A great way to promote your brand while making things feel natural is to start incorporating user-generated content. As I say a lot of the time, content is king these days — from social media to blogs.
And since we’re inundated with more content than ever, it’s essential to know how to stand above the pack. But, of course, you want content that fits in with your brand and is well thought out without looking too curated or forced. That sounds like a tricky balance.
But what is user-generated content?
Simply put, user-generated content is unpaid published content that naturally promotes your brand through videos, social media posts, reviews, etc. Typically, these are some influencers, customer advocates, or employees that impact expanding your brand’s audience — purely by them talking about it.
Think of it this way: what are your absolute favourite products, restaurants, or destinations you’ve travelled to?
Do you have a face cream that you’ve bragged about to all your friends, a brand-new restaurant that opened up in your city that you told everyone on your Instagram stories that they must try?
Or what about a recent trip that you went on, and now anytime someone says they’re going to that place, you give them a bunch of recommendations?
In a way, that is user-generated content at work, just in a personal life context. We all have things that we love, and quite frankly, we’re experts — because we’ve used the product or had the experience. So this is extremely powerful because it demonstrates the impact of word-of-mouth.
When online influencers — and by influencers, I don’t mean the twenty-somethings who attend brand parties and post about them; I’m referring to ordinary, everyday people who have a social media presence — talk about you or your product, it has an impact. Their audience and whoever follows them will hear about your brand and become aware of it. The more people you have speaking positively about your brand, the more brand awareness you’ll have, which will turn into sales.
User-generated content can look like things such as:
- Videos
- Written reviews
- Blogs
- Photos
- Surveys
- Tweets
- TikTok’s
- Case studies
- And more!
Why is it so effective?
It’s no secret that we’re constantly bombarded with ads online, 24/7. They’re on every social media platform, peppered in between podcast episodes, displayed on banner ads within blog posts, and more. They’re impossible to get away from!
One of the downfalls of this is a growing skepticism for digital ads, so it can be hard for you, as a small business, to build legitimacy and trust with people who don’t know who you are and don’t know if you’re authentic. Digital ads can make it hard to cut through the noise.
On the other hand, people trust other people, especially when a “real” person has tried your product. It’s one thing for someone to see a Facebook ad about a product, but a whole other thing to watch a TikTok where someone has tested and used your product and thinks highly of it.
User-generated marketing is a very effective way to sway buying decisions, which is ultimately what you want if you want to grow your business. It’s authentic, cost-effective, and builds insane brand loyalty.
Peer influencers can be more effective than any other type of marketing, which is why you should incorporate them into your strategy.
Stay tuned for Part II on how to get started!
Resources
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Email: catherine@catherinenikkel.com
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Catherine Nikkel is a content creator, ghostwriter and the founder of Mindful Media. She specializes in helping CEOs, entrepreneurs and influencers create copy that engages and converts. Her work has appeared in Forbes, Huffington Post, Yahoo!, Authority Magazine, FemFounder and more.
