If you are looking for a cost-effective tactic, promoting and encouraging user generated content (UGC) can be your best option. Using UGC content is a great way of enriching customer experiences and building a stronger community. The common distribution channel for UGC is social media, and according to Nielsen (2013), 43% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product after learning about it on social media.
On another note, if your brand is not on Instagram, it should be. Instagram is beautifully simplistic and and it’s full of potential with people eager to connect with a brand on a more intimate level. Regardless of the industry, any company can create campaigns to utilize this platform to reach their targeted audience, sharing captions and imagery.
Creating content for Instagram can be a challenge.
Currently, there is nothing trendier in the world of marketing than user generated content (UGC) campaigns. Advertising agencies and brands worldwide are trying to use the immense power of their fan/customer base and use their original content for their marketing campaigns.
Having users contribute to your content creation efforts has another interesting advantage, as consumers are more interested in hearing the views of their peers. According to Bazaar Voice (2012), 64% of millennials and 53% of baby boomers want more options to share their opinions about brands.
In light of these trends, there’s never been a better time to start using user generated content to engage your audience through Instagram.
So how can you take advantage of Instagram to create your own user generated content campaign?
Here are 5 tips you must consider:
1. Match your promotion type to your target audience
Involve requests made to users to submit video clips sharing their experiences with a particular brand or product. But it’s important to have in mind that creating and submitting video clips requires a certain level of technical expertise that your average customer may or may not have.
2. Request entries that you can use in your marketing campaigns
Remember, you when you are running a user generated content promotion you want to end up with something tangible that can be reused in your future marketing materials. Pictures, videos, or testimonials are all powerful content types that can be easily converted for advertising purposes.
3. The effort required must equal the reward being offered
If you’re giving away thousands of dollars in value as part of your user generated content campaign, you’ll probably want users to demonstrate a more collaboration and effort than if you were offering simple coupons or discounts. To make participants deliver something elaborated the prize that you are offering must be big.
4. Make it clear
Your entry instructions should be clear, your submission process should be easy, and your forms require only the fields needed to process an entry.
5. Straighten out any legal issues
Before launching your UGC campaign, you should consult legal requirements on two important issues: the rights you’ll hold over any content submitted to your promotion, and any restrictions that concerns giveaways.
Having that in mind, here are 5 ideas to get started:
1. Build An On-Site Photo Booth
Consider giving your fans the option to submit photos and video content in a fun and inviting manner such: photo booth, a selfie cam or other methods to help cultivate media rich content for your brand.
A photo booth can be a creative and low-cost option to generate user content at company branded events, in your retail stores, or through other means such as billboard advertising. By creating a fun user experience and enticing their audience with a small reward.
2. Share Real-Time User Generated Content from Live Events
Live feeds and social streams from popular events may seem like a perfect campaign for Twitter users, but Instagram has also become known for having users share their favorite moments from events such as concerts, festivals, and other live occasions. Camera manufacturer GoPro recently began promoting #GoProMusic, which highlighted fan photos and videos submitted from their GoPro cameras at any summer festivals.
3. Create Popular Hashtag Trends to Drive Reach
Taking advantage of trending hashtags can help your content reach a much broader audience, which can increase the probability that your campaign will attract more participants. You should also consider adding a custom hashtags that are unique to your brand to help associate the themes that your regular series of content address.
4. Marketing Popular Social Issues to Evoke User Generated Content
Addressing cultural and social issues can be a challenging but rewarding tactic for brands to tackle. When done with careful tact, these topics can evoke customer emotion and encourage user generated content.
5. Publicly Recognize User Generated Content to Encourage Others
In general, people enjoy being acknowledged for their contributions and efforts on social media. Sometimes a simple, “way to go!” can encourage a customer to continually interact with your brand.
It’s important to note that you do not need to have a huge brand presence to drive quality user generated content. The above tips and ideas are a great start to start thinking on how it implement User Generated Content in order to expand your content’s organic reach, increase social proof, and create visually compelling stories.
Hope you find it as useful as me!
Bazaar Voice. (2012). Talking to Strangers: Millennials Trust People over Brands. Available: http://resources.bazaarvoice.com/rs/bazaarvoice/images/201202_Millennials_whitepaper.pdf. Last accessed 30th Jan 2016.
Nielsen . (2013). A MULTI-MIX MEDIA APPROACH DRIVES NEW PRODUCT AWARENESS. Available: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2013/a-multi-mix-media-approach-drives-new-product-awareness.html. Last accessed 30th Jan 2016.