BTB Episode 165: Guide to User Generated Content

Want to get people talking about your business?

One way to do that is to encourage your users or clients to create what’s called user generated content. User generated content (UGC) is content created by your customers and/or clients that promotes your product or service (versus content created by your business).

The Benefits of User Generated Content:

The primary benefit of user generated content is that people are more likely to trust actual user’s opinions of a product or service, especially if they are unfamiliar with a brand. This is why influencer marketing is so effective. Trust is built more quickly when someone you trust tells you to trust a claim about a product or service.

Additionally, users may talk about a product differently than us business owners talk about our products. They may imagine new ways to use our products we hadn’t anticipated, or they may describe it in a way that better resonates with others.

Other benefits of user generated content include…

• Builds trust quickly: People are more likely to trust a brand when they’ve seen others get results.
• Highly versatile content: UGC can be repurposed and combined with other forms of content to create new content for a variety of channels.
• Assists in building client and customer avatars: We, as businesses, can learn more about our clients and customers through hearing them talk about our products and services.
• Increases brand prominence: Encouraging user generated content makes it more likely that your brand will be introduced into new communities across the internet.
• Increases shareability of content: Users are more likely to share UGC than content created by brands.

Types of User Generated Content:

You likely see examples of user generated content everyday. For instance, someone sharing on Instagram about a new favorite product of theirs is an example of user generated content. Other examples include…

• unboxing videos
• videos or pictures of someone actually using the product
• testimonial videos

While user generated content does not have to be in video form, videos tend to be the most effective examples of user generated content. Video and audio tend to build trust more quickly

Interested in implementing user generated content in your business?

Check out this guide (coming soon) from Till Agency. They put together a guide for their account managers and clients to use when sourcing user generated content. It even includes a script you can use to encourage users or clients to share about your product or service.