Think back a few years. Do you remember walking into stores and seeing familiar names like Alex and Chris on Coke and Diet Coke bottles? If you responded like many, you searched to see if your name or a friend’s name was listed. If so, you snapped a quick picture to post online — and probably picked up the drink, too. 

You likely didn’t consider that you were contributing to a massive user-generated content campaign at that moment. The campaign, “Share a Coke,” netted plenty of success for Coca-Cola, including half-a-million social media images and an 870% increase in onsite traffic. Why the incredible results? When developed effectively, user-generated content can be one of the most powerful marketing vehicles. That’s why it deserves a place in your lead generation pipeline toolkit.

 The Secret of User-Generated Content’s Appeal

At the most basic level, user-generated content is best defined as content your company doesn’t create. Instead, content published by consumers (and maybe even competing or non-competing brands) discusses your brand. By its very nature, user-generated content sounds authentic rather than sales — and people notice. According to a Stackla report cited by Nosto, user-generated content is seen as 2.4X more genuine than brand-generated content.

When people see user-generated content on a platform like TikTok, Facebook, or even a personal blog, they are more apt to think of it as a sincere referral from another person. Unlike advertisements or influencer content, user-generated content seems fresh and unbiased. This gives it an inherent trustworthiness that can drive engagement.

Although user-generated content tends to be most associated with static images, it can come in other forms, too. These include videos, reviews, rankings, blog posts, case studies, and audio podcast mentions. Whenever a consumer, customer, or brand talks about your company or its products or services without being asked, you can chalk it up to user-generated content.

Ways to Spruce up Your User-Generated Content Mentions 

Naturally, you’ll want to get as many positive user-generated content mentions as possible. Below are a few marketing strategies world-class marketing agencies, like a Denver digital marketing agency, use to encourage branded chatter without paying directly. 

1. Encourage followers to capture and share brand interactions. 

Your customers interact with your brand in some way every day. Why not make these interactions part of a broader campaign with user-generated content? For instance, do as Starbucks did with its White Cup Contest. The idea behind the contest was to offer people the chance to share their Starbucks cup doodles with the world. The winner was honored to have a doodle displayed on an exclusive Starbucks cup.

To keep track of user-generated content submissions, Starbucks leveraged a #WhiteCupContest hashtag. This allowed the company to track uploads and trends as the contest progressed. The experience built a unique bond between Starbucks and artsy coffee (and tea!) lovers everywhere. At the same time, it gave a huge lift and reached the Starbucks name, making it seem like Starbucks was “everywhere.”

2. Organize a public competition for user entries.

Are you considering a giveaway or other competition as part of an upcoming marketing initiative? Toss around the idea of including some aspect of user-generated content. You may get inspiration from a competition like National Geographic’s Wanderlust Contest. The main way to enter was to upload an inspiring, interesting, or otherwise eye-catching photograph online and accompany it with a hashtag. With hundreds of entries, National Geographic caused a viral buzz.

The takeaway is to find ways to reward people for telling others they’re entering your contest. User-generated content can be a reward unto itself, especially if the content nets the users themselves some likes, follows, and shares. This was undoubtedly true for amateur photographers who joined the Wanderlust image challenge.

3. Create a branded viral challenge on TikTok or other platforms. 

TikTok challenges have run the gamut from wacky to wild. Not all challenges cause a frenzy, of course. However, if you can seize an interesting concept, your brand could be central to a flurry of short videos.

What type of challenge works best? One tip for TikTok and other social challenges is to keep the premise fairly simple. The more people who can participate, the better. Just remember that safety should always be at the heart of any challenge. Another challenge best practice is to piggyback on other challenges that are getting lots of traction. Putting a branded twist on a successful challenge could help you churn up user-generated magic.

User-generated content is more than just a nice-to-have marketing element. It’s necessary to keep your brand in the spotlight in a way that appeals to prospective buyers and customers.