MATT HIGGINS · I build brands that lead

“4x ROAS, 33% drop in CPA, and a 20% increase in AOV – Why finding the right UGC is so crucial”

That’s an actual subject line of an email I received. Four acronyms packed in one sentence is impressive. You can decode that mess here. While I got a chuckle out of the alphabet soup, it was how UGC is being used that really got my attention. The definition of UGC, which means User Generated Content, is really being stretched lately.

Real UGC is content created by ordinary people, not influencers. Ordinary people, not “micro-influencers.” Ordinary people, not “UGC Creators.” UGC is not paid media. It’s not influencer media.

The term UGC has been hijacked and it’s not alone by a longshot. The problem occurs because marketing isn’t just a business function, marketing is a business. It’s a service that’s for sale. Because of this marketing services providers rebrand terms or, in this case, latch onto terms so they can have something to sell. UGC was something to be fostered. Now it’s something that can be sold.

Early examples of UGC were the online bulletin boards, which would later and more commonly be known as forums. You may have heard of software such as phpBB and vBulletin. When I was group editor-in-chief of a media company dedicated to special interest topics, we provided a forum that had thousands of passionate enthusiasts asking and answering questions. It was an absolute SEO goldmine. The content checked every box the search engines wanted. It was all on topic, every other word was a highly searched keyword, and the content was constantly updated. The content was all created by users and, again, an absolute goldmine for SEO. Then Facebook Groups gained traction and most specialized forums have since gone the way of, well, the dodo. The big exception is Reddit, which as over 90 million daily users. If you want to see the mother lode (lots of mining references in this one) of text-based UGC, check out Reddit, which is like every forum rolled up into one. If there’s a topic worth discussing chances are there are droves of people discussing it in a subreddit. YouTube is another massive platform full of UGC. The point is there is a ton of UGC out there because there is simply a ton of people making a ton of content. Snap and post a pic of your kid’s soccer game on Facebook, that’s content. Show off a photo of your new Trek mountain bike on Instagram, that’s content. More specifically, it’s UGC.

When content isn’t UGC is when it’s media. Whether you think of them as independents or privateers, influencers are media and not platform users. That’s what the “U” really stands for, platform user. A regular platform user has no relationship with manufacturers, direct or indirect. The content is natural. When a marketing service promises to deliver content that looks like UGC they aren’t delivering UGC. They can call it UGC but if it’s paid for it’s not UGC. And, be warned, the endresult is often the exact opposite of the authenticity they’re promising. This is where words like micro-influencer and UGC Creator get tossed around. If the content is being paid for, even if the influencer has a small audience, it’s not UGC.

So, how do you get real UGC? It’s simple. Give people a reason to post. One of the best ways to get real UGC is to run a contest on social media. Consistently, the best platform for this is Instagram thanks to its polling feature. Start a photo contest with a post soliciting entries by a certain date. Make sure you offer a great prize. The prize is your effort, and I’ll tell you right now, weak effort will equal weak results. Instruct participants to tag your brand and use a hashtag unique to the contest. Before the deadline, users will post about your brand in hopes of being selected. You can also include instructions such as “State why you love your ________.” The entry period is where you get the flood of UGC. The additional exposure your brand receives during the actual contest is just icing on the proverbial cake. To run the contest, you select a set number of entries and use the poll sticker in Stories. Without getting bogged down in a full tutorial, the basic mechanic is a bracket: you combine two entries into one image, people vote, and each day the field gets whittled down. The icing part is as the contest runs, contestants, eager to get votes, promote the contest (i.e., your brand) for you. This format is a little bit of work, but it’s fun and highly engaging. With a little imagination you can come up with a great theme and with a little bit of budget you can come up with a great prize. The end result, when executed correctly, is a blitz of great UGC.

UGC is a powerful tool and a great tool to add to your social media mix, but don’t let the new rebranding of UGC make you lose sight of the value of real UGC. UGC works like word-of-mouth and that’s content that’s hard to beat.