-effective
Advertisements are sometimes stretched to resource and budget limitations. Yet, user-generated content fortunately will not leave a downturn in your budget allocation for promotional operation. There is minimal to no expense in UGC campaign as it involves obtaining content straight from your social network users. Furthermore, vast numbers of people uploading pictures and short video clips and marketers may dig into these materials on a large scale. Thus, incorporating User-Generated-Content on the same page as branded or paid content is more likely to cut additional marketing budgets.
The bottom line
The beauty of user-generated content is that consumers control the whole game, and marketers don’t have to invest a large sum of money in efforts that the content may or may not succeed. If you haven’t included this big-wheel strategy in your business yet, it’s high time you gave it a try for further progress.
Write-up: Jannatul Nyma