UGC 101: A Business Guide to User-Generated Content
July 24, 2025 By Karen Layman, aka Karen
Are you looking for new content to post on your social media platforms or trying to gain more engagement with your followers? If you are, the answer might be user-generated content, or content created by users, such as your customers. Sharing user-generated content is a great way to build trust in your brand and drive engagement. Here’s what to know about user-generated content:
What Is User-Generated Content (UGC)?
User-generated content (also known as UGC) is original content that is created by users, usually customers, fans of a brand, and sometimes, employees, sharing personal thoughts and experiences. It’s usually specific to your brand or services and is often posted on social media platforms. UGC takes many different forms, including product reviews, images, testimonials, and videos.
Types of User-Generated Content
User-generated content is a popular type of content to post on social media, and it’s quickly becoming an important part of marketing strategies. There are two main types of UGC: organic and paid, and it’s important to understand the difference. This will allow you to help find the right type that fits your brand or small business.
Organic User-Generated Content
Organic user-generated content is any type of content that your customers create on their own and share on their social media platforms. There are several types of content users generate, such as photos, videos, or blog posts, and it is considered the most authentic form of UGC.
The most common kinds of user-generated content are:
1. Reviews and Testimonials
Any reviews or testimonials customers share about your company or product can be used as UGC. These reviews or testimonials can be acquired through surveys, social media, or in person. Reviews and testimonials can then be shared on your website or social media platforms as a way to use social proof.
2. Photos
One of the best ways to get your content noticed is by using photos, which can be a type of UGC or CGC (customer-generated content). This could be a photo of a customer using one of your products or a photo of a customer enjoying your services.
To find these photos easily, come up with a hashtag and encourage your customers and followers to use it. This is a useful Instagram marketing tip because a hashtag makes it easy to find and re-share the photos on your social media platforms.
3. Videos
UGC in the form of videos is also pretty popular and functions in a similar way to photo UGC. Sometimes, customers will video themselves trying out a product or utilizing your services. You can share it on your platforms via Instagram Reels or Stories. You can also just share a snippet if they only briefly mention your products or company.
4. Blog Posts
You may also come across a blog post that mentions your product or brand. If so, consider sharing a quote from the blog post or a link to the blog post on your website or social media platforms. Not only will you boost your own company, you’ll drive engagement to the blogger, as well.
5. Other Social Media Content
Sometimes, UGC is pretty simple. You might come across a mention on Threads or Facebook. If you can re-share or repost, share it to your socials. If not, you can take a screenshot and share it as a graphic with credit on a platform like Instagram or your website.
Paid UGC
The other main kind of user-generated content is paid UGC. This type of content is becoming much more popular among new brands because they don’t have enough customers sharing content yet.
Paid UGC is made by UGC creators and is different from working with influencers. The content is similar to organic UGC, but you are paying for it. This allows you to control the messaging and content. Skilled UGC creators will create content that feels authentic instead of just a really good advertisement.
Why is User-Generated Content Important?
User-generated content is a crucial aspect of marketing, as it helps increase engagement and conversions. It can also help foster trust between you and your followers, which is a great way to build strong customer relationships. Here’s why user-generated content is important for your marketing strategy:
1. It Builds Authenticity
There’s a lot of competition online, so brands really have to stand out to be seen. Social media users are also more particular about who they follow and which businesses and brands they support.
One of the best ways to help build that authenticity is to use user-generated content from your customers. Consumers tend to trust a brand when other customers recommend it more than a product promoted by an influencer.
It’s important not to fake this user-generated content. However, keep in mind that paid UGC is not the same as fake user-generated content. Your paid UGC is still authentic, even if you do have a say in the direction of the content.
2. UGC Fosters Brand Loyalty
Most people enjoy being part of a community, and sharing their content is a way for them to feel valued and appreciated. When people feel valued and appreciated, they tend to stay loyal. These are all really important aspects of building brand loyalty.
User-generated content is also a great way for a dialogue between a brand or business and the consumer to begin. When others see this type of interaction between customers and a brand, it can help build community and loyalty.
An easy way to share UGC is by sharing customers’ content on social media platforms. This is just one of the ways businesses can use Instagram stories to build trust, loyalty, and authenticity.
3. It’s a Form of Social Proof
Social proof is a term for the social phenomenon that occurs when people copy or conform to the actions of others. This happens in many situations and can influence whether a person trusts a brand or buys a specific product. This is important because people are sometimes skeptical that what brands claim in their marketing is true. However, if a customer backs up what the marketing says, they’re more likely to trust and give the brand a chance.
This is why using user-generated content is really helpful in your marketing. Potential customers will see that your customers are happy with your brand, service, or product. Because of this, they are much more likely to try it for themselves.
