User-Generated Content: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Add It to Your Strategy

While scrolling on my Instagram feed, I saw a post about a gorgeous planter in my friend’s post. I immediately inquired about the brand and ordered a couple of pots for myself.

That’s a classic example of how user-generated content (UGC) works. It’s an authentic post about a brand and its products on social media channels — created by real and relatable customers instead of the brand or influencers.

In this article, I’ll share the A-Z on user-generated content and how your brand can use it to improve your social media marketing efforts — with some examples to inspire you!

What is user-generated content (UGC)?

User-generated content (UGC) is brand-specific content created by customers. Brands usually reshare this customer content on their own social media channels (with permission!). For example, at Buffer, we shared this customer review as an Instagram post — it’s the perfect example of user-generated content.

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A post shared by Buffer (@buffer)

If you really think about it, user-generated content is a digital term for word-of-mouth marketing. However, UGC isn’t as straightforward.

For starters, UGC isn’t as out of your control as word-of-mouth marketing. It’s not reliant on organic content alone to do the work. As a brand, you can bake user-generated content (UGC) into your marketing strategy to attract potential customers. 

You can even hire UGC creators to create authentic and relatable content for you when you’re new in business and don’t have many customers or customer feedback. Let’s cover these two types of user-generated content (UGC) in the next section.

Types of user-generated content (UGC)

There are two main types of user-generated content: organic and paid.

• Organic user-generated content is consumer-generated content, aka your existing customers create it at no cost. Social media users share posts about your brand freely, without asking. This can be customer photos, online reviews, or videos of your customers using your products.
• Paid user-generated content is when you incentivize UGC creators to create content for you with the authenticity of a customer — meaning no false praises or sales pitches. For example, Jenna Libman is a UGC creator who creates videos for various brands.

The core difference between organic UGC and paid UGC is the incentive. But isn’t paid UGC the same as influencer-generated content?

You’d be forgiven for thinking that — but not quite.

• Influencers typically have a larger (and more niche) audience than UGC creators. When you practice influencer marketing, your aim is to reach a new segment of your target audience (the creator’s followers). You pay influencers for their influence — they have developed an online community that trusts them. You seek to borrow that trust by partnering with them.
• UGC creators don’t need to have a large or niche audience. You pay them for their content creation skills. As a brand, you’ll want to post content created by them on your own social media channels.

While these are the two main types of user-generated content, you can also divide UGC based on content type. The brand Lili Origin often uses all these types — I’ll share their examples to help you understand how your company can layer various types of UGC content in your marketing campaigns.

Customer testimonials

Customer testimonials are a powerful form of user-generated content. They aren’t just original, they also signal social proof.

With customer permission, you can convert testimonials to visual content by taking a screenshot of online reviews and posting them on social platforms — like Lili Origin did in their Instagram Stories.

You can also embed these customer feedback snippets across your product pages.

Customer photos

Photos are a type of UGC when a customer uses your product and snaps a picture with it. You can reshare these UGC images as social media posts across multiple platforms and also add them on product pages (so potential customers can see how your product looks on an actual customer).

A pro tip: add some context to the photo and use the UGC content to increase brand awareness.

Lili Origin often reshares its customers’ Instagram Stories flaunting the brand’s products — and they also add a link to the product in the picture so their target audience can find it easily (instead of scouring their website).

Video UGC

Video UGC content is video related to your product — whether that’s a detailed review, walkthrough, or a haul. Lili Origin shared a creator’s haul of multiple products on their website in their own account.

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A post shared by Lili Origin | Jewellery (@lili_origin)

Blog posts or comments

Blog posts about your product or comments from users are similar to reviews. You can screenshot mentions across the web (whether that’s in a blog post, Reddit, or in an online community) and share them as UGC content on social media platforms. 

Be sure to get permission to reshare reviews, especially when you’re screenshotting content from a private community. Be specific about where you plan to reshare their comment 

All of the above types of UGC content can be organic and paid — it depends on how your UGC strategy fits into your overall marketing campaigns. Before I talk about how you can integrate user-generated content into your marketing campaigns, let’s address why UGC content is excellent in the first place.

