Despite the loss of its throne, Content is still relevant, though not in the way we envision it to be.
Content has diversified from sole Press Releases of the company/organization to a multitude of types- online webinars, videos, live streaming, interactive content, various influencers and even Press Releases.
Due to the mass use of digital and social media tech, the brand/company/organization is not the sole content creator anymore. Everyone has access to tech -and everyone creates.
As a result, today any digital media user can create content. These content are not only about themselves and their issues but even about what they think of various brands, which brands they will drop and which they would switch to.
This new entrant to content is called as the User Generated Content (UGC).
UGC has become the new King of Content. It has no affiliation with the brand, created independently and voluntarily which results in a host of advantages. The reasons for UGC to become the King of Content are many, but here are the four top reasons.
Firstly, UGC revolves around the user and not the Brand/marketer, who usually rank low on the ‘trusted content’ list. Organization centric messaging is from the Brand, and such messaging ignores concerns of the customers. Content creation and distribution has always been done only by the organization and this clearly led to the loss of trust on organization’s content. UGC changes this by making the customer as the content creator. The content from the customer –positive or negative- is trusted more in comparison to the message of the brand.
“92% of consumers trust recommendations from others, even people they don’t know, over branded content. 70% say that online reviews are their second-most-trusted source..” -(SocialTimes).
Secondly, the Return on Investment (RoI) from UGC is higher. A study by Comscore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world indicated that professionally-produced video content and user-generated product videos are highly synergistic, driving higher levels of sales effectiveness when used in tandem. “User-generated product videos increased Share of Choice by 18.7 point for the featured product” it said.
Thirdly, Authenticity. A study by Cohn & Wolfe found consumers prefer to buy from a brand they consider to be ‘authentic.’ 63% of consumers said they would rather buy from a company they consider to be authentic over a competitor. UGC can reflect the brand’s authenticity in the best manner possible. The importance of authenticity lies not only in its attractiveness to brand loyalty but also as an empowering instrument of conversations.
The 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer Report says:
“Authenticity comes from relatability to your audience, and one way of doing that is by using user generated content (UGC). Aside from the obvious benefit of increased engagement with your consumer base, it also creates conversations between like-minded prospective purchasers. According to Stackla, while consumers are 2.4x more likely to say UGC is most authentic (when compared to brand-created content) marketers are 2.1x more likely to say brand-created content is most authentic in comparison to UGC.” – (The Revoo blog).
Fourthly, the cost effective nature of UGC. Users create and share their content freely at almost zero cost to the brand.
What better form of messaging for the brand than UGC then? And what a better King for content than UGC?
