BLOG | Digital Marketing Easy Ways to Get User-Generated Content for Business

What is user-generated content?

User-generated content (UGC) is the original content created by your customers. It is usually brand-specific and can be in any form (pictures, videos, testimonials) from your verified customer.

Let me be precise, You have gone out for a vacation and loved the stay at X. If you are posting a picture of the hotel and tagging them with location, that’s an example of user-generated content.

The content might be from friends, family, influencers, celebrities, etc. Most of the user-generated content will be unsponsored. So by generating more user-generated content, a business can improve sales and build trust. This content
also helps create brand awareness.

We have covered it for you if you need to learn about UGC and how you can collect them from different channels. Moving forward, let’s see what the different types of user-generated content are, why it is important for growing your business and share the best inspirations of user-generated content.

Types of user-generated content

1. Images and videos
2. Testimonials
3. Blogs
4. Social Media live
5. Tiktok and Reels
6. Youtube videos
7. Product reviews on the website
8. Podcasts

8 Easy ways to collect user-generated content

1. Post it on the gram!

   Instagram is one of the most popular social media that helps businesses convert post-covid. A survey found that 85% of users find user-generated images and videos more persuasive than the reviews displayed on the website.

   To get more reviews on Instagram, send free products to influencers who can help you with reviewing the products. And also, create a hashtag with your brand name to create a gallery for your brand on Instagram.

   For example: When you type #michaelkors on Instagram, you might see a gallery of users either posing with the bag or reviewing the bag.

   
   Source: Instagram

   Every picture and story from your customers and influencers is important for the growth of your business. You can also repost these user-generated reviews on your social media pages to increase brand awareness and more reach customers.

2. Trend with #Hashtags

   Hashtags can be anything. It can be a word or a phrase followed by a # symbol. Let me be honest with you. Building a hashtag can help in building a brand. Let me tell you about it!

   • • Create personalized hashtags for your brand:

       For example, You can use your brand’s name as a hashtag. You can also add important keywords as hashtags. Once you create it, share it with influencers and users to post a picture or review using the hashtag. This can help you create a space exclusively for your brand filled with user-generated content.

     • To create hashtag campaigns:

       To get more user-generated reviews and to build trust in the product, you need a trending hashtag. For example, the popular brand Apple organized a challenge in 2019 under the hashtag “ShotoniPhone,” where customers can post a picture clicked by their iPhone. This created a great response among Apple customers, and these pictures are verified user-generated content for iPhone. This is a smart marketing strategy that should be learned from Apple.

   

   Source: Instagram

   • Hashtags are more effective on Tiktok, Instagram, and Twitter:

     Try creating hashtags with those terms or slang on social media to attract people to do a challenge. The most famous challenge of all during lockdown is the #dalgonacoffeechallenge. Many coffee powder brands used this challenge as their marketing strategy to brand their coffee products.

3. Ask me about anything?

   Question and Answer sessions can also help you generate more content from your users. People will have a better understanding of the product. How can you do this?

   Instagram: Stories are the right space to post questions and answers. This feature can help you answer as many questions as possible. This can engage your audience, and people can undo the misconceptions about your product.

   So if you are running a business, people might look for reviews before buying any product. People might have different opinions and perspectives on a particular product or service. All you need to do is clarify it with someone who has used the product or service and knows very well about it.

   Again, experts in anything who answer all your questions are user-generated content for your brand. This might be suitable for all Ecommerce businesses.

   For example, the famous flight brand Emirates has created a highlight for Q&A, and all the questions were answered by pilots, flight attendants, and other crew members. This will increase the authenticity of the answers given by experts.
   

4. Going live on Social Media

   Start conducting live interviews and product demonstrations on social media platforms. You can do this from your store, online with an influencer, or by yourself. All you have to do is own a phone with great quality and a good internet connection????.
   Start doing live from your store. You can interview random people who are in your stores at that moment. They’ll definitely share their experience with the product or service.

   For example, You own a food stall, and many people come only during the weekend. You can use this time to go on a live to show the ambiance of the place, converse with people and ask them to rate their experience live. This way, you can collect user-generated content for your business.

   The key is don’t be shy to ask people what they think about your product or service.

