4 Great Ways to Leverage User-Generated Content

Great user-generated content (UGC) should not exist in a vacuum—it should be reused, when and where appropriate, to bring color and authenticity to a brand’s marketing.

As brands expand their social-media footprints, many have also (smartly) placed more emphasis on engaging with their fans. As a result, they’ve begun proudly featuring selected consumer contributions in print, TV and online advertising. Dedicated fans often create a gold mine of content that’s just waiting to be explored, and in due course, brands have begun to dip into this resource. It’s the easiest and most direct way to build relationships with customers, because their passion for their favorite brands makes them happy to respond and share their stories—messages that are infinitely more compelling than what the brand might say.

Here are some great ways to use freely made consumer-generated content from social channels to great effect.

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Ten Brands Doing Post-Advertising Right

Ten Brands Doing Post-Advertising Right: Spring Edition

Every once in a while, the editorial team at Post-Advertising is so impressed by a brand’s work that we share it with each other. Just the fact that we enjoyed the content so much that we were compelled to share it with the rest of our team proves that it’s worthy of a post-advertising nod.

But since we’ve focused this blog on topics that educate our readers, we’ve spent less time sharing the great work we’ve found with all of you. Last September we decided to feature 10 brands that impressed us with their content marketing and brand storytelling efforts. But as we see more brands embracing post-advertising, we realized that we should start doing our list more often.

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Media Titan Hearst Joins the Post Advertising Age

Well, well, well. Looks like grand old guard of media's past, Hearst Corporation, has given up the ghost and accepted the new world order. It can be ignored no longer: marketers and brands are fast encroaching on publishing territory as they morph into full-fledged content providers ('Every Company = Media Company'). So, what are cash-strapped media-making giants like Hearst (and others, such as Meredith) to do? Warning: pigs will fly.
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