UGC the right way: 4 challenges to overcome
User Generated Content is vastly popular for many brands and consumers alike. The benefits are both apparent and plentiful(plug: read my other article on why UGC is a must for any brand). But with even more usage and reliance on this content generator, more obstacles crop up that need to be tackled. Here are some of the top considerations for any UGC strategy to make sure you don’t just follow the fad but differentiate to succeed!
- IS IT YOUR CONTENT TO SHARE? i.e. copyright! With an infinite amount of content creators comes an infinite amount of ownership and usage queries. Who owns the content? Who took the photo? Who wrote the post? Not only is it hard to prove who took the photo but often it can be hard to find them and gain legally binding consent. 57% of brands stated they were avoiding using UGC due to potential copyright issues so it’s worthwhile building content usage T&Cs into your campaign as standard so that you can’t be caught out. It’s also valuable to understand the different levels of permission, especially with GDPR coming into effect, this blurs the line of who is responsible for UGC.
2. HOW DO YOU POLICE CONTENT? Empowering users to post freely means that brands must relinquish some control and open the floodgates to potentially negative content. This brings a need for monitoring what your users post. It’s important not to censor people, as negative feedback via UGC is a useful (and free!) way to capture consumer insights. Trolling however is not as useful. To be able to monitor and appropriately respond to such content, it’s crucial to set up the right campaign management around it. Whether it be a dedicated resource or an Artificial Intelligence tool, make sure you’re able to respond at speed and at scale but still in line with the brands’ tone of voice.
3. WHO’S THE REAL WINNER? Facebook and Instagram have become the biggest hosts of UGC. Whether it’s images, videos or text, the reputation and reach are what make these social media platforms an obvious option for brands. However, there’s a concern here that although driving brand awareness, you’re actually increasing the traffic to Facebook or Instagram rather than to your own platform. Therefore it’s worthwhile to carefully map out the user journey to ensure you’re making the most of these traffic drivers but still directing your consumers back to where you want them.
4. HOW AUTHENTIC IS THE MESSAGE? Studies show that UGC is 20% more influential on purchasing behaviours than any other type of media because consumers trust it more.
However, the rise of social influencers has both boosted UGC and provided it’s own obstacles. Users are becoming increasingly aware about what product endorsements are legitimate or not. For example, I’m unlikely to buy a teeth whitening product from a user with a set of £10K veneers. It’s difficult to prove whether an endorsement is fake or genuine so to ease this, your UGC strategy should allow for the most authentic content possible. Ensure that it’s realistic and relatable to your users and not so perfect it seems unbelievable.
UGC has become an industry standard and understanding it’s merits and pitfalls will allow for effective content marketing. It’s here to stay, but the direction it may take is unknown. Will brands cease to create content as technology allows for consumers to become the professionals themselves? Will creatives and producers become redundant in this instance? Will we see a shift of UGC away from traditional social channels as brands transform in to their own social sharing platforms? One thing that is certain is that mastering the art of UGC not only increases engagement but leads to a stronger brand and ultimately drives ROI.
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