I know this is going to sound a bit ironic but the most effective content that your business can generate is not created by you. And yes, we are saying that in a piece of content that we are generating. We understand the irony but we are undeterred. If we can all get past that for the moment, we’ll tell you why…
We’ve blogged about user generated content before but it is a theme worth revisiting. There’s emerging data that backs up the view that peer-to-peer sharing is way more effective than content that is created and disseminated by your business. In fact, it will produce 7 times higher levels of engagement than is generated by brand driven content thanks to the sense of authenticity and sense of community that this creates. Put simply, your customers are way more likely to believe and engage with posts, stories or reviews that are created by other customers than sales information that is created by you.
If you aren’t leveraging user-generated content, now’s the time to start. You’ll need to develop a framework in which your customers will be happy to share their experiences with your products or services. You’ll need to develop ideas and techniques to encourage them to start sharing too. It really is worth the investment.
We work with a number of companies developing customer engagement strategies. Give us a shout if you need a hand getting your strategy and approach sorted out.