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When Content Creates Itself “for Free” – or UGC in Practice + 5 Commandments for Working with User Content
User-generated content (UGC), or content created by customers themselves, looks tempting at first glance. After all, why pour serious money into content marketing when your website’s own visitors can help you produce the content, right?
If you’re still toying with ideas like that, I recommend you immerse yourself in any discussion on social media or under the articles on your favourite news site. The group of users spewing out those often hateful and bizarre comments is exactly the same group into whose hands you’re placing the creation of your content if you let UGC run unchecked. That doesn’t mean, though, that user-generated content has no value.
Once Upon a Time, Out of Nowhere, There Was Content
Yes, that’s how you could describe user-generated content – a little fairy-tale-like and with a great deal of exaggeration. But where does it really come from? Who are these users generating content?
Customers
Naturally, they’re the first to come to mind. People who have experience of your product and/or services and have something to say to others. Even here, though, there are certain subgroups that call for your special attention:
- Dissatisfied customers – you will never please everyone and not everyone will ever be completely happy. Make your peace with that. The opposite would be downright suspicious. It’s natural for us to notice our differences, and we’re able to accept and tolerate that even the best wrinkle cream, perfume or shampoo simply won’t suit everybody. What we are not willing to tolerate is a brand that can’t treat this type of customer with respect, without belittling and insults, but with a constructive solution that doesn’t diminish either of the parties involved. Only that kind of behaviour gives us the feeling of freedom – that whatever our own experience turns out to be, we will be heard.
- Brand lovers – are the exact opposite. They will love you and follow you always. Right up to the moment you start taking them for granted. A brand lover doesn’t expect you to shower them with free goods. But they do expect you to notice their activity and their positive relationship with your brand. With a thank-you, at the very least.
- Non-customers – silly as it may sound, people who have never come into contact with your business at all, and whose experience is of a competitor at best, often feel the need to comment on it too. The key in that case is to take a few long breaths in and out, and only then respond. Don’t attack, don’t argue, but try, with as little irony as you can manage, to thank them for the well-meant advice... After all, that may genuinely have been what the person was after. :)
Employees
They’re often forgotten when it comes to UGC, but the truth is they’re an exceptionally important part of the content-creation merry-go-round. Their insight can be exceptionally important and valuable for building the brand (but beware... destructive too). They can offer a look behind the scenes and so add another dimension of your story to the brand.
Influencers
From a marketing point of view, a chapter in its own right that deserves a topic of its own. Today I’ll allow myself just one single recommendation on it – what matters is not the largest possible number of followers, but the quality of their audience.
Why Bother with UGC at All?
I trust that if you had the feeling until now that this was the cheapest way of creating content, you’ve woken up from that illusion. So low costs are definitely not the reason. But that doesn’t mean there are no reasons FOR UGC.
It’s Authentic
Let’s face it – UGC will almost never look as if it came out of the Hollywood film studios or from the pen of Dan Brown. But that is precisely its charm. That’s why it’s so believable and why others can identify with it.
It Builds Community
UGC is an important part of building a brand and the community around it. After all, what better way to form a group than to give it the chance to speak up and be part of your story...
It Builds Trust
We tend to trust a person, not a logo, not a brand. That’s why giving your products and services a face is exceptionally important for building trust. As many as 93% of marketers agree that consumers trust content created by customers more than content created by brands, so whether you like it or not, you need to accept that UGC should be part of your communication too.
It Increases the Conversion Rate
It isn’t your product description that decides whether you make the sale in the end. Just think how many times you yourself have looked at reviews and other customers’ experiences before buying anything at all.
In e-commerce in particular, it’s exceptionally important for further potential buyers to see the experiences other real customers have had with your products. That can be a challenge – especially if you’re just starting out or launching a new product. But even then, there are ways to help things along.
| How to Do It | How Not to Do It |
| Organising user testing – you give the product or a sample of it to a selected group of customers in exchange for a review. You run a competition in which, besides the products to test, you promise the winners drawn a further reward. The advantage of this route is that participants will tend to be more positive in their reviews. The degree of positivity will depend directly on the degree of motivation – in other words, on the prize. Team up with an influencer – but mind you, it should above all be someone thoroughly at home in your field, who can call on their audience to write a review. | Automatically generated machine reviews – especially in the middle of the artificial intelligence boom, one might wrongly conclude that generating and then publishing fake reviews is the way to cheat your way through this task. I don’t recommend it. The truth will come out sooner or later, and a few extra purchases are definitely not worth the loss of your credibility and good name. |
What Can Users Actually Create?
In a word? Everything... And it’s entirely up to you how well you can work with their creativity and use it to your advantage. Images, photographs and funny graphics are ideal for social media, and the same goes for videos, which have their place on YouTube as well as on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. Don’t underestimate the power of blogs and reviews directly on retailers’ sites either, and certainly not on your own website.
How to Work with UGC Effectively? 5 Commandments for UGC
To stop user content turning into your worst nightmare, it’s worth keeping a few well-meant pieces of advice in mind:
- Whenever it is even remotely possible, don’t publish user content automatically, but only after a thorough check. There are situations you can’t influence, such as social media, but on your own website at least you should always be able to make sure of it.
- Moderate the content – deleting and hiding every post you don’t like is not the right way, but you should know how to respond sensibly – without attacks or belittling, and in line with your communication standards and strategy.
- Show appreciation for the creators of content – it needn’t be money or material goods – often a thank-you and a word of praise count too. And if, by agreement, you use the content on your own pages or in further communication, crediting its creator goes without saying.
- Define your UGC strategy – it needn’t be an enormous study. But decide what you want to achieve in this area and why. Only then will the paths to that goal open up to you.
- Encourage the creation of user-generated content – through polls, surveys, competitions, sampling or user testing.
