How To Use User-Generated Content (UGC) On Instagram

User-generated content is one of the strongest content marketing strategy brands are adopting. Being able to get your fans to participate and engage with your brand and as such advocate your brand to their audience is a huge benefit in brand awareness and retargeting.

User-generated content, alternatively known as user-created content is any form of content such as images, videos, text and audio that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media and wikis.

It is done by consumers to spread the word about an online product or the brand that markets it.

UGC acts as a social proof to promote your brand’s message, helps to expand your social following, strengthens relationships with clients, instills trust in the target audience, builds SEO value and boosts sales.

UGCs if used well is, a great way to boost your promotion efforts, reducing time, cost and effort in order to build your brand.

BENEFITS OF USING UGC

1.  Boosting media reach through advocacy;

Running a UGC campaign on Instagram is an excellent way to strengthen your brand and build customer relationship.

When your customer creates and post contents showing your product, telling their audience what they like about your product and how beneficial your products have been to them, the content entices their audience, they pick interest and want to know more about your brand thus creating awareness.

2.  Gaining content for your Instagram page;

Every audience creates their own unique content. You should take advantage of this by reposting such contents on your Instagram page, as such, with a high number of UGCs, you’d be sure not to run out of contents to post.

3.  Build authenticity and trust;

Prospects are 2.4 times more likely to view and believe UGC as authentic compared to content created by brands.

People would rather buy from a brand when they see good reviews from customers saying how well your products have worked for them.

This builds a brand’s credibility, promotes authenticity, builds trust and help customers take purchasing decisions.

3.  Increase engagement and brand loyalty;

UGC gives you the benefit of retargeting customers at the action stage of the sales funnel and turning them into loyal customers and advocates of your brand.

Engaging your audience by making them create content that showcases your brand and rewarding them in return is a great way to build excitement and drive engagement.

This makes them warmer to brand and instills the memory about you into their subconscious so they’d always remember your brand when they want to purchase a similar product thus bringing about brand loyalty.

HOW TO SOURCE UGC ON INSTAGRAM

1.  RUNNING A BRANDED HASHTAG CAMPAIGN

Create and share a branded hashtag. A branded hashtag is a hashtag that is unique to your company. It could be your company name, your tagline, the name of a product or an event.

Encourage your followers to contribute and show off what they’ve got and tag your unique branded hashtag to their posts.

This content should show how they are using a retail product you are selling or it should show how these products have helped them.

Offer incentives for creating such contents, rewards such as being featured on your page as this would benefit them followers and engagement as well. This would work well if you have more followers than they do. This hashtag should solely be used for your Instagram UGC.

2.  HOST A CONTEST

Hosting a contest is one way to gain massive attention from your audience. Tell your followers to create a specific kind of content, include your branded hashtag, tag you and mention your handle to enter a contest for the grand prize.

The more people who share contents, the wider the reach and you’ll begin to see a lot of UGCs rushing in.

3.  RUN AN AMBASSADOR PROGRAM

You could pick out some of your loyal fans and send out requests to be ambassadors. Send them some free products in exchange for content using your hashtag, mentioning and tagging you.

4.  COLLABORATE WITH INFLUENCERS

Seek out Instagram influencers and bloggers in your nice. You can have them create a video content of them reviewing your products.

Influencers usually have a high number of followers and viewers who actually trust and believe what they say, getting them to share your products will greatly boost brand awareness.

5.  ASK FOR TESTIMONIALS AND REVIEWS

Another way to get UCGs is by directly asking your customers who have purchased your products or services to give their honest opinions about them, this helps build brand credibility.

Good reviews will reinforce your authenticity and show the effectiveness and quality of your products, thus building trust and helping new prospects make purchase decisions.

HOW TO USE USER-GENERATED CONTENT ON INSTAGRAM

REPOST

You should repost your UGCs on your profile, post reviews and testimonials as well. After running a contest, you should post winner’s content and some of your favorite contents from the contest on social media

CREATE A UGC STAND-ALONE ACCOUNT

If you get a very large volume of content, you can create a separate Instagram account that is specifically dedicated to user-generated content.

FEATURE UGC

Feature everyone in your ambassador program who shared your products. Also, you can run small follower campaigns where your feature your most loyal fans weekly or monthly. Share them on your profile and directly to your stories.

ENGAGE WITH ALL TAGGED UGC

Not all UGCs your page is tagged in would work for your Instagram account. In some instances, the image could be of poor quality or your products might be featured in a way that doesn’t suit your brand.

On such occasions, re-sharing isn’t compulsory but it is important to engage with the post by simply liking it and dropping a very nice warm comment.

GUIDELINES FOR POSTING UGC

1.  ALWAYS GIVE CREDIT TO THE ORIGINAL CREATOR

Make sure to always give credit to the creators of UGCs whenever you repost on your profile. Do this by tagging and/or mentioning their handles in your captions.

2.  ALWAYS REQUEST PERMISSION

It is best to always request permissions from creators of UGCs before reposting. It doesn’t matter if you are tagged in the post or if they use your branded hashtag as some users may use the hashtag without knowing you have tied them to a user-generated campaign.

Failing to request permission may end up turning your good will around and annoy some of your best advocates.