Building your audience can be done through different strategies. The more authentic your message is, the more likely your target market will respond. This is how The Next Level Academy attracted over 100,000 attendees and students in recent years, and some of our students have also achieved six figures in USD within three months.

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This is what we call User-Generated Content (UGC), which can help increase your audience if done correctly. It’s similar to how word-of-mouth recommendations can have a huge impact on influencing immediate friends and family.

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Benefits of User-generated Content

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Builds trust - statistics show that almost 90% of consumers would trust reviews from user-generated content vs brand-generated content

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Grow a community—when several individuals share something in common, it helps them identify with the brand better. An example is when a brand organizes an environmentally friendly campaign. It’s highly likely that like-minded customers will discover and explore the brand.

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Cost-effective - it helps lower costs spent on content creation. When you have a very active group of consumers, this can certainly speed up the reach of your brand.

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Help influence buying decisions—when an individual identifies with a brand, the more likely they are to convert into buyers, and maybe even into loyal fans.

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Create your UGC Strategy

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Seek inspiration from other brands—there are a lot of fun and effective UGC initiatives that have become known worldwide. Take some cues from them as to what could work for your business. 

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If you’re in the toy business, you can check how LEGO gained public support by encouraging them to showcase their original build. They also got people to vote if they wanted that idea to be sold at their stores. A great way to develop ideas into retail products!

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Audit existing customer photos - know what your current users are sharing online about your products. These can be from your customers, brand loyalists, or even your employees. Build on what your current customers are posting about for your user-generated content marketing.

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Being authentic is key—when someone’s searching for an apartment, they’re likely to look for actual and honest reviews of the current or former tenants. They feel that they are likely to know the pros and cons of choosing that place. This helps them make an informed purchase decision.

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Ideas To Encourage User-generated Content on Social Media

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Identify consumer trends: Check what your consumers are sharing, when they’re sharing these photos, what their demographics are, and when they are likely to share about your products.

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Use Fame and Fortune: UGC can be used as social currency. Ask them to post and get an instant discount coupon for their next purchase. This can also help in generating genuine and well-thought-out reviews for your business.

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Promote a non-branded hashtag strategy: create hashtags that could work around what your consumers' interests are, like fashion, music, or art, yet still be unique enough to identify your brand. An example is Airbnb’s #WeAccept campaign, where they wanted to promote diversity across the rental home market.

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Host an event: This is not as cost-effective as the others are, but it can help you kick off a certain campaign and ensure that you have a good stream of UGC for a certain period.

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Tap influencers: Those that are aligned with your brand and have an authentic community behind them are great to reach out to and get your UGC campaign going.

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Start a contest: Take inspiration from the success of Starbucks’ #RedCupContest and Coca-Cola’s #ShareACoke. Think of what your customers would gladly take part in based on their interests and your brand.

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Showcase customers’ photos: Seeing their own photos on an official website can be a big deal for some. This can be effective when you’re tapping a group of creative people who wish to showcase their work. An example would be for makeup or hair color products, where they can share their creative takes or new looks.

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Ask Questions: You can use the Instagram sticker “Add Yours” to share a quick story or photo about their experience with your business. Ask a question that would elicit engagement from your customers.

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Bottom Line

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Customers find UGC more memorable and unique. It’s must-have content for your social media. Don’t forget to ask permission to repost, say thank you, and make your UGC campaigns easily shareable.

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Plan your strategy well, and don’t miss out on this opportunity to take your content to the next level. UGC ads have shown 4x higher click-through rates. What do you think about these strategies? Leave a comment down below and let us know what else you’d like to read about for our upcoming articles.

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