UGC’s wide-reaching benefits range from saving your brand time and money to boosting your credibility amongst your customer base. But the benefits of an effective UGC strategy doesn’t stop there.
Let’s start by discussing the first benefit: taking advantage of curated customer content. Effective content curation is “when an individual (or team) consistently finds, organises, annotates, and shares the most relevant and highest quality digital content on a specific topic for their target market,” (Curata, 2021). There are many benefits of effective content curation but here are a few to make you more familiar:
The second benefit of UGC is that it helps boost social media reach and growth. Social media outlets and UGC campaigns go together perfectly and when used correctly can create something magical for your brand. Executing a UGC campaign through social media can be an excellent way to strengthen your brand and build customer relationships.
Examples of stand-out user-generated content on social media are Aerie’s #AerieReal campaign on Instagram and Starbucks’ #RedCupArt contest. Each campaign is simple in nature but powerful in its message.
Aerie’s #AerieReal campaign is centred around bringing awareness to the excessive use of photo editing in advertising. There’s been a specific concern around the impact edited photos have on women’s self-esteem and sense of a healthy body image. This prompted Aerie to stop retouching photos of models in its bathing suits and launch their #AerieReal campaign. Aerie also pledged that for every Instagram user that posted an unedited photo of themselves in a bathing suit with the hashtag #AerieReal, they would donate $1 to the National Eating Disorders Association.
Every December, Starbucks launches the latest edition of its #RedCupContest to promote its holiday-themed seasonal beverages and red cups. The campaign helps encourage coffee drinkers to submit photos of their coffees for a chance to win a Starbucks gift card. This contest is a smart and creative UGC campaign. It not only motivates fans to participate and engage online by offering a sweet prize but also promotes a seasonal campaign and helps produce sales.
It’s also vital for brands to engage with users’ content. Once a brand has asked for people’s input, it’s important to acknowledge their audience’s efforts. This helps promote worthwhile interactions and build relationships while encouraging other users to submit their content. These interactions are beneficial for brands and consumers.
Designing UGC campaigns through social media increases social traffic which in return, creates a higher follower base, increased brand awareness, and greater website traffic and page views.
The third benefit of UGC is that it can help find unique content. Your audience produces different content than a marketing team. Brands should take full advantage of this “outsider” perspective. The photos, videos, blog posts, and reviews that audiences find offer a clear and fresh take and alternate point of view. UGC keeps content engaging and helps encourage new audiences to participate in fun and loyal users to continue creating content.
For more information on how to utilise UGC to maximise your brand head back to SnapSea or give us a follow on LinkedIn.
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