Why should you use UGC in your social media strategy?

Running UGC campaigns sounds like a lot of effort: track all user-generated content, interact with your audience, reshare it with added context, etc. Why do all that when you can just create branded content or partner with influencers? Here are five reasons that show the value of user-generated content:

1. User-generated content is more authentic

Authenticity has become somewhat of a buzzword online. But the fact is, consumers are more marketing-aware than ever before. They will often tune out of your traditional ads — whether that’s high-resolution branded content or paid sponsorships.

In this marketing fog, user-generated posts shine because of their authenticity. They don’t appear salesy. Why else would 85% of consumers say they rely on user-generated content before making a purchase?

2. User-generated content builds your social proof

User-generated content is a trust builder because it comes from your existing customers. It’s powerful when someone buys your product and likes it enough to create social media posts about it — it tips the purchasing decisions of your potential customers in your favor.

It’s not just me who believes it: Massive’s research has found 81% of consumers find user-generated content more trustworthy than professionally created branded content or content from influencers.

When people see someone like them using your products and speaking in its favor — the very core of user-generated content — your social proof and positive brand sentiment soars.

3. User-generated content boosts brand loyalty

Tint’s latest report found 77% of consumers wish their favorite brands had a community.

And user-generated content is like a mini community-building exercise: It increases customer engagement because you interact with your buyers and share their user-generated posts.

This further strengthens your connection and lays the foundation of a strong social media community.

The best part? When you use user-generated content to deepen your relationships for community engagement, you also lay seeds for gaining more user-generated content (UGC) and sales.

• 82% of customers are more likely to purchase new products varieties because they engage with it through the brand’s community
• 91% of consumers are more likely to leave a review because they belong to a community

Talk about a win-win.

4. User-generated content is a source of content ideas

There’s no better way to gain more content ideas than by listening to your customers. And customer content in the form of UGC is like buyer research — with additional benefits.

You can not only share user-generated content to fill your content calendar (with relevant content!) and meet the ideal posts’ frequency across social media channels, but also use the customer content as a treasure trove of ideas and product feedback.

Do buyers often share a use case you don’t speak to in your content marketing efforts? Are reviews frequently highlighting a feature that should be more prominent in your landing page copy? All these are audience insights you can use from an impeccable source: true brand loyalists.

5. User-generated content is cost-effective

If you’re relying on your brand ambassadors or current buyers for creating UGC, you don’t (usually) have to pay them anything to post about your brand.

And even if you have to share some incentives (like an exclusive discount code, free product, etc.), it’s little compared to traditional advertising costs.

This is an A+ benefit — regardless of whether you’re a small business or an enterprise company — because you get more authentic content at less cost. What’s not to like (read: love)?

Now that you’re convinced of the value of user-generated content, the next section will help you formulate a UGC strategy to collect, organize, and use it.

How to integrate user-generated content into your marketing strategy

When you’re looking to layer a UGC strategy into your social media strategy, you need systems for three things:

1. Encouraging your target audience to share UGC

2. Collecting and organizing user-generated content within your marketing systems

3. Using user-generated content effectively

Let’s cover each one by one.

How to encourage your target audience to share user-generated content?

It’d be so easy if customers could just come to you with relevant content at your digital doorstep. But that’s not how it works — your target audience needs some encouragement and incentives to share user-generated content with you. Here are a few ideas:

Actively guide customers to create user content

Your customers might not think about posting about your brand unless you plant the idea in their heads.

Nudge customers to share how they use your product in your order delivery or marketing emails — be as specific as possible and share exactly what kind of content you expect.

You can also guide your target audience on social media to create and submit user contributions while using your product.

The iconic #ShareACoke campaign, for example, asks customers to share their personalized Coca-Cola cans and bottles.

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A post shared by Coca-Cola Malaysia (@cocacolamy)

Reward customers for creating user-generated content

Guiding your customers on how to create UGC for your brand is helpful. But giving them a little treat for it is going the extra mile.

