If there’s anything that we’ve seen change due to the pandemic it’s the change in the audience’s behavior patterns towards consuming brands and the content they produce with its resultant effect on social media trends. Consumers are shifting from making purchasing decisions based solely on advertorials and promotions by brands but more towards what their peers’ experiences with these brands have been. These may be influenced by reviews, customer experiences, product experiences and other information other users or customers share online. And as the consumers’ pattern changes, brands should also adapt their strategies
When we launched Rocomamas, we were not only looking to drive sales for the brand but also to create a cult of customers who loyally patronize their products and willingly share their experiences online to influence other people to want to patronize the brand as well. One major strategy to achieve this was to use influencer/user-generated content.
User-generated content (UGC) is any content—text, videos, images, reviews, etc.—created by people, rather than brands. And brands will often share UGC on their own social media accounts, website, and other marketing channels.
So why was it important for us to use user-generated content?
1. An organic way to create more awareness
When done right, content from users/customers can drive organic awareness to those who haven’t seen or heard of your brand. This reduces the budget spent on paid ads and other marketing channels.
During the launch of Rocomamas, we had over 50 story tags on the official @rocomamasghana page on Instagram. Influencers and invitees to the launch created content which they shared to their stories and tagged Rocomamas. This led to an influx of traffic to the page, rapidly increasing the following and overall interaction on the page without any paid promotions.
The organic awareness created by these users through their content led to an instant rise in visits to the restaurant as well in the following days since customers wanted to try this new place they’re seeing on their feeds.
2. Consumers find user-generated content more genuine and trustworthy.
Advertising is telling the consumers why they should patronize you, but by giving the mic to your customers and putting them at the center-stage, they’re able to tell your brand’s story from the perspective of their own experiences. There is a reason we all check customer reviews on online shops before making certain purchasing decisions. This is because we trust that other customers experiences are more genuine than what they brand would portray themselves to be.
Because people are more like to patronize brands they’ve seen their peers experience or use, right from the launch of Rocomamas we’ve always used Key Opinion Leaders and Influencers in all our activities. These individuals are people who our audience love, trust and look up to and take their opinions serious. So its more likely for their followers or audience to patronize products and services they recommend.
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Aside collaborating with influencers and key opinion leaders, random customers who also had a amazing feels of the Rocomamas experience and food also shared photos of the food and themselves at the Rocomamas Restaurant. This influenced other people to also visit Rocomamas to also have a feel of the experience and food their friends, peers and social media mutuals have had.
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3. It inspires brand loyalty and affinity
Building an emotional and psychological connection with your audience influences the long-term growth of your brand as your customers tend to fall in love with your brand, purchase whatever you sell, become your most frequent return customers and become advocates for your brand.
Building brand loyalty is about fostering long-term relationships that result in multiple sales over time.
We figured that, customers who create and share content from Rocomamas are likely to be among our biggest fans. They have probably patronized Rocomamas, loved the experience and willingly shared on their social media. If we made it easier for them to continually share their experience we would create a cult of customers who ant to feel like a part of the brand. User-generated content allowed us to harness that brand excitement and foster a sense of ongoing loyalty in people who may be less familiar with your brand.
From interacting with their posts frequently, reposting their content to our feed and our story and creating experiences that people wanted to be part of, we got customers wanting to be part of the Rocomamas experience by also visiting the shop, tasting the amazing food, letting the world know they have experienced Rocomamas through their posts and in that process, influencing other people to try same.
4. It supplements branded content
Creating great and consistent content require a lot of resources – money, people and time. But being a social brand means we have to constantly push out with great content to make your presence visible online. Fortunately, user-generated content doesn’t require as much resources because you’re sourcing images directly from your customers on social media.
Our social media strategy for Rocomamas includes creative ads content featuring customers staff and influencers, which required heavy planning, production and creative processes such as designing, copywriting and editing. Since this can easily influence production budgets and increase the workload of our content creators we had to get creative with getting visual content.
We supplement our social media content calendars with user-generated content. By sharing and reposting content created by customers on our social media feed, we reduce the amount of creative and production work that goes into creating content thus saving us time to develop more creative strategies and content ideas as well as saving on thin resources such as money and time.
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How do you generate User-Generated Content on social media?
1. Make your brand a community.
People want to belong. People want a place where they feel they are a part of. Don’t just make an effort to sell, put an effort into growing a cult of followers and customers who want to be associated with your brand.
2. Create an impeccable customer experience.
The experience people have with your brand influences how they feel about your brand. Make an effort to win their minds and hearts by creating experiences they love at the places they spend their time. Good products/services, customer service and offering value are easy ways to win more hearts.
3. Start with Influencer-Generated Content.
To get the word out there it is always easier to first collaborate with influencers. Influencers have massive followings that helps your brand reach people you would usually not have access to. Win the interest of these people and get them to love your brand and watch them create content for your brand.
If you already have a working marketing plan that utilizes user-generated content, kudos. If you do not it is never too late to get on top of your game and get your fans to do the talking. These tips can help you get closer to your customers and reach new audiences.
Alternatively, you can get in touch with us to develop a marketing strategy that helps your business put your customers first help you reach new audiences.
