5 Ways to Transform Your Business with User Generated Content

Let's face it, if you haven't started harnessing the power of user generated content for your business, then it's about time you hop on this marketing movement as it takes off! After being named as one of the biggest ecommerce trends of 2016, big-name brands and small businesses alike are beginning to use their biggest fans to spread the word about their products.
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Let's face it, if you haven't started harnessing the power of user generated content for your business, then it's about time you hop on this marketing movement as it takes off! After being named as one of the biggest ecommerce trends of 2016, big-name brands and small businesses alike are beginning to use their biggest fans to spread the word about their products.

Whether you're just getting started or looking for a helping hand, here are 5 ways to transform your business with user generated content.

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1. Customer Reviews

If you're like the vast majority of people, you head to your friends and family first when you're looking to make a purchase. Word-of-mouth recommendation is essential to establishing a well-loved brand, and we tend to believe other consumers more than marketing from the company itself.

By using an app like Stamped.io to allow your customers to leave online reviews, you'll quickly increase the trust in your business and collect a variety of glowing recommendations to post on your website. Stamped.io even allows you to personalize your review request e-mails, making it far more likely your happy customers will let you know what they thought of their purchase.

2. Blogs

Everyone from teenagers to grandmothers seem to have a blog these days, which means blog posts are a great source of user generated content. You can either do a search for bloggers who are already mentioning your products and ask them if you can team up, or you can encourage new bloggers to try out your product in exchange for posting an article on it. Blogs are great if your product needs a bit more than 140 characters to explain or review, or if you're looking for a more detailed review than most people tend to leave on social media.

3. Social Media

Social media is an obvious source of user generated content, but take a second and think about whether you really use it to your advantage? It's more than a place for pictures of the latest Pokémon you caught. It's very simple to do a search on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to find out where your customers are talking about your product. Once you've found them, easily retweet or share their thoughts on your business on your business page.

Social media is also a great platform to share your online reviews. Stamped.io has a super simple setting that allows you to automatically push your customer's reviews to your social media page as well, so you have double the exposure with no added effort.

4. Videos

On YouTube, there is an entire community of 'vloggers' that have hundreds of thousands of followers they influence with their thoughts on products of all categories. If you've got a physical product to sell, send some freebies to a vlogger to open on camera and try it out on-screen. As long as you ensure your product is quality, you'll get an in-depth customer review singing your praises. Watching someone your audience trusts speak about the benefits of your product is an essential way to ramp up the love for your brand.

5. Message boards

Message boards are alive and well on the internet in 2016, and it's not difficult to find your way to a group of people discussing any topic under the sun. You can find forums with particular audiences, like parents or students, or you can search for location-specific boards. The popular forum Reddit has hundreds of 'subreddits' or niche forums for even the most obscure causes.

To use message boards to your advantage, have your staff create company accounts to begin interacting with other members in a genuine and helpful way. This will create relationships and allow you to talk directly to your biggest fans or future audience.

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