What is UGC

UGC stands for user-generated content.

Imagine that you, as a businessman, helped a window company attract leads. The customer told about it on his social network or left a review on the website. If we talk about B2C: a client drank coffee, posted a story with a cup and marked the coffee shop on it.

Such simple actions are called User Generated Content.

UGC is similar to content marketing. These are the same pictures, videos, reviews, posts, stories, etc., but you should not confuse them. If content marketing is created by the brand itself or by outsourced contractors, then UGC is generated by buyers.

According to statistics:

70% of consumers trust UGC more than branded content;
79% of people say UGC has a strong influence on their purchasing decisions;
Customers buy a product 6 times more often if there are photos from social networks on the page.
 

Why do we need UGC?
Everyone is bored with "pure" marketing. It is licked: the content is created in advance, the text is "proofread", photo shoots are paid, etc., and in UGC, users post, for example, stories with a review at the moment. They experience emotions, transfer them to feedback to share with others.

Let's not forget about trust. For example, a person follows a favorite blogger who has just tagged a company in a story. Most likely, he will be interested, because the review is left by a "verified" user.

In addition to the review, the visual component will also play a role. That is, a person clearly looked at the product or saw the result of the service provided.

UGC marketing:

inspires confidence, since he is initially more honest;
attracts attention, as it works with emotions;
allows potential customers to see the product "from all sides";
generates content without the cost of resources on the part of the company.

Types of UGC in Social Media
If you are not new to the business and have already come to promoting your product on social media, then most likely you are already using the UGC tool. This can be checked as follows:

look for reviews on the Internet about your product;
remember whether they came to you by word of mouth;
Have you seen brand tags on social media?
This is not the whole list. Let's look at examples of what types of UGC content there are:

Comments
Comments are available on any social network. With their help, you can not only assess the attitude towards your product, but also communicate with your audience, for example, by finding out their queries. Perhaps your product or service lacks something or, on the contrary, something needs to be removed.

In the case of UGC, more often people either ask something or express their opinions: positive and negative. And here it is important to learn how to work competently with comments:

to respond in a timely manner;
respond respectfully, according to ToV (the style in which the company communicates with the audience);
not to enter into a conflict;
try to be courteous.
After all, it is also a way to react in time to negativity from users. If you smooth out the corners right away, you can avoid conflict and subsequent negative mentions.

I think everyone knows that there are cheated and real comments. If earlier it was easier to distinguish the "original" from a fake, now it is not. People buy goods for money, review them and write "truthful" comments.

People often notice a catch. Therefore, if a comment is written by a live person who actually bought a product or used a service, then it will be noticeable. A real user will mention not only the pros, but also touch on the cons.

Reviews
The most comprehensive type of UGC is reviews. Here, customers can not only express their opinions, but also demonstrate what they have been using. It can be a service, product, service, etc.

The most popular service for video reviews is YouTube. The user can go to the platform, enter a review of the desired product in the search and watch dozens of videos, both with pros and cons.

More often, the audience prefers to trust a specific person, for example, the blogger they are watching. This is worth paying attention to for entrepreneurs who want to promote their product with the help of a media person.

It is worth paying attention to:

Audience;
content;
cost;
the possibility of barter;
behaviour;
coverage and other factors.

Such sites pay users money for writing reviews, so they are interested in making them voluminous and detailed.

If you want the product to appear on these services, you can tell your audience on social networks that they can get a discount or an additional bonus on their next purchase for a review.

Reviews
The difference between a review and a comment is that a comment is a short opinion or a phrase "here and now", while a review is a full-fledged opinion with pros and cons.

A review often contains a rating or your attitude to a product or service. A commentary expresses a more extensive idea: a question, an association, an expression, etc.

There are three types of reviews:

Positive;
Neutral;
Negative.

Often it works like this: reviews are left where they don't like something. There is a need to "complain". But if a person likes it, then he will just silently use what he has acquired.

Reviews generally work on the principles of comments. They can also be wound up. For consumers, this becomes a problem as they do not understand whether it is a good product or not.

I would motivate people to leave honest comments while working on the product or service itself.
And here a logical question arises: is it UGC content or not? After all, in this case, the user no longer voluntarily "comments" or "reviews" the product.

The answer is yes. A brand can offer a discount to regular customers, barter, contest, etc.

A person who has used a product once and does not like it will not buy it again, even for the sake of a bun. And for regular customers, this format is pleasant. They will be happy to share an honest review, and leave a pleasant comment, and can even shoot a video review.

In this case, surveys are not created by users, but by the company. The decision to create a product or service is made by customers. For example, the idea where there will be the most likes or comments will come true.

How to Launch a UGC Strategy
The first step I would recommend is to collect a contact database. The more the better. Ideally, it should be a base that will be interested in your product. For example, if you are engaged in B2B promotion in the heavy industry niche, then mothers with children aged 25+ who are interested in developmental courses are unlikely to buy equipment from you. Your audience is owners, marketing directors. Most often, these are men 30+.

After you have collected the database, you need to understand how your audience "lives" on the Internet, for example:

what content he posts;
where he sits;
what activity he shows;
what catches, etc.
This will help not only in working on the next steps, but also concretize the portrait of your target audience.

Then you need to determine where you will collect the activity. To determine where your audience is sitting, answer the following questions:

"What?" – promotion with the help of SEO of industrial companies.
"Who?" — CEO, decision-maker, or marketing director (depending on the size of the company).
"Why?" – they want to get more leads.
"When?" – every month.
"Where?" — specialized yelegram channels, media and conferences, business clubs, etc.
Also, your target audience analysis should contain complete information about the portrait of a potential client, including answers to the following questions:

where the client is sitting;
what social networks he uses;
What does he comment on and does he comment at all?
Channels can be social networks, maps and video hostings, review sites. You can search for your brand and look for pages where users could or can leave a comment or review.

Think over the motivation system. People should be interested in creating UGC content that will work for you in the future.

Motivation can be:

Bonuses;
Discounts;
Draws;
stock;
individual offers;
competitions, etc.
Convey this information to your audience. Even if a person likes your product or service, they may not guess to write a review or review on their own.

You can tell about a new site where people can leave their feedback and read comments from other buyers, offer to use a hashtag as a tag to track tags on social networks.

Don't forget about contests and giveaways where people need to mark your product.

Don't forget to thank. People create content for you, and so they want something in return. Don't forget about your promises and the bonus system. Do not neglect the laws either. Therefore, if you want to publish some someone else's material with your mention on your page, then it is better to ask permission.

Examples of UGC content

Before buying something, users read reviews and look at reviews. The more positive reviews, the higher the chance that a person will buy the product. Therefore, sellers should be interested in not only supplying high-quality goods, but also working with comments.

The marketplaces themselves ask you to leave a review or write a comment on the product the next time you log in, as well as rate the product on a five-point scale.