Hot Digital Topic – User Generated Content (UGC)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Digital Friday and we are discussing a new digital trend that will impact your social media marketing in the future.

The proliferation of Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, Google and Pinterest, along with the enhanced camera capabilities of smartphones, is resulting in consumers posting ever increasing numbers of photos on these social channels.

Given the fact that the public enjoys posting these images, many brands are beginning to harness this User-Generated Content (UGC) to further market their product or services. Here’s how this works.

Fans or followers post pictures, this UGC, to a brand’s social media channels depicting their usage of the product. For instance, a proud Toyota car owner posts a picture of themselves standing by their new vehicle. Or perhaps a picture is shared on the site of a wedding dress designer of a happy newlywed couple cutting the cake at their wedding.

We will see a lot more UGC in the future as brands use these images, freely shared by the followers of the brand’s social media site, and make them shoppable. This means the brands will embed the photos with direct hyperlinks for customers to learn more about the product or to actually purchase the product. If you think about this for a moment, UGC are endorsements by customers for the brand.

As you plan your social media marketing for 2014, be sure to keep UGC in mind.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers. Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com. Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com. Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

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Filed in: 7Ps of Marketing • Day of the Week • Digital Friday • Promotion