As Sir Jazzy Jeff and Lord William Smith so eloquently wrote many years ago, it is indeed “Summer summer summertime, time to sit back and unwind.” The months are hotter, the days are longer, and your clients are hopefully taking part in some much-needed R&R. They may be hanging out at the pool, touring Europe, or embarking on an epic family road trip, but your customers are using their summer months to create memories – and share their stories with friends and family through social media. Tap into the power of this summertime rise in social media activity by inviting your fans to create user-generated content (UGC) on behalf of your brand!
To help you get started, we compiled a list of our favorite summertime UGC campaign ideas.
Why You Should Always Be Curating User-Generated Content
Simply put, UGC is content created by your brand’s fans and published to their social media account that your brand did not pay for. Your brand could have asked them to create the UGC, or they could have created solely because of their love for your brand; it could be images posted to Instagram, Snapchat snaps taken, or even full-length videos that your fans publish based on your branded request. UGC resonates with your audience in a way that branded content simply can’t match.
UGC Supports All Aspects of Your Marketing Efforts
- More than 86% of businesses utilize some form of UGC in their marketing strategy.
- UGC posts shared to social channels see a 28% higher engagement rate than standard brand posts.
- UGC-based ads get 4x higher click-through rates and a 50% drop in cost-per-click than average.
- UGC videos get 10x more views on YouTube than content created by brands.
Your audience wants to see other everyday humans interacting with and passing acceptance onto your brand. User-generated content bolsters current and potential customers’ faith that your brand delivers on the promises you make in your other marketing messages.
Summertime UGC Contest Ideas
If they’re like us, your fans have summer on the brain. Want your fans to participate in your UGC efforts? Put a Summer spin on your UGC contests!
Snap Some Sun
Almost all of us turn into sun worshippers in the summer months. Whether your brand is in the fashion, food and beverage, or electronic space, you can encourage your fans to snap pictures and selfies of themselves enjoying your product in the warm summertime sun. Smiling faces, bathed in sunlight, using your product communicates to your audience that adding your product or brand to their own summertime activities will take them to the next level.
As a best practice, you’ll want to ensure you provide guidelines or rules outlining how a fan can easily participate in your UGC efforts. To that end, we recommend structuring these types of picture requests as an Instagram contest (managed through SocialToaster of course). Simply choose a branded hashtag that your fans can use to tag their images and SocialToaster will automatically pull those tagged images into your Pic Wall. There, you can moderate and approve content, as well as easily select a UGC contest winner.
Favorite Summertime Moments
Looking for a bit more meat from your UGC efforts? Consider asking your fans to share a written account of their favorite summertime moment. While you shouldn’t expect all of your fans to write full-length blog posts or memoirs of their summertime activities, many fans will feel comfortable composing a social media comment or Tweet to share their story.
To that end, we recommend utilizing a Facebook post comment string or a Twitter thread to capture these UGC posts. Use a branded hashtag on Twitter to allow people to further discover and contribute to this conversation. At the end of the campaign, publish a recap blog post or create a video that highlights the top contributions.
Appeal To The Adventurer In All Of Us
The truth is, not all customers are able to feed their travel bug. Limited financial resources, vacation time, and family obligations can put a damper on travel options for most of your clientele. But, that doesn’t mean they can’t live vicariously through other people’s adventures! By cultivating a thoughtful UGC solicitation effort, you can capture the travel stories and images of your actively traveling customers to share with fans who can’t get out this summer.
Encourage your fans to chronicle their summer travels. Ask them to take images and videos of epic sunsets, beautiful vistas, delicious foods, and good times in general. Then share those images with your social media following. You’ll provide inspiration for daydreams, wish lists, and last-minute travel jaunts that forge an emotional connection between the adventure your fans are seeking and your brand.
Get Started: UGC Contest Best Practices
Ready to kickstart your summer-centric UGC campaigns? You don’t have to answer; we know you are! Before you jump in, here are some best practices to help you make the most of your UGC-generating efforts.
Tie In A Relevant Summertime Incentive
A little sugar can go a long way towards encouraging fans to contribute their user-generated content to your social conversations. Your incentive doesn’t have to be expensive, but it should tie into the summer season in some form or fashion.
Thank Your Participants Publicly
A quick thank-you goes a long way to maintaining a brand/consumer relationship, especially when the consumer has gone out of their way. Show your gratitude and appreciation to fans that take time out of their vacation to create content for you.
Use A Platform To Manage Your UGC Solicitation Efforts
No one has the time to sift through thousands of social media posts to curate and moderate UGC. Use a tool or dedicated platform that takes the leg work out of managing your UGC efforts. SocialToaster has an extensive array of features dedicated to enabling brands to easily manage user-generated content requests and collection.
Leverage Your UGC To Enhance Your Other Advertising Efforts
Don’t silo UGC to reposts and retweets. Take the content your fans are generating and incorporate it into your other advertising efforts! Their content can be used to reinforce and enhance your entire marketing strategy, regardless of your media mix. There are a variety of ways to blend UGC with creative from your current out-of-home, radio, television, print, or other paid media endeavors.
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Summertime is here! Now’s the perfect time to build a library of UGC by leveraging the full content-creating power of your sun-soaked fans and followers. Ready to start your summertime user-generated content efforts? Schedule a free demo with SocialToaster today and get started!