How Your Business Can Collect User Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is any content such as comments on social media, reviews, images, videos, or testimonials that people, rather than brands, create. Eighty percent of consumers say UGC (photos, reviews, comments) highly impacts purchase decisions — 8.7x more than influencer content and 6.6x more than branded content. As a multi-location business, UGC is a critical component of a robust localized marketing strategy. This article will discuss ways your business can collect UGC and leverage it in your multi-location marketing strategy. Let’s get started!

How to Collect UGC

As mentioned, your business can use different types of UGC in its marketing efforts. Below you’ll find each of the main types of UGC and how your business can collect them. As you’ll see, some of them require more effort than others.

Reviews

As a multi-location business, you should have a plan to generate and respond to reviews. While some reviews may come naturally, it’s essential to make it easy for customers to leave them. From a call-to-action (CTA) to leave a review on your website to follow-up emails that include a review request, there are many ways to generate reviews like this one:

An image showcasing a positive review left for Nekter Juice Bar on Yelp

Once your business has a steady influx of reviews, you can sift through them to find positive reviews. You can then use the best positive reviews as UGC. It’s essential to respond to the reviews and thank the reviewer for their feedback and asking for permission to use the review before promoting it as UGC. For more tips on managing and responding to reviews, download our Multi-Location Marketer’s Guide to Online Reputation Management.

Comments

Positive social media comments about your business can go a long way, especially when quality controlling your social media. Similar to reviews, comments that speak highly of your brand can then be featured as UGC. Many of these comments may already be on social media platforms, but the challenge can be finding them. Social listening tools are a great way to find any mention of your brand on social media. You can then sort through the comments until you find the positive ones. If you’re not finding a lot of mentions of your business on social media, try sharing an engaging social post asking customers to engage with your brand. As you can see, the post from Jersey Mike’s Subs received over 300 comments, many of which are positive and could be turned into UGC.

A screenshot showing an example of an interactive social post and positive comments for a Jersey Mike's Subs location

Photos and Videos

Photos and videos fall under the same category when it comes to UGC. A photo or video highlighting how well one of your products worked or services were is an excellent form of UGC. Your business can find this type of content through reviews and social media. Again, if you’re not finding many photos and videos to leverage as UGC, try requesting users to share their positive experiences through social posts and reviews. In your request, you can add that photos and videos of a consumer’s experience are particularly helpful for your local businesses.

Testimonials

Testimonials are a very impactful form of UGC. A testimonial is when a consumer shares their positive experience with a product or service, explaining how it benefited them. The most powerful testimonials are often in video format. As a multi-location business, it’s unlikely that you would run across a testimonial without asking for one. Instead, you can use positive reviews and comments as a starting point to ask a customer if they would be willing to do a video testimonial.

Tips for Leveraging UGC

Now that you understand how to collect different types of UGC, let’s get into how you can use it throughout your localized marketing efforts. One of the most common ways to leverage UGC is through your social media content. Your business can share positive reviews or comments on social media through your local social media pages. Your multi-location business can also feature UGC on its website. Often, businesses will share positive testimonials and reviews on their website for those already considering your business. Below is an example of some reviews featured on the home page of SOCi’s website.

An image showcasing the reviews on SOCi's website

If your multi-location business has local pages for each business location, consider sharing some UGC on those as well. The more visible you make your UGC, the better! Consumers like to picture themselves with your product or service, and UGC allows them to do so.

Start Dominating Your Localized Marketing Efforts

As you can see, UGC is a vital piece of a cohesive localized marketing strategy. Collecting and sharing UGC across business locations and through multiple outlets can be difficult, but SOCi is here to help! SOCi has all the tools you need to manage your localized marketing efforts across business locations seamlessly. SOCi Reviews allows your local and corporate teams to monitor and respond to reviews on all major reputation and review networks across every business location. This makes it easier to find positive reviews that can work as UGC. Similarly, SOCi Social allows you to see every comment left on your business’ local social pages. SOCi Social also makes it easier for you to create and execute a local social strategy at scale. Request a demo for more insight into how SOCi can help you discover and deploy UGC!