Tuesday Tidbit:  What is User Generated Content?

User Generated Content (UGC) is another one of those buzzwords / acronyms in the marketing world. As if there weren't enough to keep up with, the industry seems to add another buzzword every week! Unlike some of the crazy ones, though, this one's fairly simple to understand, although not so simple to put into practice. Let's explore.

 

User Generated Content is something you most likely make every day. When you're sharing something to your news feed on Facebook, posting a photo on Instagram, sharing a link in a Tweet, or chatting about an article on LinkedIn, you're creating content. Plus you're a user of the platform. Hence, User Generated Content!

 

In the wide world of Internet marketing, we (attempt to) use UGC to our advantage by asking users to create content that promotes ourselves in a favorable way. So, say you own an Italian restaurant and Valentine's Day is coming up. You ask users to share their moments of love at your restaurant on Instagram using a certain hashtag, and you share some of the best ones on your website. When those patrons share their photos on Instagram, they're basically creating an ad for your restaurant that their network is going to see.

 

Pretty easy, eh? Although it sounds pretty effortless, food is a really easy thing to ask for UGC for. Odds are, for your industry, you're going to have to access some creativity to figure out how UGC could work for you.

 

I found a great article this week about UGC, so if you'd like some more information, this article is definitely a great first step:

 

 

For help on a UGC campaign, contact our digital strategists at ArcStone today. And don't forget, you can get next week's tidbit right to your inbox by subscribing below. We won't send ya anything but the tidbit unless you ask for more!