Smartphones and the internet have truly brought the world at our fingertips. They have empowered users to capture moments and share their thoughts with the world in an instant. This has led to the birth of content creation where people can freely express themselves in creative ways.
User-generated content is one side of the content creation industry that has turned the tables for marketers. UGC refers to branded content that is created by someone who is not an official representative of the brand. 80% of marketers believe integrating user-generated content in their strategy significantly enhances the authenticity of their brand communication. On the other hand, 60% of consumers believe UGC is the most real form of content.
Similarly, including user-generated content on your Facebook page can do wonders for your brand. It provides your audience a proof of your credibility and enhances your brand perception in their minds. Let’s dive deeper into the subject and explore more about it.
Why You Should Consider Incorporating UGC in Your Facebook Content
UGC offers your Facebook page a lot of benefits in terms of strengthening your brand presence on the platform. It serves as a strong social proof for your brand, helping build trust and integrity within your audience.
Personalization
Sharing user-generated content on your Facebook page creates a sense of relatability within your audience. Since it’s not coming directly from the brand itself, they deem this type of content more authentic. It also helps foster a community and builds customer loyalty within them.
When people share their opinions and experiences with the brand, it allows them to develop a more personalized relationship with it. They begin humanizing it and thinking of it more than a monetary transaction. Achieving personalization is a big milestone for any brand. It lays the foundation for a forming lasting relationship with your audience that transcends beyond the exchange of money and products. Your audience becomes a part of your journey to growth and flourishment.
- Skyrocketing Engagement
If you are struggling with getting more engagement on your posts, you must consider the idea of incorporating user-generated content in your content marketing strategy. It’s a great way to encourage your audience to actively interact with your posts and create new ones along the way. This will also result in increasing your Facebook page likes and following.
Marketers all around the world strongly believe in the capabilities of user-generated content. It has become a tried and tested tool to skyrocket the engagement rates of any Facebook page. People are more likely to engage with content that they can relate to on a deeper level and feel close to their hearts. This relatability factor is strongly rooted in authenticity which is obviously higher in content organically generated by the users.
- Innovative Content
The thing about UGC is that it is not forced or created out of need or compulsion. It is done voluntarily, coming straight from the hearts of loyal fans with a dash of authenticity in it. The people creating it are not thinking “as a brand”. They are thinking “for the brand”. This is the key factor in bringing about innovation in what they bring to the table without a professional creative brief in hand.
Since users are experiencing your products or services firsthand, their ideas are unique and closer to reality. So their content is more relatable for other people as well. They find it more genuine than actual branded content.
- Cost-Effective
UGC is a very budget-friendly way to get content produced in abundance along with several other advantages. It helps build brand awareness, strengthen your presence, gain Facebook followers, enhance your visibility and so much more.
All you need to do is float an interesting idea or starting point among your audience and wait for the magic to begin. Once you start receiving entries under the specific hashtag, you can share it on your page to encourage participation from more users. Watch your engagement rates go through the roof in no time with just a few bucks!
Strategies to Encourage UGC from Your Audience
Most of the times, the chain of user-generated content is started by brands themselves. Other times, a random piece of content featuring a brand might go viral and stimulate more people to jump on the bandwagon. If you are looking for ways to encourage UGC from your audience, these are a few strategies you can employ:
- Come Up With Branded Hashtags
Come up with unique hashtags about your brand and ask your audience to create content under them. The incoming of a significant number of posts under a branded hashtag will enhance your visibility and engagement. It will also encourage more people to create relevant content to contribute to it. This is also a great activity in terms of building trust and a sense of community within your audience.
- Giveaways and Contests
People have always shown a great amount of interest in contests and giveaways whether they are happening online or offline. They are a great way to generate user-created content. When you host a contest or giveaway, you can ask your audience to create a particular sort of content to partake in it. This will not only encourage engagement from their end, but they will also happily partake in the branded activities.
To appreciate their contribution, you can offer them incentives such as cash prizes, discounts, gifts, and the opportunity to be featured on the brand’s Facebook page.
- Featuring UGC
The key to building long-term relationships with your clients is to constantly make them feel that their presence within your community is highly valued. One of the ways to do so is to feature UGC on your official website or socials such as Facebook business page. Having a dedicated section for UGC is always a great idea. You can also share your audience’s stories as a part of your brand story to acknowledge and appreciate their support.
- Collaborations
Collaborating with influencers and content creators allows you to tap into your undiscovered target audience efficiently. Influencers working within a particular niche take their sweet time to build a following consisting of people sharing similar interests.
It’s really helpful for brands to reach out to their target audience through influencer collaborations and encourage creating UGC. Imagine the potential of a group of people working towards a common goal i.e. creating authentic content for your brand.
Summing Up
User-generated content is a proven tactic tried, tested, and strongly believed in by marketers. It offers a plethora of benefits to brands within a very low budget. They can use it to enhance their engagement, visibility, brand awareness, and strengthen their presence on Facebook. UGC offers valuable insights into real-time customer feedback and their behaviors, preferences, thoughts, and experiences with the brand. Brands can incorporate it into their content marketing strategy to run successful marketing campaigns and thrive in the digital landscape.
