Today’s lesson task is to dive into Instagram and find brands that use UGC, also known as user-generated content, and by finding a good example to analyze and understand how using UGC helps businesses, how it makes brands feel more authentic, and how it interests people to follow the business.
So, after some time searching for brands and looking up many, I chose BikBok, a women’s fashion clothing brand. Before I dive into that, I just want to share that many my looked up brands haven’t been sharing any UGC what actually made me surprised. The most popular and well-known hobby shop Panduro, could indeed share their users’ experiences and see how some of their products work, which I think would be a great promotion for the brand. Also, ClasOhlson, who has a wide variety of tools, electronics, and home appliances, could share their user’s content. Anyway, their original content is more than great, I am using them as examples just from my point of view. And now, about the BikBok.
Here You can see the screenshot I took of one of the large amount of posts which was made by @johannapiispa. Well-made candid picture of a beautiful woman wearing BikBok’s jacket, a great way of seeing how a jacket might look in natural light, how it looks on a woman in a particularly styled outfit. But coming back to UGC, how does sharing this user-generated content make the brand appear more authentic? Inclusion. Including people, who are not particularly models, influencers, famous people, etc. makes users feel on the same level and acknowledged. And hey, everyone wants to be acknowledged. So in my opinion, the psychology here is by making users feel included in the brand life, they get a chance to pop up on their favorite brand’s social media profile and to be seen. Of this, other social media users might follow the brand because they feel welcome in the community, belonging, and included in the brand’s life. In essence, leveraging authentic user-generated content enables brands to authentically engage with consumers, build trust, and drive growth in an increasingly competitive market.
Source used: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/03/13/why-user-generated-content-is-winning/
Idilija's reflective journal 