How User-Generated Content Could Save Your Brand

Marketers often overlook the importance of user-generated content for their brand, and with social media platforms in full force, it has never been more important. Your business probably has its own campaigns in the pipeline, with set schedules and specific aims and objectives to achieve within a certain time frame — but are they effective?

It’s important that you find the perfect balance between professional marketing content and user-generated content. With brand engagement increasing by 28% when customers are exposed to a mixture of both, this is an opportunity that can’t be missed, and big organisations are already seeing positive results from the strategies they’ve put in place.

Capitalising on the relationship you have with your consumer is something that you can carry on all year and it will allow you to establish an engaging online presence that will heighten your brand’s status in the online world.

A social media overview

It has been estimated that 2.62 billion people will be on social networking sites by the end of 2018, and with no sign of registrations slowing down, your brand has no excuse not to be at the forefront of this digital revolution according to SEO agency Mediaworks.

It’s important to understand that social platforms are becoming the go-to place for brand searches, food recommendations and more. So, it’s crucial that you make sure your business is occupying some sort of space in the digital world in order to come up in any relevant search engine results, as well as searches within the chosen platform.

With 86% of millennials stating that user-generated content indicates the quality of a brand, this is something that your business should be jumping on — and organisations like Coca Cola and Starbucks have already been doing it.

Successful user-generated content campaigns

Instagram is one of the most successful platforms for user-generated content, and the figures are only growing. 95 million photographs are being uploaded each day, which is up from 70 million on the number of daily uploads last year. Not only that, it has been suggested that 200 million users view business profiles every day — so it’s definitely a lucrative platform to be active on.

The network itself has 500 million daily active users. Since almost half are visiting business profiles, this is exposure that you shouldn’t miss out on. But how can businesses take advantage?

Companies like Coca Cola and Starbucks are just two firms that have successfully marketed themselves and encouraged consumers to generate their own content to share on behalf of the business.

You might remember the successful ‘Share a Coke’ campaign during the summer of 2013 and 2014, where Coca Cola sold over 150 million personalised bottles featuring the UK’s most popular names to encourage people to use the ‘#ShareACoke’ hashtag.

Similarly, Starbucks writes the name of the consumer on its take-out cup, which personalises the purchasing experience. Although Starbucks does not encourage its audience to share directly, the trend of doing so stands alone and people continue to do it anyway. Not only that, but #StarbucksNameFail is another recent trend. Within this movement, users post pictures of their incorrectly-spelt name — a light-hearted strategy that keeps the brand fresh, interactive and talked about.