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Boosting Your Social Media Following with User-Generated Content
3 Plays2 years ago
Welcome back to the Onya Mic Podcast, your source of valuable marketing insights and strategies. In this episode, we dive into the world of user-generated content (UGC) creators and how they can help drive engagement and amplify your social media following. UGC is a powerful tool that brings authenticity and relatability to your brand.
Here are the three key takeaways from this episode:
Leveraging UGC Creators for Increased Engagement: Learn how UGC creators can create relatable content that resonates with your audience, leading to higher engagement with your social media accounts.
Building Trust and Authenticity: Human emotions make your content and your brand relatable. Plus, people want to hear from people.
Finding the Right UGC Creators: Explore effective methods to identify and collaborate with UGC creators who align with your brand's goals and values.
Join us on the Onya Mic Podcast as we unlock the power of UGC creators in boosting your social media following. Tune in to this episode and revolutionize your social media strategy with authentic and engaging content.
Let's socialize! Tag us in a story to let us know that you are enjoying this podcast.
Here's where you'll find us:
Ashley Monk
Facebook: https://facebook.com/iamashleymonk
Instagram: @iamashleymonk
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ashleymonk
Onya
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onyamarketing
Instagram: @onyamarketing
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
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Welcome to the Anya Mike podcast, a podcast where we discuss the ins and outs of marketing, running a business, and tips and tricks the industry may just not be telling you, but we will.
00:00:14
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If you're looking for inspiration on exactly how to grow your business with ambition, innovation, and confidence, while creating maximum impact to influence your clients like never before, you're in the right place.
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Grab your AirPods, pen, paper, or laptop, and let's get on your mic.
Meet the Host: CEO Ashley Monk
00:00:31
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Get set and grow.
00:00:33
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And now, here's your host on the mic, CEO Ashley Monk.
Understanding UGC: What and Why
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UGC.
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If you don't know what it stands for, you will by the time this episode is over, and you're really going to learn how in the world you leverage UGC.
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So let's go ahead and get right into it.
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What is UGC?
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Well, UGC simply stands for user generated content.
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And regardless of whether you are B2B, B2C in the government and institution industry working with product based businesses, we have seen it all.
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And I can tell you that while
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using UGC in consumer-based industries is probably a more common practice than in others, you can still leverage it in other industries.
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So what in the world is UGC?
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All UGC is and it stands for is user generated content.
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And so this type of content is the videos, responses, blogs that are actually created by the users of a particular platform.
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And so it's essentially your audience and your market creating content about you.
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And so a great example is the people, I mean, this could be as simple as people in your community at the local ice cream shop in the summer when it's hot outside taking a selfie,
00:01:54
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tagging the ice cream shop with their favorite flavor and their family.
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That is what UGC is.
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It can be used by non-influencers, by micro, by macro influencers, and even your current
Benefits of UGC
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clients.
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And so we are going to talk about how we can use
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UGC such as testimonials, reviews, and great feedback so that you can really position your brand as credible.
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And again, tell the story from the lens of the people that know you best, your clients and customers.
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So let's talk about how we can grow your following with UGC.
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So again, who are UGC creators?
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A UGC creator is simply somebody that's creating content in a medium that's related to a brand or community they follow from or purchase from.
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And this is happening on nearly any social media platform or digital community.
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And these creators are going to vary in age and demographic and occupation.
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They could be your neighbor or they could be an influencer.
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And so
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Really, this biggest difference between them and then you as your organization posting about your services is that they're posting from their own lens and typically they're not going to be paid for their opinion.
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And so that makes their content really relatable and self created.
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And so you can pay for UGC creators or have people kind of do this or send them products.
00:03:19
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I would say sending products or sending services if you're a consumer brand is probably the easiest way to get these opinions.
00:03:24
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But again, there are plenty of other ways to do that too.
How to Find UGC Creators
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So let's go ahead and talk about some of the benefits that we can use to really leverage UGC.
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The first is going to be the trust and authenticity.
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Creators provide content that is usually their own opinion and voice.
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That's why they are the creator.
