The first step in generating and using UGC is to learn what social media channels your customers use. Next, devise a UGC strategy that targets these channels. Launch a contest to get people to write about their experiences with your product. Ask customers to send in photographs, display those photos online, and ask for Facebook likes. Suggest customers vote via social media on which of your products they like best. All of these mechanisms can generate valuable UGC that boosts your brand.
A number of distinctive approaches to UGC have been successfully employed by brands large and small. Taking cues from the following examples can help make your own UGC efforts all the more effective, in turn helping grow your sales and profits.
- A Burberry campaign entitled "The Art of the Trench" encouraged customers to upload photos of themselves wearing Burberry trench coats. The campaign grew sales of the British clothing brand by 50 percent.
- A Lay's UGC campaign ingeniously titled "Do Us a Flavor" spurred people to invent their own chip flavors and use Facebook and Twitter to vote on others' suggestions. The 3.8 million submissions generated confirmed the campaign's success.
- A Coca-Cola UGC campaign spawned enormous global interest when it encouraged consumers to emblazon their own personal message on Coke bottle labels.
- A joint campaign by Belkin and Lego asking folks to create customized mobile device cases resulted in creative images inundating Instagram.
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