Everyone knows what user-generated content is. Having a refresher on it is never a bad idea. The term has been in existence for quite some. It is a key part of content and digital marketing. Social media, online communities, forums, and a large part of the online world have made it quite popular.
User-generated content works for businesses, brands, companies, and other business entities alike making use of marketing and communications. Let us now have a good look at it.
What is user-generated content? And why is it so popular?
User-generated content is an important aspect of Web 2.0 which focuses on interaction, social networks, and making the web an online social place. Web 1.0 consisted of static websites filled with blocks of text, some images, slow videos, stocky blocky layouts, and a nightmare of the typical website.
Web 2.0 is many steps ahead of its predecessor. Users can participate in making, distributing, posting, and using various kinds of content on an active scale.
THis shift was made possible thanks to technological advancements made in the 2000s. Those advancements improved website accessibility. Bandwidth increase was also among them and the internet became more robust. The development of the Nokia N-Series and Samsung’s Omnia plus Microsoft’s Imate led to the creation of the smartphone concept.
When smartphones became common, the software for multimedia amplification and editing became common. Users had the chance to make and share the following forms of content:
- Text.
- Videos.
- Images.
- Reviews.
- Testimonials.
- Social media posts.
- Blog posts and comments.
The internet is now an active place. People are now engaging online in a variety of ways. This has led to the creation of user-generated content. This content is valuable. Today, businesses, brands, and companies alike are examining it as it provides them with original and genuine perspectives on both products and services.
Factors explaining the importance of user-generated content
UGC can help create credibility and trust
Customers today love user-generated content because they know it does not have any actor in it. They know that the content created is original and is better than traditional advertising. Users can share their experiences and thoughts giving a sense of credibility for the brand. It helps people feel confident about their purchase from that business or brand.
Brands can improve their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) rank and other online marketing aspects plus metrics
Search engines love fresh content. UGC has a role to play here because it helps business entities add new content to their blogs and sites and keeps them relevant and updated. This helps improve the SEO ranking of websites. Such content is also enriched with the right keywords.
UGC helps boost engagement and provide social proof, and raises a sense of community
Social proof is worth the investment and effort. It forms a core part of social media marketing. When people see content made by another person just like themselves instead of some celebrity, that social proof is worth a lot in terms of evaluating a product/service. User-generated content helps showcase additional evidence and real-time proof about products and services.
If a business is engaged in unethical practices, UGC can help expose those businesses in this regard. That content can reach the right kind of people. Such content also helps create a sense of community for brands. Users feel valued and understand that brands do not ignore them. This is why they help raise advocacy and loyalty for brands.
Personalization is rife
Marketers from a Dubai web design company reveal that user-generated content is usually personalized. Certain individuals tailor content as per their audience. Suppose in a certain town residents love Khakis instead of denim due to the weather, user-generated content showcasing the town’s demographics, preferences, and tastes helps brands understand a lot about them.
The outcome is creation of ads and marketing campaigns that are personalized, concentrated, and rightly targeted.
Considerable resources are saved
Content creation is a resource-intensive process. It requires hours of research and investment in the best tools to help improve and moderate it. User-generated content is inexpensive. It only needs improvements and moderation. This kind of content helps companies save time, money, and other resources in the content creation process.
Drawbacks of user-generated content
As impressive as Web 2.0 had become, it also became the worst of the internet. The proliferation of preposterous content has downgraded the credibility of user-generated content. This has caused a major headache for brands who now have to revert back to old fashioned methods to create authentic content.
