Who This Article Is For
- Owners and marketers seeking awareness and trust with less advertising spend
- People strengthening customer relationships and growing a fan base
- People struggling for social media ideas or better engagement
Give Customers Reasons to Share User-Generated Content
Create experiences customers want to discuss, make participation easy, and respond to posts so user-generated content builds trust beyond a single campaign.
Published
Experiences Worth Sharing and Thoughtful Responses Help UGC Grow
UGC does not grow through requests alone. Customers need an experience worth discussing, a prompt to post, and a response afterward. Together, these bring sharing closer to an organic habit. Design reasons customers want to talk before focusing on social media tactics.
Experience Design Separates Brands That Generate UGC From Those That Do Not
Brands with similar social media activity can attract very different levels of customer posting. Follower numbers explain only part of this. What matters greatly is whether the experience gives customers a reason to talk.
Brands that struggle to generate UGC often have:
- Little worth discussing in the product or service
- No clear reason to post
- No response after a customer posts
- Little effort to notice customer voices
Brands that attract posts create moments people want to share: surprise, empathy, discovery, attachment, or a sense of participation.
UGC emerges from experience design across products, service, packaging, and follow-up. People responsible for these touchpoints work alongside the social media team.
Why UGC Can Earn More Trust Than Advertising
UGC attracts interest both because it can spread without advertising spend and because customers may trust it more than company communications during comparison.
Customers Read Other Users' Experiences
Company messages are naturally seen as promotional. They remain useful, but people may need other evidence, particularly for unfamiliar products or services they cannot afford to choose badly.
Persuasive posts include:
- Impressions from actual use
- Reviews with photographs
- Posts showing the product in context
- Comments covering both strengths and concerns
These reflect an everyday user's perspective, helping readers relate the experience to their own lives.
UGC Helps Customers Compare as Well as Discover
UGC can be particularly useful just before purchase. Finding reviews and social posts alongside the official website can reassure someone researching a product.
Its roles include:
| Stage | Role of UGC |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Conversation, sharing, and discovery |
| Comparison | Understanding actual use |
| Just before purchase | Resolving doubts and encouraging a decision |
| After purchase | Connection, participation, and further posts |
This flow helps a brand grow beyond reliance on advertising alone.
Three Elements That Encourage Customers to Post
Organic sharing still benefits from deliberate design. Create a path that makes people want to participate.
Build Shareable Experiences Into Products and Services
Start with an experience worth discussing. A good product may not automatically produce posts; people share when their emotions move.
Possible prompts include:
- Packaging that makes opening the product enjoyable
- A design people want to photograph
- A discovery worth telling someone about
- Room to use the product in a personal way
- A brand story or philosophy people identify with
Look beyond visual appeal. Appearance alone may generate a brief post, while empathy and understanding can encourage more thoughtful commentary.
For small surprises worth discussing, see Designing Surprises Customers Remember. It explores care suited to the person's circumstances without elaborate staging.
Provide Prompts and an Easy Way to Participate
Even a good experience may remain unshared without a prompt. Give customers a gentle invitation.
Useful approaches include:
- Display a clear hashtag
- Show example posts
- Invite feedback in a post-purchase email
- Mention posting in-store or in package inserts
- Create opportunities for participation
Avoid pressure. An atmosphere people want to join encourages more natural participation.
Respond After Posts to Encourage Further Sharing
How a brand treats a post affects what happens next. Silence can end the interaction; a response can encourage the customer to share again.
Simple actions include:
- Liking the post
- Thanking the person in a comment
- Asking permission before featuring it
- Respecting the person who posted
Responses encourage the contributor and show other customers that participation is welcome. Sharing can then spread through a chain of interactions.
Review the Foundations Before Launching a Campaign
A campaign may be tempting, but weak foundations can leave it as a one-off event. Review the basics first.
Ask:
- Is there an experience customers want to share?
- Can posts be found through the brand name or hashtag?
- Is someone responsible for responding?
- Is UGC used on the official website or social accounts?
- Is there a policy for responding to negative posts?
It is especially useful to have somewhere to present the UGC you discover. Reviews, testimonials, and featured social posts on a website can change how trust is conveyed.
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To create a website where customers can discover real experiences and testimonials, give SpreadSite a try!
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About the Author
Thank you for reading! I develop and operate SpreadSite, a service for creating websites from spreadsheets. Please consider it if you need help with a website! SpreadSite
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is UGC collected through requests still useful?
A: Yes. Requests alone are weak, though. A reason to post and a response afterward help participation continue beyond a single occasion.
Q: Can B2B businesses generate UGC?
A: Yes. Case studies, feedback after seminars, staff members' social posts, and event reports can all serve as UGC. They may be less visually dramatic than B2C posts but still build trust.
Q: How should a brand respond to negative posts?
A: Simply ignoring or deleting them can be risky. Establish the facts and respond sincerely. Other users also observe the way you handle criticism.
Q: Can UGC emerge without a campaign?
A: Yes. Sustained sharing often grows from good experiences and identification with the brand. Use campaigns as prompts while building the foundation through experience design.
