A recent Weekly Curated Awesome included a link highlighting a haunted house that publishes pictures of people’s reactions to key scary haunted house moments.
This has left me thinking about user generated content. While these photos were not specifically generated by users, they are exactly the type of thing your users could generate for your business.
User generated content can include photos, location check-ins, guest posts and more. Using signage to encourage users to post photos of themselves using your product, visiting your location or writing reviews of your services can be a huge boon to your business.
Let’s use an example: Stitchfix regularly hosts #StitchfixFriday in which they encourage users to post photos of themselves wearing Stitchfix clothing. Users post to Instagram, Twitter and the Stitchfix Facebook fan page using the hashtag #StitchfixFriday. This gives Stitchfix loads of content and engagement that they can use to promote their brand and gain the attention of potential customers.
While Stitchfix gives away a $50 credit to one lucky participant each week, many brands find other incentives to entice users to generate content for them. This can include anything from increasing their own publicity on a major site to the simple thrill of seeing their favorite brand or celebrity think their content is good enough to share.
User generated content can help you get your biggest brand enthusiasts promoting your brand FOR you. What is there to lose?
*Photo credit Stitchfix blog
I’m trying out some user generated content strategies on my work page. For us, opening that door causes us to have to give up a little control, but the rewards can be really great. Thanks for sharing! Got some good ideas.