User Generated Content - Do You Need It?

Organic engagement on social media has gotten tougher in recent years. There are two main reasons for this. First of all, users are inundated with marketing messages on platforms where they are going for entertainment or personal advancement. They're not looking for promotional content, so it's not easy to get them to stop and pay attention.

The second reason is that social media platforms have to make money, so they limit our ability to connect organically in order to convince us to pay for ads. This is understandable, but can be extremely frustrating when we're trying to market a product or service.

I had a client a while back who had a very sleepy Facebook page. Users almost never liked or commented, and what they did say tended to be negative. Instead of giving up, we turned it around by embarking on a user generated content campaign. We told users that if they answered our questions, we would enter them into a raffle to win fun prizes. The response was immediate - we got tons of engagement and a lot of great content.

We later reused that content in blog posts, infographics and more, so this was a total win-win. Even better, users had gotten used to responding to our posts and that carried over into other posts, even when there was no prize being offered.

The success of that campaign reinforced what I already knew - that soliciting user generated content can go a long way. It can get your community involved, create content for you and make your social media presence more exciting. It's a great way to encourage engagement in a ecosystem where you often have to pay to play.

Have you tried a user generated content campaign? How did it work out for you?