Let me give you few examples of User-generated content which you have encounter everyday.
- Reviews
- Instagram/Facebook/Whatsapp stories uploaded by users (and not your business)
- Instagram/Whatsapp/Facebook posts in either a particular persons wall/profile or in any community (Facebook group)
The applications we access through digital devices, e.g., Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, etc., do not really exist in real life. Do you know of a real physical space called Facebook?
No, right?
Yet, these digital worlds shape how we think/percieve various entities (including businesses and individuals).
Let me give you an example
A woman in her 40’s working in the Indian IT sector is looking to get a head massage. What would be her immediate next step? Either open an aggregator platform like Urban Company to book an appointment, or perform a Google search/chatGPT search. What would she search – “head massage near me”.
The results provided by Google/ChatGPT lists various beauty parlours located within a close radius where the woman (let us call her Shikha) is based out of.
An important question to ask – how is Google/ChatGPT ranking/choosing which Beauty parlours to show and in which order?
The short answer? The algorithm is performing a complex calculation based on multiple factors to grade which parlours would best suit for Shikha’s head message. There is no easy way to manipulate this highly sophisticated algorithm. Yet, there are few things which get more priority in the algorthm selecting few parlours above the others.
User Generated Content or UGC is one such type of factor
That’s the acronym which is popular among marketers. It is vastly different from the content that you are yourself producing as a business. That is content creation you are doing on your own.
Before I explain how you should create a UGC strategy as a business, (becasue this is something you cannot produce as a business, it is something users of your business has to produce, yet you can create a strategy that can influence users to create such content for your business.) let me take the next few lines to explain how this UCG can tilt search results in your businesses favour.
I will go back to the example for Shikha. There is a high chance algorithms of Google and ChatGPT already know few things about her. Namely,
- Where is she located?
- What is the amount of money she usually feels comfortable spending on a head message?
- Friends and family connected with Shikha on various platforms
We underestimate how much the algorithm knows about us and overestimate how good our business is
If, by any chance few of Shikha’s friends have gone to a particular parlour for head message and posted few good reviews about it, chances that Shikha will get that particualr parlour when she is searching for Head message near me, increases manifold. Why you may ask? Because the algorithm is able to triangulate users such as Shikha had visited such parlours and were happy with their service. There’s a high probability, Shikha may also like her experience if she visits the same parlour.
Instead of a review, if people Shikha knows have created reels about a specific parlour and shared their positive experiences, the algorithm gives those reels significant weight when showing Shikha results for “head massage near me”.
Algorithms recommend businesses more when multiple users write good things about your business and/or recommend your business to their peers on platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Google Reviews.
If you have been able to follow me till now, let me ask you this question.
Suppose you offer a head massage service, but none of your Google Reviews or Facebook/Instagram posts mention head massage. Instead, all the content about your parlour focuses on haircuts, hair color, and other services. How would the algorithm know if you have been providing good Head Messages to your client?
There is absolutely no content in the digital world that specifies your parlour provides great head messages. In such situations, other parlours may have an advantage when someone searches for “head massage near me,” even though you provide exceptionally good head massages.
Above is the reason why User generated content matters extremely when it comes to getting business and revenue through Google and ChatGPT. If these big technology algorithms need to triangulate the demand to the supply (the demand being “Head Message Near Me”) and supply being all parlours in a close vicinity offerring this service, as a business you have to ensure you have enough people talking about your business for fulfilling the ‘demand’ previously.
How do you do that? By nudging users of your business create content on your behalf, because they are extremely happy customers.
The more data points algorithms have about your business that match customer demand, the more likely they are to recommend your business.
I hope I was able to explain why User-Generated Content is such an important mechanism for getting your business recommended in a post-AI digital world. In the next article, I’ll dive deeper into the various platforms where customers can publish User-Generated Content and share a strategy for building your own UGC game.
Remember, you can’t control UGC. It results from the exceptional service you provide and the relationships you build with your customers. Until next time, focus on the operational work that turns customers into fans of your business. Those fans can then create more User-Generated Content about your business.