3 Ideas To Get More User-Generated Content (UGC)

User-generated content (UGC) is any form of content (words, posts, illustrations, video clips and comments) that is created by individuals (as opposed to brands) and shared publicly online or on a social media platform. UGC campaigns can be found almost anywhere if you search for them.

 

Many well-known businesses have realised the value of UGC from their most loyal customers. UGC resembles online feedback and recommendations in many ways. When customers see images, videos, tweets, or posts of other customers using your goods or services, it serves as a powerful testimonial to them. This message had the same impact when it was passed along by word of mouth. What makes UGC so effective? The answer lies within well-planned initiatives to gather UGC made by regular people like you and me such as photos, stories, tweets and videos.

 

A staggering 71% of consumers state their trust in a product has been increased by reading reviews written by other customers. This is why content marketing experts value user-generated content so highly. Consumers place more faith in UGC than they do in brand-created content, but many brands are at a loss on how to inspire their fans to produce such content.

 

Here’s the point: there’s a lot of room for brands to benefit from user-generated content on social media. Do you, however, know how to inspire your followers to produce such content? Here are 3 suggestions to encourage more UGC for your brand:

 

1.Organize UGC Contests And Giveaways

 

Social media giveaways and contests used to be incredibly popular. Are they still as effective and popular these days? In fact, they do as people enjoy receiving gifts or prizes. Popular methods of increasing brand awareness and follower engagement include hosting contests and giving away prizes, with some contests even being tailored to encourage participants to submit user-generated content. A simple and engaging method to get people involved in a UGC contest is to ask them to contribute images that are related to your brand. Furthermore, it provides you with a huge selection of user generated content that you may adapt for use in the next online marketing campaigns.

 

If you are planning to organise an Instagram photo contest, you could have participants submit a photo of themselves utilising your product in their own creative ways. In an effort to promote wholesome cooking with the usage of their product, Ajinomoto organised The Sodium Reduction Recipes Challenge contest. Participants would have to upload a photo of a dish they had prepared with Ajinomoto products and tag @hi_ajinomoto in the caption.

 

 

(A) Criteria Consideration For A UGC contest

 

Setting up a UGC contest takes some forethought, planning, and creativity.  Regardless of the platform, UGC can greatly boost brand awareness and drive more traffic to your brand’s social media platforms.

 

(B) Select A Theme For UGC Contest

 

Choosing a theme and a goal is the first step to organising a UGC contest. Afterall, there must be a theme behind every contest. To put it another way, it must be about or related to something. It could be a yearly celebration, a holiday season, or a trend.

 

(C) Why Choosing A Contest Theme Is Crucial

 

Holiday seasons are a guaranteed way to earn revenue for any business. As a way to generate revenue during the holiday seasons, it is necessary to create interest in your services and products among your target audiences. With an online UGC contest, you can encourage customers to engage with your business in order to win a prize and, in return, bring in new leads. The use of a UGC contest theme enables you to connect with something relatable with your existing and potential customers.

It doesn’t matter what the holiday or festive occasion is, it always unites people and puts them in a giving, cheerful spirit. Running a UGC contest with a holiday theme is a terrific way to get customers interested with your business during this festive period.

 

The Calpis Instagram contest places a focus on the Hari Raya celebration theme and provides the perfect prize for their target audience in return for user-generated content in the form of a video of the contestants making a Calpis beverage concoction. The festive theme is timely, and it successfully puts customers in the spirit of the season while still keeping their minds on the Calpis brand.

 

 

(D) Come Up With Hashtags For UGC Contest

 

It’s also a good idea to host a contest focused on a topic related to your brand specialty, target audience, or other specific niches. Additionally, it’s advised that you choose a contest hashtag that is distinctively associated with your brand. You may use your brand name, the latest product name, or the name of an online marketing campaign.

 

This Instagram contest which is organised by Yeo’s gave participants the opportunity to win fantastic prizes simply by following Yeo’s Instagram account and submitting images of themselves with Yeo’s tea beverages to their personal Instagram accounts with the hashtag, #LebihSegarLebihKewl.

 

As participants post their images to their social media accounts during a UGC contest, your brand’s reach is increased to new potential audiences.

 

 

2.Engage With Influencers

 

Influencers who have a large number of followers on social media and other platforms are often seen as leading figures in their social communities. The majority of them have huge, engaged fan bases and stunning picture feeds. If an influencer promotes your product by posting an image of it on social media, they will not only increase your brand’s visibility, but they will also motivate their followers to engage with it. People who view these photos are more likely to participate in the conversation by contributing their own images to the thread.

 

(A) What To Consider When Looking For An Influencer?

 

The first step is always to do your research. After developing a strategy based on your marketing campaign and objectives, consider the following as you conduct your research:

 

(i) Are the influencer’s posts relevant to your service? If you’re a cosmetics company trying to promote a new mascara, you might reach out to influencers who regularly post their beauty routines and favourite makeup products on social media. As an example, Numee Beauty teamed up with Sara Azhar, who frequently works with other skincare and beauty brands.

 

(ii) Most likely, it was the influencer’s content that initially drew your attention. When developing an effective marketing strategy, excellent content is crucial. The social media influencer you choose to collaborate with should be capable of delivering you unique results such as high quality photos and videos. From fashion to food and more, Rose Nicotine delivers all sorts of vibrant, insightful and original content.

