Social Media Strategies - How to Encourage User Generated Content

Work smarter not harder – through clever Social Media strategies, you can encourage your visitors to provide content for networking sites.

The premise behind Social Media strategies is to encourage real-time interaction and bridge the distance between the company and the consumer. Through encouraging user generated content (UGC), you can start having a conversation with your fans and followers, connect with them one-on-one and develop a strong community. Content may be king but there is no hard and fast rule that says you need to solely create it.

What is user generated content exactly in Social Media strategies?

User generated content is simply material that is produced by people who are fans or followers of your Social Media accounts. This content may include comments, videos and images, guest blog posts, surveys, feedback or forum discussions. There are Social Media networks such as video hosting sites like YouTube and image sharing sites such as Picasa that rely solely on UGC.

Different types of user generated content include:

• opening up comments for Social Media sites such as video hosting communities and blogs
• asking industry experts to provide guest posts
• creating surveys for people to respond to
• asking for feedback or reviews on products
• allowing people to upload their own images or videos (works well for tourism Social Media sites)
• posting on forums and discussion boards.

Ways to encourage user generated content in Social Media strategies

Post more, post often

People will be more confident to post on your Social Media sites if they can see that someone is actively monitoring the account and it is continually and regularly being updated. You may find for a few months that you are talking to yourself but your efforts will be rewarded. You cannot expect people to visit your social networking accounts and just start commenting – you need to put in the hard yards first.

Respond, respond, respond

People will feel more encouraged to post if they see someone is vigorously and enthusiastically responding to posts such as comments, questions, criticisms or feedback. Social Media is all about real-time interaction. If they see that comments have not been responded to for days, they may be less likely to post. Set up alerts for each account to be immediately informed if someone posts on your Social Media accounts.

Make it easy

Remove barriers to people responding to your content. Social Media sites such as Facebook or Twitter for example are designed so that people can respond to your posts quite easily; but people may not respond to a blog post (for example) if there is a confusing registration process. With LinkedIn, by making your groups open and not closed, this simple set up will facilitate more engagement and interaction.

Acknowledge or reward

Always thank people who come back to your site and provide user generated content or have left positive feedback. This can be done by simply acknowledging their content, sharing it on other sites or even providing them with a present or discount on your products or services. These fans are only encouraged to keep on posting on your accounts but also tell other people of their favourable experience with your company.

Cultivate your community

Growing communities as part of your key Social Media strategies takes time to develop. Keep on adding interesting content that is worth responding to such as insider tips and tricks, industry surveys, links to news items or quirky facts. Don’t be afraid to be controversial at times and incite discussion. Keep on seeding your Social Media accounts with content that demands attention and engagement will follow.

By encouraging user generated content and putting site promotion in the hands of your followers, it will take the pressure of your team to constantly try and find new and interesting material for your social networking sites and allow your fans to shape and grow your own community. This will let you to focus on your Social Media strategies and continually expand your Social Media activities.

Here at Social Media Works, our focus is on assisting you to develop the best social media strategy in conjunction with a tactical social media plan to implement your strategy. Whether you are seeking custom social media consultant services or one of our social media marketing packages, the team at Social Media Works has the experience, expertise and innovative solutions to drive your social media presence and maxmise your Return On Investment (ROI).

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