5. Run contests or Giveaways

   Giveaways are a great way to reach out to new audiences. When I say giveaways, it means you choose a person from your comments and give an item to them for free.

   But here’s the twist. Every brand has its rules for entering the contest. The major criteria will be: should definitely follow the person and the brand they’ve collaborated with to organize the giveaway, should like and share the post as a story, comment why they like the product the most, and finally, tag three friends from their list.

   So obviously, people start sharing this product on stories and ask their friends to follow it to win the contest. Here, the comment section is the most important part where people would have shared more about the product. This is a trending way to get user-generated content from your follower list. Here’s an example of how Sameera Reddy has collected user-generated content for the brand usapulses_india.
   

6. Send review request emails and SMS

   Social media will be on and off, and it keeps evolving as days go by. But several brands still follow the traditional method of getting user-generated content via emails and SMS. Yes, you’ve heard it right!

   More than 4 billion people use emails daily. It is an easy and cost-effective way to collect user-generated content. You can use this to embed reviews on your website and social media channels.

   How can you collect UGC?

   • Via email:

     Start sending email campaigns with feedback forms. Or you can also make it more exciting by asking questions about the product. Also, provide them a coupon or extra discount for sharing picture reviews.

   • Via SMS:

     Share a shortened URL of your feedback form. You can also ask them to rate products and redirect them to another page.

7. Reel it, Feel it!

   Reels are the new way of obtaining user-generated content. These short-format videos can be found on several platforms under different names.
   

   Instagram & Facebook: Reels
   Youtube: Shorts
   Snapchat: Spotlight
   Tiktok: Tiktoks

   These short-formated videos are a form of user-generated content created by users of these platforms. The videos can either be a review, an experiment of the product, a vlog, an unboxing video, close-up shorts of products, details of the product, etc.

   These videos are a hit because they are made between 30 to 60 seconds. A time period best suited for the human brain to process and remember things shown in the video easily. These unsponsored user-generated videos help build trust with the viewers in seconds.

8. Youtube unboxing videos

   Youtube is the best platform to get detailed user-generated videos. This can either be sponsored or unsponsored. But the whole point of this platform is to create a great bond with the viewers. Nowadays, people believe more in what’s said on Youtube.

   Let’s think about our own lives. We constantly search for videos to understand a particular product or service better. Maybe if you are in need of a laptop, we watch at least 20 youtube videos before buying a new one. We check for specs, quality tests, unboxing videos, and reviews of the product generated by another user on Youtube.
   

   You can always search for an influencer who can help promote your product by posting a detailed review. You can also collect reviews from the customers who watch the video by asking them to comment on their reviews below.

   User-generated videos on YouTube get 10x more views than content created and uploaded by the actual brand.

9. Collect reviews and ratings via Google

   Google reviews are unbeatable when it comes to developing trust among people. People look for ratings, from watching a movie to buying a product. The users of the product can only generate these reviews. You can ask people to rate your product via email, sms, and other social media platforms.
   

   A brand needs to index its rating on Google because it increases brand credibility. To do this, you need to subscribe to review tools like BayReviews and Yotpo reviews that can help you index star ratings on Google. You can also look for other Yotpo alternatives to collect more pictures and product reviews at a lower price.

Importance of user-generated content for business with Stats:

1. Increase brand loyalty and expand your community- 70% of customers trust in the real people reviews before they make a purchase decision.
2. Improves product credibility- 87% of brands use UGC to share “authentic content,” and 72% believe (correctly) that it helps them engage their audience
3. Influence Purchasing decisions- 84% of millennials claim that the user-generated content influences them to buy products and services on the website instead of sites that don’t use UG
4. More conversion rates than before- About a 29% increase in the conversion rate is noticed on online purchases with user-generated content on website page products.
5. Gen Z contributes more to UGC- Consumers between the ages of 25-54 create and share 70% of all UGC.

Wrapping it!

User-generated content is a powerful tool for businesses to leverage, and as you have seen, there are various ways you can use it effectively. From creating challenges to using social media platforms, the possibilities are endless when it comes to collecting user-generated content. Whichever method you choose, ensure that your users feel appreciated for their contributions and that the content they provide is relevant to your business goals. With these easy tips, you should now be well on your way toward curating great user-generated content for your business!