User-generated content, usually shortened to UGC, is content made by customers rather than by the brand. That includes photographs, videos, written reviews, social posts, and questions and answers. The brand did not commission it, did not art-direct it, and does not automatically own it.
UGC arrives in two ways, and the difference matters more than brands expect.
Some of it is submitted. A customer writes a review on the brand's product page, uploads a photo with it, or posts into a brand community. Submission usually happens inside the brand's own terms, which means the permission question is settled at the point of upload.
Some of it is found. A customer posts a photo on social media mentioning the brand. Nothing has been granted here. A public post is not a license, and the platform's terms grant rights to the platform rather than to the brand. Reusing that content requires asking the creator and recording the answer.
What a brand does with it depends on which kind it is. Owned submissions can be displayed, syndicated through the brand's review platform, and used across product pages. Found content needs a rights request first.
Shoppers read other shoppers. In categories decided by word of mouth, a shopper reaching a product page has usually already formed a view from reviews, social posts, and recommendations, and the brand's own copy is the last thing they read rather than the first.
UGC is also the only marketing asset that gets cheaper as the program gets better. A community or rewards program that gives members reasons to contribute produces a continuous supply of content that can run on product pages, in paid media, and on retailer listings, which is where the purchase decision is actually made for a brand selling through retail.
A brand runs a photo mission through its member program. Members submit images of the product in use. Those images, with permission captured at submission, go onto product pages and into paid social. The brand replaces a share of its studio photography with content that performs better because it looks like the people buying it.
Treating a public post as free to use. Reposting a customer photo to a brand account is a lower risk than putting it in a paid advertisement or on a retailer listing, but neither is covered by the customer having posted it publicly. The permission has to be asked for and recorded.
Where TrueLoyal fits: Fan Club™ runs missions, surveys, and polls that give members a reason to contribute, with the brand's own terms agreed when the member accepts the mission rather than chased afterward.
It covers reviews, ratings, photographs, videos, social posts, questions and answers, and forum contributions. That is anything created by a customer rather than by the brand or an agency working for it.
Not without permission. A public post is not a license, and the platform's terms give rights to the platform rather than to brands. Paid use in particular needs explicit consent from the creator, recorded and kept.
Yes, provided the incentive is disclosed and was not conditional on the review being positive. Incentivizing a review is permitted, and paying for a favorable one is not.
They get it by giving customers a reason and an occasion to create it. Review requests after purchase, photo and video missions inside a member program, and community challenges all produce content on a schedule rather than by chance.
A UGC rights request is the act of asking a creator for permission to use content they posted, and capturing their answer in a form the brand can rely on later. It is how found content becomes usable content.
Content rights management is the practice of securing, recording and tracking permission to use content a brand did not create. For user-generated content it answers one question. Can this specific image be used in this specific place, and can the brand prove it?
A rating is a score a customer gives a product, usually out of five stars. A review is the written account that goes with it. Together they are the most consulted form of user-generated content and, for most categories, the single largest influence on whether a shopper buys.
A photo review is a written review with a customer photograph attached. The shopper sees the product as it arrived, in a real home, rather than as it appeared in the brand's studio photography.
Social proof is the tendency to decide based on what other people have already decided. In a store, it is the product with four hundred reviews winning over the one with four. It is a psychological effect rather than a marketing tactic, and reviews, ratings, photographs, and recommendations are the forms it takes.
A brand community is a space where a brand's most engaged customers connect with the brand directly, contribute, and get recognized for it, through missions, challenges, discussions, content, and surveys. It is a different thing from a loyalty program, and the difference matters.
The platform for consumer brands serious about earning loyalty. Rewards to shape behavior. Fan Club™ to nurture your brand's super fans.
