Running a business is hard. You have to handle product production, financial records, a full staff, and marketing campaigns. Talk about a lot to juggle. But what if we told you there are new and innovative ways to make your job a little easier?
When marketing a business, the name of the game is content creation. From emails to print media to commercials to social media campaigns, there are a lot of ways to get your name out there. And now there are new and innovative ways to take some of the content creation requirements off your plate. User-generated content creation is the new generation of gorilla marketing. Rather than relying only on the emails, pamphlets, and posts your company releases, start using other platforms and mediums to spread the word about your company.
What is User-Generated Content?
Just to clarify we’re all on the same page, let’s start by answering the obvious question: what is user-generated content? Simply put, user-generated content is all the content about your business that outside sources create. So we’re not talking about the email language your staff carefully calibrated or the well-written advertisement that plays during the Harry Potter marathon on FreeForm. We’re talking about a review of your company that someone shares on Yelp or an Instagram influencer tagging your product in their latest post.
When you create a following of loyal customers, they end up doing some of the work for you. Consumers trust each other. Therefore, they’re more likely to check your product out when it is recommended and endorsed by other consumers like them. Plus, by publishing or encouraging this sort of writing, you make your customers feel like their a part of what you’re building. Collaboration is a powerful tool, and user-generated content provides that level of camaraderie between you and your buyers.
As we dive further into how user-generated content can help grow your business, let’s look at the two biggest ways to engage it: search engine optimization and social media.
Utilizing SEO and Backlinks
Since we’re answering a lot of questions here, how about we define what exactly search engine optimization really is. There are SEO companies throughout the world that help maximize clients’ visibility and site visits by bumping their website up on search rankings. They do so by utilizing blog posts and other writings online to include backlinks to your site’s page.
Continuing with our theme of defining terms, backlinks are simply keywords that hyperlink to your domain. So you can build links that are then written into guest posts and blogs to attract people to click on your site. And the more clicks you collect, the higher your search engine rankings.
And don’t worry, you won’t be making this content on your own. We are discussing user-generated content after all. You work with pros and webmasters who develop6 a link building campaign to really give you a high search engine placement. Sights like Link Laboratory provide link building services to aid with content creation, data analysis, digital marketing, and referral traffic. In fact, they’ve helped create over 10,000 successful, quality links. Studies have proven that the number and quality of your external links directly relate to business traffic. If you’re looking to expand your online marketing, you definitely want to check out an SEO company.
The Social Media Approach
Beyond the behind the scenes approach with SEO link building, you’ll want to employ the biggest networks of this millennium, social media. Now, this can include a lot of different approaches, but the main goal is to have individuals or influencers posting your products for their followers to see. Maybe you start a contest for people to tag your brand in their cool pictures wearing your clothes or maybe you want to start a hashtag that the whole world can engage in.
In general, social media users love to be recognized for good content and to interact with brands. So even a simple “hey I love this photo of you using our product, may we share it?” from your official handle will make them excited that you noticed and happy to have their work spread on a wider platform too. Just be sure to give credit where credit is due! You also may want to share good reviews on your own social media, which then motivates people to post their own reviews in the hope that they may be reposted as well. Finding social media users who actively promote your business is perhaps one of the easiest, most effective user-generated content there is.
