Here’s why User Generated Content can have a huge impact on your brand’s online reputation.

Having your clients and customers say good things about your business online is always great welcome news. user generated content also known as “UGC” like online reviews, social media posts, YouTube videos, comments on your website or any post by your clients and customers about your business can help you scale up the online reputation of your business.

What Is User Generated Content?

User generated content is your vote of confidence. But how can user generated content specifically benefit your brand? Don’t worry, we’ve done the research and found some solid facts around the user generated content and how it hugely impacts your online reputation.

Types Of User generated Content

All user generated content falls under three categories: text, pictures or videos. User generated content can be any of the following:

·   Social media content

·   Reviews and testimonials

·   Blog posts

·   Video content (including live streaming and AR lenses/filters)

·   Q&A Forums (including comments)

·   Case studies

·   3^rd party website reviews/testimonials

Understand the difference between brand-generated content and user generated content

Brand-Generated content

The brand owned content is the one that your company pays to have created for you, which can be content, images, and videos. This could be developed internally, or outsourced by an agency, photographer, or videographer. These also include images that you purchase the rights of photography.

User generated content

These are the content, reviews, pictures, and videos developed by your real customers. They come from the people who have used your brand/product and services and share their experiences via these mediums. Post it online via social media. If you wish to use these visuals in your marketing, you need to get obvious permission from the user.

How User Generated Content Impacts Your Online Reputation?

User generated content has got all crucial elements to boost your page ranking, letting Google know that you care about your customers. Google loves genuine reviews and comments about your brand, product, and services. Furthermore, the overall impact of user generated content marketing on your business can be more than you can imagine.

Below are the significant reasons highlighting how user generated content values your online presence.

It is the best form of free publicity

When you ask your customers to leave reviews/testimonials it works in your benefit. The customers start praising your brand or business online, it’s the best thing you can ask for and the best part is it is totally free.

This comes across as a clear sign that you have succeeded in establishing a good relationship with your customers and they are happy with your services. Getting a positive online review from the customers will enhance your online reputation. Your brand gets good recognition and also increases its overall awareness 

Creating case studies will help

Case studies are an ideal content format to supplement user generated content. Ask the case study content from the customer/clients itself. The content can also take on multiple formats such as video, PDF, slideshow, blog post all of which are easy to share online.

User generated content provides proof

User generated content is one of the most powerful tools in the present day’s marketing techniques. It provides social proof that you have dedicated fans, products worth talking about, and a social network that will appreciate great content.

User generated content from real customers increases your credibility and brings your brand’s promises into perspective. Brands make certain promises to their customers or audience of improving their service or getting a new improved product. Customers commenting gives social proof that they followed through on that promise.

Customers find user generated content more trustworthy

People also trust user-generated visuals over any other type of content. The user-generated videos on YouTube get 10x more views than branded content. And that’s a boon for travel marketers, whose brands lend themselves well to visual content.

The bottom line here is when it comes to content customer trust their content which is UGC more than regular branded content. It’s more honest, there’s not a sales pitch and its original.

 User generated content supplements branded content

 User generated content won’t leave a hole in your marketing budget. Because you are getting it directly from your fans on social media, reviews, testimonials which involves no cost.

Not only that but with millions of people sharing photos and videos on social media, your marketers can tap into these resources to scale up the marketing tactics. User generated content today is the biggest growing source of visual content that marketers have at their fingertips.

It opens up a conversation with your customers

Brands who highlight user generated content from their customers can build a deeper. Having more authentic relationships with their customer base can help a lot in enhancing online reputation. Your audience wants to be heard and customers want more ways to share their opinions about brands.

Include user generated content in your marketing, or simply sharing it on branded social channels, can make the people know that you care about them and you are hearing them.

It improves your customer experience

User-generated content is valuable because it contains important feedback from your present date’s customers. Your customers may leave good or bad feedback depending on their experience with your services. If there is positive feedback, you get to know where you are winning. With negative feedback, you can learn about those and make necessary improvements. All in all, it is a win-win situation that improves your brand recognition and boosts online reputation.

It increases your social media engagement

When your customers start discussing you on social media, it increases the visibility and awareness of your online business. Their social media posts are read and shared by their friends and followers, who do not directly follow you on social media.

With every new like share or comment on user-generated content about your business, increases your business popularity and engagement on social media.

 It proactively manages your online reputation

When you have an online business, it is crucial to maintain that. You need to go out and be proactive about managing your online reputation, even of your own website. Are there third-party reviews websites that are relevant to your business?  Do you have an extremely unhappy customer who has taken to every third party review site to vent about their experience? If you can improve their experience and come to find a workable solution it will be always good. Do publicly address their concerns and see how this helps in boosting your online presence.

 Gives your online business more prominence on Google

When you start receiving a huge number of online reviews, comments, testimonials, mentioning of free listings for your business, this can really help your business grow, along with boosting your online presence on Google. This makes your business more discoverable to potential customers, who might be searching for products and services like yours on Google. This could lead to more customers visiting your website to gather more information about your business.

 Generates more business leads

When user-generated content helps you increase the online visibility and social engagement of your business, it also starts attracting the customers who are interested in what your business has to offer. This ultimately helps in getting more leads, converting them into potential buyers. 

 Benefits of using user-generated content

Some of the significant benefits are:

·   More engagement with your audience

·   Build a stronger fan base

·   Greater search results

·   Improved page ranking on Google

·   Increased awareness of the online presence

·   A better understanding of your customers

·   Trustworthy content

·   More leads

·   Zero costs

How to get more user-generated content for your brand?

 Here are some of the quick tips to get more user-generated content for your brand 

Encourage your customers to share their experience

Sometimes all it takes is a little prompting on social networks to show that you’re excited to see their creativity and enthusiasm.

Acknowledge your customers who share their UGC 

People don’t expect brands to see their posts, tweets or messages. Show your audience that you do hear them by liking, sharing and retweeting their posts. This adds more value to the content.

 You can send some kind of reward to your customers

Prizes are great and customers love having them. Perhaps the reason why photo contests are such a great way to generate user-generated content.

 But if you wish to do something on a smaller scale, even just giving someone a little limelight by choosing to feature their image in your marketing can be amazing and valuable to them. It can then spark your other followers to share more, in hopes of getting featured too.

How Towards90 can help?

We are robust online reputation management and customer experience solution, provider. Towards 90 can help your business to optimize your user-generated content strategy. Apart from that, Towards 90 has a host of other important services to help you gain maximum advantage and create a successful online reputation for your business.