4. It’s Cost-Effective
It might be tempting to hire an influencer to help market your products. However, that can be a very large expense. Instead of hiring the influencer, why not ask existing customers to share posts or photos of them using or enjoying a product or service? This is a much less expensive cost, and it allows you to connect with your customers.
5. UGC Can Supplement Your Existing Content
Creating high-quality content can sometimes be a little overwhelming and challenging. This is especially true if you have limited resources or staff. Supplementing your existing content with user-generated content helps optimize your content strategy while giving some relief to your marketing team.
This is one of the reasons you need a content strategy. If you don’t have a good content strategy in place, your marketing team might feel disconnected and out of sync. A solid content strategy can make your team more efficient and boost your marketing efforts.
6. It Can Increase Customer Engagement
When you share content created by your customers, you may see a boost in user engagement. This is often because customers like to feel like they’re part of a community. People are eager to connect, so using a certain brand or going to a favorite shop gives people something to connect over.
How to Encourage User-Generated Content
If you’ve decided to try and inspire your customers to create UGC, here’s how to encourage user-generated content:
- Pay attention to customer trends.
- Use social listening.
- Implement custom hashtags.
- Incentivize your customers to create UGC.
- Don’t forget to give credit!
1. Pay Attention to Customer Trends
If you want to encourage user-generated content, you need to pay attention to trends that your consumers are following. Try to keep track of what types of content seem to get the most attention from your followers and customers. You should also pay attention to what topics or themes resonate the most with your customers.
To best figure out what type of content is most popular with your customers or followers, look up some hashtags that are relevant to your industry or business. Then, spend some time researching these keywords to see what kind of content shows up often. Be aware that different platforms might glean different results and types of content.
This is why it’s so important to define your target audience. This group of people is who you are trying to glean user-generated content from, so you should be aware of what they’re looking for and what appeals to them the most.
2. Use Social Listening
Social listening is an important practice because it helps you analyze and monitor your social media channels. This is important as it can shape your social media strategies and as you look for ways to encourage user-generated content.
There are helpful social media tools that can make social listening much easier, too! This can also be a good way to find user-generated content that already exists. Having some existing UGC can help encourage others to get in on the fun!
3. Implement Custom Hashtags
Using hashtags (custom or standard) makes finding user-generated content on social media easier.
Always Research Hashtags Before You Use Them
Before you get started on implementing hashtags, you should do some research on which hashtags are the most relevant to your company or brand. Not doing research first is a common hashtag mistake that could lead your brand to make a major misstep. Making sure you are aware of the context and nuance of a hashtag before you use it can help you avoid a social media snafu.
Create a Custom Hashtag
In order to start collecting and organizing user-generated content, and to be able to find it easily in the future, create a custom hashtag specific to your brand or small business. You might consider using the name of your business as your hashtag, as well as your industry or market. If you’re feeling stuck, there are plenty of hashtag generators online.
Encourage Customers to Use It
Make sure your customers and followers are aware of this hashtag. Use it every time you post on social media, and if you have a physical office or shop, make sure you have a sign, encouraging people to use that hashtag when they post.
Regularly Check for UGC and Share (With Permission)
Every week or at whatever interval you decide, take time to explore this specific hashtag and look for user-generated content. Once you have picked a few pieces of content, reach out to those users and ask for permission to repost their content to your social media or your website. You can also link this content in an email or newsletter blast.
4. Incentivize Your Customers to Create UGC
Creating quality content isn’t always easy. If you want your customers to put effort into creating UGC, a little thank you is going to go a long way in encouraging high-quality user-generated content.
This doesn’t need to be a big incentive, however! Sometimes, even a small discount or coupon can go a long way in motivating your customers to create UGC that can be shared across your platforms. Offering incentives like this is also a great way to thank your customers!
Just make sure anything you are offering and how you are offering it are in line with FTC guidelines for endorsements, influencers, and reviews. Depending on how it is set up and the nature of the user-generated content, your brand could end up in hot water if you don’t have disclosures on UGC that require them.
5. Don’t Forget to Give Credit!
If you want your audience to keep providing you with UGC, you need to be sure you’re giving proper credit! Giving proper credit is a social media etiquette tip for businesses and is essential in building trust with your audience.
If you use anything created by a follower, you should be sure to give them full credit. On social media, it can be as simple as tagging them in your caption or in an Instagram Story. If you use something on your blog or through email, ask how they would like to be credited. Not everyone wants their full name floating around the web.
This is an overview of user-generated content and how it can benefit your business. User-generated content is helpful for your business because it builds trust between you and your customers and helps drive traffic to your website and social media platforms.
View Comments