User Generated Content

You down with UGC? That’s User-Generated Content, and it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. This is content generated by your users on social media—that is, your followers, clients, buyers, employees, and anyone else who interacts with your brand on social. 

 

Every day, potential and existing customers are finding your business on social media. It’s a constant opportunity to be seen, engage followers, and convert those followers to paying clients. 

 

Unless you have a content creator, designer, and professional photographer on your team—or unless you’ve hired Small Studio!—where does the content (photos, videos, etc.) come from? That’s where User-Generated Content can be super handy. Your devoted fans are already creating content—it’s up to you to use it. We lean on it for our own clients too, giving their UGC a branded spin that really legitimizes and ties everything together. 

 

User-Generated Content can do even more than make your content-collecting easier. UGC also acts as a testimonial! If followers are loving your work, products, or services enough to share them, that communicates great things to others. Sharing this UGC also builds trust by showing authenticity and your business’s effects on the real world and real people. Plus, by mixing up your social content with UGC, you’re adding variety to your feed. 

 

If your small business sells products, User-Generated Content is typically going to be photos or videos people tag you in while using your product. Think: Holding a coffee mug you made, wearing a t-shirt you designed, using the line of self-care products you sell. If you provide a service, your UGC will look like people experiencing your business. Think: A selfie after you give someone a killer haircut, a pic of the yummy food at your restaurant, a photo you snapped on someone’s wedding day. 

 

You can find your business’s User-Generated Content when people tag you or @ you on social media. Start on your own profile page to see which photos and videos you’re tagged in. You can pull from these any time. 

 

If @ mentions are appearing in Instagram Stories, that UGC will be fleeting. If you want to share any UGC found in Stories, you’ll have only 24 hours to do so if the story isn’t saved as a Highlight. That’s why it pays to check in with your social accounts on a daily basis, to make sure you don’t miss any opportunities for sharing relevant content. 

 

 

 

Another easy way to collect User-Generated Content is to promote a custom hashtag for your business. Start by exploring hashtags featuring your business name—tags that you can fully claim as your own. For example, #SmallStudioBrandShop is all ours!

 

Pro Tip: Adding your city’s abbreviation to the end of your business name can help with uniqueness. Once you lock in your custom hashtag, post about it to incentivize your followers to use the tag. You can simply entice people with the chance to be featured on your page, or you can up the ante with a promo code or entry into a giveaway. With a special call for content like this, you’re sure to reach more people.

 

 

Like we said, in the event you don’t already see a lot of User-Generated Content for your business, you gotta ask! Your devoted customers want to support you, and posting about their experience with your services or products on social media is an easy, free way to do so.

 

If you see people for appointments, mention that you’re looking for UGC and invite them to support you in this way. If you sell products, include a card with each purchase inviting shoppers to snap a pic, share, and tag you. It doesn't cost you anything to ask your fans to show some love!