The Key to Online Community Growth: UGC

In 2016, Adweek called user-generated content (UGC) the “next big thing” to drive engagement and sales on social media. Fast forward to today, UGC is the big thing.

UGC is extremely important in bridging the gap between a brand, organization, or business and its target audience. In the case of Born Zillennial, I’ve been fortunate enough to see a lot of UGC in the group; and to no one’s surprise, UGC has been some of the highest performing posts to date.

While there is UGC littered throughout the group, one group trend in particular sticks out against the rest: Halloween costumes.

I posted to the group well before Halloween prompting group members to share their Zillennial Halloween costume ideas as well a share their best costumes from years prior. The comment section was active, but it wasn’t until Halloween approached that the authentic, effective UGC started pouring in.

As you can see below, pre-and post-Halloween engagement in the group is some of the highest we’ve seen aside from the initial engagement from the day I posted that TikTok.

These examples prove how valuable UGC is within communities; it allowed people who put in the effort to shine in the group. It also proves that I should be encouraging more UGC in order to boost engagement.

How can I continue to use UGC in the group?

#BornZillennial

As Born Zillennial continues to evolve, one step I want to take is branching out to other social media platforms. I feel as though the only way to do so successfully is through UGC from group members. For example, I would give members a low commitment task, let’s say, posting a throwback photo of themself that shows how #Zillennial they are, to Instagram with the hashtag #BornZillennial attached. I would like to have the @BornZillennial Instagram running by then and I could share the posts to our own Instagram story, and even share some of them in the form of a post to our feed. Not only does this increase our visibility on other platforms, but we also do so by authentically representing sharing our experiences which, in turn, would allow for a higher chance that others would want to identify with and follow us. Additionally, group members could find each other on other social platforms by searching the hashtag. I’ve already begun this on a smaller scale with the #BornZillennial hashtag on TikTok, which currently boasts 154.5K combined views across 55 videos.

Contests/giveaways

I’m working on “Born Zillennial” merch, per the request of several group members. I plan to give away some of the merch for free to top contributors who can pose in the clothing and share on social.

Video and Podcast

As I continue to grow the group and expand into audio and video formats, I’m definitely going to ask users to participate in the fun. For either format, I plan to ask group members to submit voice recordings or vertical videos for a variety of reasons. They could ask questions to a potential guest I’m interviewing; I may pose a question and ask for their thoughts; etc. I’ve taken the first step here by asking a few of the top contributors and other active members to submit a short video about their experience in the group for my final project video.

Born Zillennial wouldn’t be the group it is today without UGC from group members. Looking ahead, group members sharing UGC will play a key role in our growth.