Types of User-Generated Content

Social media has long had a stigma of a time-waster. Our lives go down the drain when we sit in front of our electronic devices clicking away posts published on various social media channels. One of the common pieces of advice time-management specialists give to people complaining about lack of productivity is to close their social media accounts. And yet, the bad reputation gained by social media is not entirely deserved. While there is a lot of trivial information posted out there on the internet, people just need to know how to separate the wheat from the chaff and focus on what is valuable. Businesses and educators use social media to promote their products and teach people. Non-profit organizations turn to social media channels to make the world a better place and spread humanistic values. Not everything appearing on the internet is, therefore, worthless.

That social media is effective has been understood not only by charitable organizations and various companies that, like Nettikasinot.com, resort to social media to build trust and engage in productive communication with clients. Users themselves have long noticed the power of social media and have actively been generating their own content on online platforms. Indeed, user-generated content (UGC) is now widespread on every social media channel and wikis and has long become the force to be reckoned with in the digital world.

User-generated content is defined as any form of content, such as images, videos, texts, and audios, that has been posted by users on social media channels. Marketing specialists maintain that user-generated content has already outperformed the marketing trends prevailing for years, simply because users publish it on their own initiative and at will. Because nobody pays users to post their opinions online, user-generated content is considered the most authentic, creative, trustworthy, and valuable information found on the internet.

The content users generate takes a variety of forms and shapes. UGC is an umbrella term that includes content generated on social media, testimonials and reviews, blog posts, and video content.

Content Generated on Social Media

The influence of social media is truly powerful. According to the latest statistics, more than 58% of the world’s population uses one or multiple social media channels. As any content posted on social media gets shared, it spreads at the speed of lightning and thus instantly influences the minds of thousands of users. Therefore, those brands that seek to promote their products and services should make user-generated content appearing on social media channels their number one marketing strategy.

Users themselves have long stopped being passive consumers of the information dished out by companies. They look for inspiration for products to introduce online and reach out to companies, offering them assistance with promoting their brands on such social media channels as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. When people spread the word about companies on these platforms, they help increase brand awareness among users and boost audience engagement with their products.

Reviews and Testimonials

Another type of user-generated content is the reviews and testimonials that people write about companies’ products and services. These reviews are either posted on companies’ own websites or published on third-party websites such as Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, G2Crowd, to name only a few of them. Customers’ reviews advocate a brand, creating its hype through word-of-mouth marketing.

The influence of reviews and testimonials on people should not be underestimated. The latest statistics reveal that more than 90% of the online shoppers read reviews left by other customers before finalizing their purchases. By highlighting testimonials and reviews about themselves, companies can assure their visitors of their trustworthiness and, in doing so, convert them into loyal customers.

Blog Posts

Writing blog posts is an equally valid marketing strategy for B2C and B2B companies. Every time a blogger uses a company’s product in an unpaid tutorial or a review, he or she creates user-generated content that puts the company in the limelight. The blogger’s followers will pay attention to the advertised product and will rush to purchase it or, at least, will learn more about the company under discussion, coming back to its products in the future. In the B2B world, what counts as a user-generated content is the featuring of a specific product or brand in round-up content. UGC can also be a key tool in a blog post explaining to people how to use a product or how to employ a specific device.

Video Content

The majority of the social media channels - YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and TikTok - are visual platforms. Videos posted on these channels are aesthetically pleasing and easily grab viewers’ attention, motivating them to explore further and eventually consume a large variety of content. Marketers have long taken heed of this attractive marketing strategy: around 93% of them admit that they have found a new customer through a video content published by users on social media. As people watch videos more eagerly than they read posts, spreading brand awareness through this media is infinitely more effective than through other channels of communication.

This is not to say, of course, that video content is more preferable than other types of user-generated content. What type of UGC is more effective ultimately depends on a company’s audience. Before choosing the right type of user-generated content, every brand should precisely define its audience by asking the following questions: Are the customers active on social media? Do they trust reviews and testimonials? Do they read blog posts or opt for videos instead? By answering these or similar questions, companies can more easily determine what type of user-generated content to employ to promote their products and services to their customers.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or the management of EconoTimes