 

If you collaborate with people who are also buying your product, that’s a win-win situation for your brand. To begin with, they have a strong grasp on the forms of material most likely to appeal to your intended target audience. So, you can rest assured that the UGC they produce for you will be effective. It will also help increase your brand recognition because they have an established audience community and appear highly esteemed in their field. So, when exactly should you team up with influencers to produce UGC for your social media platforms?

 

Occasion 1: Events

 

It can be challenging to acquire high quality content for your online marketing campaigns. There is never sufficient time to complete your typical marketing campaign duties such as capturing the ideal photo for Instagram or coming up with a creative Facebook post when you are in charge of organising a large-scale trade show. Businesses that prioritise content marketing, such as marketing their events online on social media platforms with images and videos are getting enormous returns on their efforts.

 

One issue remains, though: customers are scrolling through social media posts more than brands can produce to keep up with the volume. It has become more challenging  for brands to keep up with consumer demand for relevant, engaging, and entertaining content while also managing their own businesses.

 

That’s where UGC generated by influencers come in handy. When influencers promote an event, authentic UGC created by their devoted followers can improve your online marketing campaigns, boost brand awareness, and drive sales.

 

Joilynn Lum starred in a Kiehl’s fundraising event in support of WWF Malaysia, which seeks to raise funds for turtle conservation initiatives in Sabah. With UGC from an influencer, the fundraising event is able to increase traffic to their social media platforms and encourage visitors to attend their physical event.

 

 

Tyson organised an exciting event which is “Tyson Kaki Crunch Fest” as part of their mission to promote home cooking. Sean Lee made a special appearance during the event, which also offered many engaging activities such as live cooking stations. The presence of a well-known influencer at the event increases the likelihood of people sharing the event online via UGC. As a result, it motivates more visitors to come by and try their products.

 

 

The opening of MINISO’s first flagship store in Selangor marked the introduction of a completely new retail store layout. MINISO 3.0 is a revamped retail approach that caters to a family-friendly shopping concept.There’s something for everyone in the family to shop here, from adults to children. Aween Zul was featured at the inaugural event, which led to greater exposure in the brand overall.

 

 

Occasion 2: Launching A New Product

 

Incorporating UGC into your online marketing campaign when launching a new product will help you achieve far greater success. When a new product is introduced in the market, its primary objective is to attract more brand awareness from the public.

 

Getting influencers who already have a solid followers base to post about your products is crucial in getting the word out. Reach out to influencers who fit your niche and ask them to submit reviews about your products to garner interest. Their dedicated followers, who place a high level of trust in their feedback, will find their reviews to be an authentic source of testimonials. Moreover, UGC is reliable, relevant and it’s also a terrific way to add stunning content to your social media feeds.

 

BIORÉ, one of the leading skincare brands in Malaysia does this really well. They worked with Hariz Hamdan to incorporate UGC in the form of product reviews for their latest cleanser product model, in order to generate interest in a more genuine and engaged manner.

 

 

 

3.Launch An Ambassador Program

 

Another way to generate more UGC for your brand is to launch an ambassador program. To implement an ambassador program, you only need to encourage your followers to become brand ambassadors by producing UGC in exchange for privileges. In this way, your most dedicated brand ambassadors will be the ones to produce the most impressive content about your brand on a regular basis, which you can then use into new marketing strategies.

 

Can you imagine the impact on brand awareness, word-of-mouth, and more if hundreds, if not thousands, of your customers regularly created UGC? The advantages of an ambassador programme are numerous which include:

 

(A) Raise Brand awareness

 

Brand awareness is one of the primary objectives of launching an ambassador program. The content shared on social media is the main driving force of this result. In terms of credibility and interaction, nothing beats an ambassador team made up of your most loyal supporters. Consequently, there is a higher likelihood that the traffic and recommendations they contribute will result in lead conversions.

 

Although they have a smaller audience, they have a higher conversion rate. For this reason, many brands employ hundreds or thousands of ambassadors to raise brand awareness. The followers in your ambassadors’ social circles are a great opportunity to expand your brand reach, especially if your ambassadors themselves are part of your target audiences.

 

(B) Drives More Revenue

 

Brand ambassadors provide strong brand recognition as consumers place more trust on what they recommend. When a large number of ambassadors are talking positively about your brand,  it will increase the probability of driving more sales. That’s obviously a winning formula.

 

However, ambassadors also play a direct role in generating sales. Giving your ambassadors a special code to share with their social circle is a great way to encourage more purchases. The ambassadors will receive a bonus or commission when a customer makes a purchase by redeeming the given code. This encourages ambassadors to reach out to as many referrals as they can. Afterall, ambassadors are entitled to higher commissions when there are more people buying your products.

 

HiBlendr is a company that truly understands the value of UGC. That’s why they launched the HiBlendr Ambassador Program to increase brand recognition among their community of followers. HiBlendr’s innovative ambassador programme allows them to increase  their brand awareness globally while also producing high-quality UGC to promote their HiBlendr Juice Cup Pro.Through genuine content created by ambassadors, audiences learn about their new healthy lifestyle products and promotions while HiBlendr grows alongside its community. That is undoubtedly a win-win scenario.

 

 

Conclusion

 

There are many ways to get users talking about your products, from images,videos to customer reviews. Fortunately, UGC can give rise to additional UGC; this means that you can build a large following of devoted brand followers. UGC is a driving factor in the social media sphere since it stands out more, appears more genuine, and inspires more trust than other forms of content.

 

Book a call with us if you’re interested in finding out more about how to construct strategies to provide your brand with continuous UGC.