One of the most effective methods to alleviate the pressure of trying to produce an increased amount of high quality content without destroying your budget is to look to your users to create content for you. User generated content (UGC) is content on websites, blogs and social media platforms that is created by the users. Rather than have your team of writers develop the content internally and post it on your website, it is your followers, fans, and website visitors that create some of the content.
Effective User Generated Content Strategies
The truth is that most websites are interested in utilizing user content as a small percentage of their overall content strategy. They want to use it as a way to increase volume without increasing their budget. They want to use it in tandem with the content they regular develop internally.
Here are a number of effective user generated content strategies to create more content for your website:
- Guest blogging: This is one of the most effective ways to get high quality content from your website users. Requesting guest posts from other bloggers or industry professionals in exchange for a backlink to their website will help you develop a list of regular blog contributors.
- Enable comments: Enabling comments gives users the chance to add content and interact with your website. However, this will also likely require a moderator.
- Encourage reviews: Encouraging users to voice their opinions about products, services, news and related topics is a great source of content.
- Create a discussion area: Developing an area for your users to discuss topics that are related to your website will not only generate content, but it is also a great tool for getting to better understand your users concerns, preferences and opinions.
- User profiles: Offering users the option to create a user profile allows them to create content for your site and it also encourages regular interaction with other users that are part of your website community.
Benefits of User Generated Content
- It will increase content level without increasing your budget.
- It keeps your content fresh.
- It can help boost your SEO efforts.
- It increases social engagement and interactivity.
- It can increase website traffic by encouraging repeat visitors.
- It gives you the opportunity to collect data about your users.
- It enriches the overall user experience.
Websites need to be increasingly creative in how they approach content development. User generated content is an effective way to not only fill an increasing need for regular fresh content, it is helps to alleviate the strain on your content marketing budget.