User Generated Content

The term User Generated Content (UGC) describes customer or user created media. This includes but isn’t limited to photos, videos, podcasts, social media mentions, and reviews.

User Generated Content is closely connected to Word-of-Mouth as it is often created among customers and out of a company’s control. User Generated Content often conveys feelings about a product or service, customer opinions, advice, and information about how to use a product.

Positive User Generated Content is used by companies to be distributed across social media in the form of testimonials, organic ads and to serve content marketing. Negative User Generated Content, such as bad reviews, can be used to adjust product development and focus customer service.

User Generated Content proves to be more trustworthy for consumers than any brand-generated content, media, or advertising. The phenomenon behind this is social proof which also is the reason why Word-of-Mouth is so important for a businesses’ reputation. Consumers intuitively remember and respond positively to products and service recommended by their peers. This is why Peer-to-Peer Marketing has become a popular tactic in recent years.