More than 70 percent of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. use social media to engage with their customers, which proves just how much of an impact having an internet presence (and using it correctly) can have on the modern-day business. But social media isn’t the only thing securing growth for them. In a world where savvy consumers avoid paying attention to ads in favor of recommendations from friends (70 percent) and customer reviews (46 percent), user-generated content (UGC) has become the go-to method for marketing with a minimal amount of effort and a maximum return on investment. UGC in the form of social media discussion, blog comments, and product reviews on various websites have the advantage of transforming customers into advertisers.
While it’s true that millennials are more likely to engage in discussions about brands and products than older individuals, note that the percentage of adults and seniors who go online is increasing. Businesses appealing to all age groups stand to benefit from UGC either now or in the near future. It wouldn’t be surprising to see this become the gold standard for corporate websites just like it did for e-commerce. On top of that, the low investment threshold makes UGC a proactive solution to increase a website’s search value and customer trust.
In the realm of e-commerce, platforms like Yotpo take a very creative approach to customer reviews, providing an SEO-friendly environment that up-sells products and incentivizes the act of writing a review by offering coupons for further purchases. With full social integration, users will also be offered the opportunity to share their best reviews on social media, further expanding the reach that the product has on the web. It’s a win-win-win.
For other websites, the trick to fully leveraging UGC involves creating opportunities for discussion within strategic areas of your website that are visible enough to attract attention, but not enough to get in the way of the centerpiece (the product, the blog post, etc.). Newegg’s site provides a decent example of this, where reviews appear in a tab in each product’s page and can also be accessed by clicking the rating that appears just below the product’s title.
For social media, aspiring brands can organize campaigns intuitively through platforms like Heyo and aggregate the activity through Tagboard. To make customers really feel special, brands have been known to also share pictures of their product or art from their fans. Don’t forget to monitor all of this activity so that you can refine your methods. Platforms like Hootsuite and Sprout Social are useful in this regard.
Although having a good product and a search engine-friendly website both provide significant benefits to businesses that achieve this, UGC is beginning to play a more crucial role in online markets with a proven track record of having a major impact on growth. Socially-active businesses bursting with discussion generally experience a greater measure of success than those that choose to exist within a vacuum. It’s 2016. Why invest all the effort for large advertising campaigns when your customers can do your advertising for you?