Hashtag Social Media – Musings from Brafton’s Social Team – The UGC Edition

Brafton’s monthly newsletter from the social team

In this month’s edition, we focus on the importance of user-generated content – UGC for short!

In this month’s edition you will find:

• Why UGC is important to your social presence…
• Some great examples of UGC and how it can be used…
• And some ways you can encourage your followers to create content for you!

#DYK

Let’s start with the basics.

User-generated content (also known as UGC or consumer-generated content) is original, brand-specific content created by customers and published on social media or other channels. UGC comes in many forms – including images, videos, reviews, a testimonial or even a podcast!

Here’s a great example of organic UGC we repurposed for Hatfield Meats, a Brafton client, on Instagram:

So where does UGC come from?

UGC can be obtained from customers, brand loyalists, employees or a UGC creator. A UGC creator is someone who creates sponsored content that looks authentic but is designed to showcase a specific business or product. UGC creators do not create traditional organic UGC – they are paid by brands to create content that mimics traditional UGC.

And here’s a great example of UGC Creator content we repurposed for Hatfield Meats on Instagram:

Why is UGC important?

UGC is used across all stages of the buyer’s journey to help influence engagement and increase conversions. The customer-centric content can be used on social media and other channels, such as email, landing pages or checkout...