Incentivizing customers will not only boost the quantity of user-generated content you receive, but also increase brand loyalty.

You can run giveaways or challenges to encourage customers to participate and share user-generated content on social media.

Domino’s old #PieceofthePieContest is a classic example of how to run challenges to open the floodgates for user-generated content — but you don’t have to offer a $10,000 cash prize.

You can offer exclusive access to new product lines, free merch, discounts, or anything your target audience would appreciate.

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A post shared by Domino's Pizza (@dominos)

Encourage your team members to create user-generated content

Who knows your product better than the people who helped create it? Ask your team members to post authentic content about your product using their own social channels.

Like with your customers, be clear in your expectations and reward teammates for taking out the time to create user-generated content.

The best part about team-driven UGC is that your team members are your best brand advocates — they know the ins and outs of your company and what you stand for.

At Buffer, for example, our teammates often share snippets of how they use the product in their workflow.

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A post shared by kirsti lang | remote work + living cozy (@itsmekirsti)

How to collect and organize user-generated content

It’s easy to keep your UGC library organized when you’re getting only a handful of pieces of content. But what happens when (hopefully!) your UGC library grows — with content from customers, brand ambassadors, teammates, and creators?

The good news: It’s an excellent problem to have. The better news: you can easily solve it by setting up smooth systems to track, organize, and sort user-generated content (UGC).

Ask everyone to submit UGC posts using a form

Set up a form to collect user-generated content using tools like Airtable, Notion, or Typeform for your team members, creators, and brand ambassadors.

You can even ask customers to fill out a form if you’re running a contest. This will allow you to collect all user-generated content in one place rather than having it scattered across social channels.

What about customers freely sharing UGC? You don’t want to make them go through the clunky process of filling out a form, too. Ask them to use a branded hashtag so you can collect all user-generated content easily.

You can take this a step further by using social listening tools to spot content about your brand in the wild.

Set up an integration to store the saved UGC posts in your marketing tools

Integrations can be a lifesaver when it comes to saving time and reducing manual work. For example, if you use Buffer for social media management, you can automatically ensure all the posts submitted via the form show up in your Create space (as post ideas) or drafts.

You can then use tags to spot UGC posts easily in your Buffer account.

When you have all your UGC content automatically collected inside your marketing tool, it’s easier to sort and use!

Seek permission as soon as you tag UGC

As soon as you mark a UGC post, reach out to the original creator and ask if you can use their content on your social channels (and credit them!).

Using someone’s social posts without permission can not only have legal consequences, but also tarnish your brand reputation.

And it isn’t as tedious as it sounds: Using Zapier, you could set up an integration between Buffer, Google Forms (or your form tool of choice), and Gmail (or your preferred email tool).

As soon as you receive a new form response, the integration will automatically create a new idea in your Create space in Buffer.

Here’s how the sequence might look:

1. A customer submits a UGC post via a form.
2. Their submission is automatically added to your Create space as an idea.
3. You tag the idea as "user-generated content."
4. A draft is automatically created in Gmail to ask permission to use the UGC post on your own social media accounts.

How to use UGC in your marketing strategy?

You’ve encouraged your target audience to share brand-centric content. You’ve even set up the systems to organize it. What next?

Use UGC across your marketing content

UGC is great for social integration, but they aren’t limited to it.

You can use UGC content in multiple places within your marketing strategy — such as product pages, company newsletters, content marketing, and even ads.

Add context to your UGC posts

Instead of simply resharing content created by your customers, add more context to it for future buyers.

This could be mentioning the product links your customer is flaunting or explaining “see how ABC customer uses this product” in your landing pages.

Measure the impact of UGC content

If you’re running dedicated UGC campaigns (like branded hashtags, contests, giveaways), measure their performance over influencer marketing and branded content.

If they get better results (more engagement, higher click-through rates), it’s a positive sign to double down on them. If they’re performing below average, you can dissect why — maybe you’re sharing them at the wrong time or need to add more context.

