8 Ways Businesses Can Leverage User-Generated Content to Boost Brand Awareness
To help businesses effectively leverage user-generated content for brand awareness, we’ve gathered nine insightful strategies from professionals in the field, including a B2B Marketing research specialist and a community manager. From harnessing UGC through contests to amplifying word-of-mouth with UGC, discover the diverse ways you can use user-generated content to boost your brand’s visibility.
- Harness UGC Through Contests
- Turn Positive Reviews Into Ads
- Boost Visibility With UGC Campaigns
- Recruit Brand Ambassadors for Social Presence
- Collaborate and Repurpose UGC
- Develop User-Centric Web Tools
- Foster Creativity and Transparency
- Amplify Word-of-Mouth With UGC
Harness UGC Through Contests
As a potent tool to boost brand awareness, businesses can harness the power of user-generated content (UGC) by encouraging customers to share their experiences, reviews, and creative content related to the brand. This creates an authentic connection and widens the brand’s reach to the users’ followers.
Another effective strategy is to run a UGC contest. For example, a fitness apparel brand could host a contest inviting customers to share photos or videos of themselves wearing the apparel while working out.
By tagging the brand and using a specific hashtag, participants naturally promote the brand across their social networks, amplifying its visibility. This strengthens the brand’s credibility through real user endorsements and ignites a sense of community among customers.
Leveraging UGC in this manner presents businesses with a compelling and organic approach to increasing brand awareness while fostering genuine engagement.
Edlyn Collanto, B2B Marketing Research Specialist, UpCity
Turn Positive Reviews Into Ads
If someone writes a positive review or posts a glowing comment about your brand, you can screenshot it and run it as a social ad to provide third-party proof of your brand’s quality. This is always more powerful than the way you speak about your own brand.
Amanda Milligan
Brand Authority Expert, Amanda Milligan Consulting
Boost Visibility With UGC Campaigns
As an experienced marketer in a SaaS company, I’ve witnessed the remarkable impact of user-generated content (UGC) on brand awareness.
One potent strategy I recommend is running a UGC campaign encouraging customers to share their authentic experiences with our products or services. By incorporating a unique hashtag and showcasing the best content on our official channels, we amplify brand visibility and foster a sense of community among our customers.
This strategy fits the human desire for connection and validation, allowing our audience to become brand advocates.
Madhurima Halder
Content Manager, Recruit CRM
Recruit Brand Ambassadors for Social Presence
A great example of how to successfully leverage user-generated content comes from “Pura Vida.” The lifestyle brand has created a massive Instagram following but actively recruits “brand ambassadors.” They do this with free products, experiences, and insider info.
This investment is worth it because it contributes to the company’s massive social presence, which shows extremely well on social media. The pictures and videos featuring the product are a powerful tool for brand awareness.
Logan Mallory
VP of Marketing, Motivosity
Collaborate and Repurpose UGC
Collaborative tools, including UGC, are an excellent way to reach audiences that your business or brand might not have otherwise accessed.
When the talent you collaborate with promotes your product or business on their page, it is exposed to their audience. If the talent endorses your products or brand, it may motivate people to visit your pages, make a purchase, or subscribe to your content.
If all the steps are taken and agreed upon, you could gain access to the UGC content. Gaining access or ownership allows you to repurpose that content, simplifying your content strategy.
A brand we collaborate with, HealthScope One, offers content creators a free blood test in exchange for UGC content. When people share their trust in HealthScope for their testing, it may inspire others to use their services. We also obtain ownership of the content to repurpose on our pages in the future.
Chelsea Evans-Flower
Owner, Scott Social
Develop User-Centric Web Tools
PhotoRoom’s Barbie Selfie Generator stands as a testament to this. Capitalizing on the buzz around the Barbie Movie, PhotoRoom rolled out the web app, barbieselfie.ai, allowing users to create avatars echoing the iconic Barbie style.
With a modest development investment that can be estimated at $2k-$3k, the tool achieved 50K-80K monthly visitors and amassed over 7,500 backlinks. As a result, almost 100K people had a touch point with their main brand, and they also gained long-term visibility because of their authority boost.
Brands can identify trending cultural or pop phenomena and develop user-centric web tools or apps that resonate with that trend. By doing so, they can drive significant online engagement and accrue valuable backlinks, boosting their visibility and authority.
Hugo Molinaro
Digital Marketing Enthusiast, and Founder, SmartLinking
Foster Creativity and Transparency
In my experience, businesses can leverage user-generated content to increase brand awareness by creating an environment where their customers feel comfortable and empowered to use their creativity.
I’ve seen this work best when the brand is very transparent about their company, who they are as people, and what they stand for. This can be done through blogging, social media posts, or even in-store experiences that highlight the mission of your business.
It’s important for brands to create an environment that fosters creativity because users are more likely to engage with your business if they feel you’re a part of their tribe. And that kind of engagement comes from an authentic connection between people—and it’s worth it!
Gert Kulla
CEO, RedBat.Agency
Amplify Word-of-Mouth with UGC
User-generated content amplifies the reach of word-of-mouth recommendations, which helps companies cut marketing costs and seem more authentic and trustworthy at the same time.
An example of this is Tesla. The avoidance of traditional advertising initiatives is one of the most recognizable things about the company. Elon Musk once said, “What we’re seeing is that word of mouth is more than enough to drive our demand in excess of production.” Leveraging UGC is the key success factor in Tesla’s marketing strategy.
The high quality of the products leads to highly satisfied customers who share their positive experiences with the brand. Driven by excitement, they broadcast all the information on their social media channels much better than any salesperson worldwide.
As they truly believe in the product and use it daily, such recommendations are genuine. Tesla does an excellent job reposting UGC for its Instagram audience.
Agata Szczepanek
Community Manager, MyPerfectResume
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