Consumers are connected like never before, enabling brands to engage with their audiences in new innovative ways. Social media have become one of the most important channels to reach target audiences. While the usage and impact of social media have grown, consumers want authentic and original content from real people. This means that marketers need carefully crafted brand assets on social networks to get their message heard. Sharing user generated content has proven to be a successful strategy for cleantech brands.

What is user generated content?

Imagine that you can post content that is generated by real people, showing your brands products on your social media channels. What impact would this make on your target audiences? This is what we call user generated content (UGC). Research have shown that 65% of brands believe UGC is more influential than brand videos and photos. And 85% of consumers find content from people like themselves more influential than brand videos and photos.

What makes user generated content so compelling for both brands and consumers?

1. User generated content shows authenticity

While brands are creating expensive high-quality content, they forget that sometimes a shaky YouTube video can actually convert better than a 50k ad campaign. That’s because for today’s consumers, authenticity is much more important than looking professional. Studies have shown that over 60% of consumers would buy from a company they consider to be authentic over its competitors. And over 40% of millennials rank authenticity above the content itself. With user generated content, your customers can take note of how people use your products and share their passion for the brand.

2. User generated content is cost effective

For most brands it’s cheaper to curate and share hundreds of pieces of user generated content than it is to create one piece of shiny branded content. With user generated content, your customers are creating the assets for you, and bringing in their own audiences as a result. All you have to do is share these assets, with the authors consent.

3. Strategies are easy to implement

It might sound complex to find relevant content for your brand. To get the authors consent and to share it on your brands social media channels. With today’s technology however, it is pretty easy. Tooling like Stackla and TINT make life really easy for todays marketers. For smaller budgets tooling like Tagboard will get the job done. Ad some creative campaigns to the mix and you’ll be rocking UGC in no time.

Final thoughts

User generated content empowers brands in cleantech and sustainability to reach consumers in a fundamentally new way. With the right approach, strategy and supporting technology brands of all sizes can engage customers with a huge sense of authenticity. Feel free to drop us a line if you’re open to explore the power of UCG for your business.