Now you’ve learned the theoretical side of how to integrate UGC into your marketing strategy. But before you dive into the practical aspect, look at how other brands like yours run UGC campaigns successfully.

7 great examples of user-generated content

All types of businesses use UGC to generate buzz about their products and create more authentic content. Here are seven of our favorite examples:

1. Alpenglow

This example is from inside the house! Our staff engineer at Buffer, Andy Yates, worked on an app (among many others) called Alpenglow.

The app allows users to check sunrise and sunset forecasts for the perfect light quality for shooting photos, and in 2021, it went viral on TikTok thanks to a user’s video showing how the app works.

Andy also kindly allowed us to share some statistics about the effectiveness of the UGC through a graph that shows significant spikes around when the user first published the video in July of 2021.

The app also increased monthly recurring revenue (MRR) when the video went viral in July. The graph below shows that revenue rose sharply to just over $1,200 sometime in that month, up from $200 earlier that year.

Since then, over 2,000 user-created videos have been posted on the Alpenglow TikTok hashtag. 🤯

Alpenglow was a side project for Andy, but that one user’s video helped the app grow significantly. So if your business is your main project, UGC has the potential to deliver even more value for your brand.

2. Capable method

Capable Method is an online fitness studio founded by creator Adriana Blanc. In her business’ Instagram account, Blanc often shares client transformations and stories as social proof of how her program changes the health of her customers.

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A post shared by Online Fitness Studio • Mindset-First (@capable_method)

This post alone had over 100+ likes (and a lovely comment from the client herself!). Blanc also frequently shares messages from her clients on her Instagram Stories.

If you’re a founder with a personal brand, share UGC on your own account, too. This will increase their impact and spread the message wider.

3. Casely

Casely is a company that sells phone accessories and covers. They have UGC campaigns sharing authentic customer reviews across their YouTube channel.

It’s worth noting that these review series often get more views on their YouTube channel compared to other types of content. Another example of how social media users interact more positively with authentic UGC posts.

4. GoodRx 

GoodRx is a healthcare company that sells medications via its app and website. They asked their customers to share why they love GoodRx and compiled the video to share on their YouTube channel.

This video got over 50,000 views, and the company also remained authentic by disclosing that they compensated the customers for their appearance.

GoodRx has an impeccable UGC strategy where they also create in-depth case studies on specific customers for their marketing content — showing their impact in the best possible way.

5. Dove

Dove has always been big on customer stories — which makes for A+ UGC content. Take their “Dove hair stories” social media series:

The series is not only educational about their product and its benefits, but it’s also sentimental and relatable for many customers. Each video in this series has at least 10,000 views — with the highest count going over 100,000. 🤯

If your brand is planning a UGC campaign, take a page from Dove’s book and keep it aligned to your brand identity and values — it’ll make the posts much more you, in the best way possible.

6. Fix My Curls

Fix My Curls is a curly hair care brand selling all kinds of products for people with curly hair. They frequently use their Instagram feed to reshare posts from their customers.

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A post shared by Fix My Curls ➰ Curly and Wavy Hair Care (@fiixmycurls)

Fix My Curls always adds its own cheeky Instagram caption to the post and credits the original creator/customer. This allows them to add more details about their products without removing the UGC posts' originality.

7. Aavia

Aavia is a period tracker app with a strong Instagram presence. The company regularly shares Instagram carousels from their community of customers who love the app. (embed post)

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A post shared by Aavia: Period & Cycle Tracker (@aavia.io)

Social proof is an integral part of the company’s Instagram strategy — as is evident by their frequent sharing of customer reviews. I love that they also often resurface these posts by sharing them on their Instagram Stories.

Let your customers do the talking

Once you get the UGC flywheel running, it’s like a shortcut for creating relevant, original content at minimal cost. The important thing is not just having products people would want to rave about, but also offering value to entice your customers to speak up.

And once that happens, you’re golden! Use Buffer to set up not just strong UGC systems, but also a thorough social media management workflow. From scheduling posts, saving UGC, responding to customers, to analyzing posts — we’ve got it all under one roof. Start with a free plan today.