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And so this is so helpful because this is not your corporate or your pitch or your whole messaging doc.
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This is somebody that has purchased in some capacity from you telling other people, hopefully like them if they're an ideal client, what it's like to buy from you.
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And so
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This creates so much trust when people are hearing people that sound like them, that communicate like them, telling your story.
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And so showcasing this gives your potential audience a really, really genuine view of your business.
00:04:12
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And UGC are just really going to resonate with your customers.
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And hopefully as they post on their own mediums about your content, increase your sales because people want to see real results and real human emotion.
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I can't express enough how important it is to really have that emotional connection in your content.
00:04:31
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Another benefit working with UGC creators is that they can really help increase your following.
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So when messages really, really resonate with people that recognize the genuine and honest opinions, they will listen and they really will believe it to be trustworthy.
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And if they do, they will follow along.
00:04:49
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And so again, branded content that you are creating from your company is really important.
00:04:54
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But when you're using UGC, it's really going to pull people in in an authentic and a unique way.
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Another point here and benefit of using UGC is that really people will see what they like.
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It's helpful to see the genuine support behind a brand.
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And then a lot of times too, UGC are going to be really good.
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These creators will create images for you that you may not have even thought of yourself.
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I've even seen brands run UGC contests to help come up with ideas or taglines.
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And it can be so valuable to hear how your audience talks about you.
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And then finally, the last benefit is really diversity in thought and the context that's added.
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And so you're going to have people from different backgrounds, different worldviews, and different perspectives that are bringing attention to your brand.
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And this is so helpful to marketing to different personas and people really understanding that you've got a pretty big mix of your following.
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So how do we find these people?
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Number one, let's ask your existing audience, right?
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You can go on your social media or if you are in B2B, you can go and honestly talk with your clients and see if they would be willing to post something or to create something on LinkedIn, depending on the context and what's appropriate.
Leveraging Events for UGC
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If you are in government, you can go and connect whatever branch of government you're in
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with, you know, I've seen this done in economic development by asking some of the companies that are relocating for testimonials on what it's like to live and work in the city.
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This can be a phone interview where you take a snippet if you need to repurpose it.
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But of course, it is the most helpful when they're posting on their own feed and tagging you and it's coming from them because this allows you to cross mingle audiences as well.
00:06:36
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So social media is or your own audience is going to be a really great first step.
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followed by social media.
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One of the easiest ways to find these creators is looking on social under hashtags and people that might be interested in learning more about your brands.
00:06:52
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The next one is going to be, again, your customer reviews.
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So who's already created reviews and testimonials for you?
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Who on LinkedIn is giving you recommendations or endorsements?
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Who are these people?
00:07:03
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I would go back through and look for this content because you can easily reshare it and repurpose it, even if it's been a few months.
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Another is going to be brand ambassador platforms.
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So your programs, you could create your own brand ambassador program if you are in a consumer based industry and really create VIP access to what it is that you have.
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Finally, event hosting.
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That's going to be another great way to bring in creators.
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If you have an event, you've got all these great backdrops and appealing aspects to bring people in.
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It's going to be hard not to talk about that on social media.
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So B2B, if you're doing a gala or
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some type of a fundraiser for nonprofits.
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This is going to be a great way to bring creators in.
00:07:43
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And so as to wrap things up, UGC is going to be a really helpful and fun way to get free content for your brand to get your customers and clients talking about what you do.
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So I highly recommend trying to find some way to bring UGC into your brand.
Audience Engagement Strategies
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All right, everyone.
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I hope that this has been helpful.
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I'm curious, what action are you going to take?
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Who are you going to reach out to in order to try to leverage UGC?
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Be sure to write us and let us know.
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And we'll see you next time.
00:08:12
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Thanks for joining us this week on the Anya Mike podcast.
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We'd love to hear from you.
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Make sure to visit our website, anyamark.com, where you can subscribe and never miss a show.
00:08:22
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While you're at it, if you found value in this episode, be sure to drop us a five-star review on iTunes and share the show with a friend to help us to continue to influence more people to create maximum impact.
00:08:33
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Tune in for next week's episode, and we'll see you then.