User-generated Content (UGC): Why Every Brand Needs Technology-driven Strategies
Small businesses can use social media channels for brand awareness campaigns by sharing easy-to-create content including infographics, short videos, ads, and links to more detailed, high-quality contents that answer customers questions or addresses trending topics.
User-generated content is any content—social posts, tweets, images, videos—created freely by consumers on any online or social network.
Brands are shifting their traditional marketing strategies to consistently incorporate UGC for increased brand marketing results, especially sales and profits. By integrating UGC throughout the entire customer journey instead of just a marketing campaign, brands can strengthen customer trust, drive customer engagement, and boost brand awareness.
It is trusted.
Consumers have always considered word-of-mouth recommendations to be the most credible source of advertising. Today, people still look to their friends, family, and peers for advice, but now their recommendations are on social platforms in the form of UGC.
According to Jensen Baptista (a Consumer Engagement Manager at Canon Australia), ‘People trust other people, not brands..’ So, the foundation of our channel strategy has been to introduce people indirectly to the brand through consumers, instead of directly to the products or services that companies provide.
It is memorable.
With the difficulty of breaking through the noise and grabbing the consumer’s attention, brands are faced with the need to share engaging and effective visuals across all their digital touchpoints. Consumers consider UGC to be 35% more memorable than other media.
It is influential.
Eighty-one percent of consumers’ purchase decisions are influenced by their friends’ social media posts. By leveraging UGC, consumers can create deeper customer relationships to grow long-term engagement and loyalty.
With the need to capture UGC and push them to all digital touchpoints,
social media and brand awareness become integral to achieving business growth and resilience in dwindling economies.