Brief #119: Word-of-mouth is your greatest asset ❤️

Welcome to Future of Marketing.

Every other week, we send you the most relevant trends, resources, and strategies in social and user-generated content (UGC) from leading marketers and brands around the globe.

Today, we're breaking down how different industries repurpose UGC. Special shoutout to our #BrandCrush: Lafayette Hotels. 💘

Smarter marketing starts with UGC

Social media changes faster than the speed of light.

When you're finally done planning or creating content, a social platform releases a new feature or updates its algorithm, someone starts a new trend, or the world catches on fire.

It's hard to keep up.

On the ✨ bright ✨ side...

There are things marketers can do to become more efficient – like focus on UGC and distribution.

For example, instead of creating content from scratch, capture (and re-share) real, authentic experiences from your customers – reviews, testimonials, photos, videos, and so on.

Need inspiration? Sometimes it helps to look beyond your industry...

Sports fans take pictures at games

Re-share user-generated content (UGC) from your events across digital screens to create more excitement.

Beauty fans share product recommendations

Display testimonials across product pages to increase conversions and show your brand in action.

Travelers capture stunning content – the airport, their hotel stay, the breathtaking scenery they're surrounded by.

Launch a contest to capture the best content (like Lafayette Hotels did below). Then, replace stock images with UGC to tell a better, more authentic story.

You get the point.

Capturing these moments can be simple as asking or updating some of your CTAs with:

“Tag your experience with #YourHashtag
for a chance to win or be featured”

Other times, you'll need stronger incentives to encourage participation (i.e. free products or discounts).

Two tips 📖

Sixty percent (60%) of consumers wish brands would tell them what content to create.

Create a hashtag and guide your fans to tag it by adding it to your social media bio, web footer, packaging, event screens, signage, and anywhere else your audience may interact with. The beauty of a hashtag is that it keeps content in one place. 🤌
If you want high-quality UGC, be specific with your ask (i.e. for an airline that can be, “share a video of your view from the sky”). Even better if you can show fans what you're looking for by creating a few examples in-house (or by collaborating with a creator).