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written in collaboration with Sr Client Strategist, Sean Orth, who details how to repurpose your tagged library of UGC using LoudCrowd micro-influencers tool
Imagine, seeing a perfectly placed and beautifully photographed Micheal Kors watch sitting among macarons… The caption read “Pampered in Paris…”. The illusion that wearing Micheal Kors could transport you to this quaint Parisian cafe. This was the first Instagram ad. Back then, people hadn’t even talked about UGC or micro-influencers marketing. At the time, Micheal Kors had increased revenue 57% from the quarter before. They were everywhere and a Micheal Kors watch was a fashion staple with its popularity coming from Instagram’s images.
READ: 3 Ways to Get More UGC
As we can see, Facebook was positioning acquired Instagram as a discovery-based platform, built on paid ads. However, this road to monetization had already been built by innovators. Whether micro-influencers are taking advantage of a free tool to build a brand or brands are paying creators to promote their products, it’s the innovators who saw exponential growth with minimal investment in the first few years of Instagram.
Paying for an Instagram ad was not a risk – they had already proven themselves viral, but had not been used to that kind of ad spend budget before. Marketing had to shift funds with the understanding that this was an unproven tactic and most people would be angry to see ads at all. Furthermore, there were no benchmarks or expected ROI numbers.
Now, it is said that by 2023, Instagram will reach $40 billion in ad spending. Nowadays advertisement is expected everywhere, so people have learned how to “ignore” the in-feed ads. To handle this case, Instagram created new ways to better place commercials, like Stories, Reels, or InstagramTV.
With each new feature come the micro-influencers marketing pioneers, who want to be the first to try it out, get in front of people in new technology, and benefit greatly from being on top of the latest micro-influencers marketing trends.
Advertising is like the perfume you get used to – you have to change it to sense the smell. Otherwise, your brains adapt and ignore it. Some marketers have even tried to use old-school techniques, such as classic direct mail, just to change things up. Since our target market learns how to ignore one type of ad, we must adapt and show them the next new one. Micro-influencers marketing must continuously evolve to keep the same results.
Social media is still the dominant advertising platform. It’s visual, it’s engaging, and it’s powered by the most addictive social technology we’ve ever seen. Millions of people freely share content to power the largest ad platform in the world.
Micro-influencers and regular users are posting digital materials every minute of every day. You can just enter this user-generated content, or UGC. Customers are tagging grocery stores in recipe story posts, mentioning a brand while unwrapping a new gift on Instagram Reels, sharing their favorite brands across TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms. UGC is today’s greatest, yet least strategized, free content marketing library.
DYK: LoudCrowd allows you to view and download high-resolution Instagram and TikTok tagged content.
Content creation is no easy task! From concept to implementing, then the perfect caption – it can take a team to create a true library, suitable for your brand. Just imagine if you could utilize all that free UGC tools – all those posts from across social, where creators have done all the work. Let your micro-influencers customers create the perfect post… All you have to do is give a shoutout, send a social reward or discount code, it’s that easy. Did you know that customers who have been rewarded for their posts tend to post about your brand 7x more?
So, are you interested in UGC now?
In our latest strategy article, we discuss how to repurpose the huge library of free content that your brand has been tagged with. Start with checking out your UGC library under the ‘Tags’ section of Instagram. It’s not the complete library, but it will give you a good overview of what you can use.
How to repurpose your UGC to leverage from micro-influencers’ content
You launched your Instagram ambassador program, brand ambassadors are signing up, and you’re getting a new UGC every day… Now what? You can use UGC in several different ways to enhance your brand’s content strategy, just follow the plan below.
1. Re-share micro-influencers’ content in Your Own Feed
Resharing UGC on your own page is the simplest way to repurpose it. Reposted story or in-feed post is a great way to enrich your content pillars and increase engagement rate. Here are a few ways you can package your own content as UGC:
- This/That story polls
- Weekly roundups
- Product highlights
- Program reminders (be sure to include a story link or link in bio)
In addition to resharing on your feed, you can also turn your favorite pieces of UGC into boosted posts on Instagram. The easiest way to share promoted content is to use Facebook Ads Manager and start a campaign. You can also boost content that you’ve already shared in your feed directly from the post.
Every audience will react differently, but there’s no doubt that UGC can outperform professional imagery in both organic and paid posts. By the way, when you choose to re-share your community’s UGC, don’t forget to tag or mention creators to give them a credit.
2. Include UGC in Drip Campaigns
UGC is a perfect tool for your email drip campaigns. If you want to highlight a specific product or line, it’s easy to pull from your content library and include your best UGC as a featured image. Create a content label and add any UGC featuring those products to the label. From here you can favorite pieces of content when drafting the email. Don’t forget to add a link to apply to your brand ambassador program!
3. Feature micro influencers’ content on your Website
Your content library on LoudCrowd should be the first place you look when trying to source website illustrations. You can download high-resolution images and videos directly from the LoudCrowd platform, making it easy to liven up your website pages.
Your brand ambassadors are free to use their UGC as marketing collateral for your brand. If you want to use content from a customer who hasn’t joined the brand ambassador program yet, ask them for permission and tag their post as “Permission Granted“ once you get their approval.
Remember, a content library is a helpful resource of images and videos that works for your brand, to educate, entertain and persuade your audience to act. At the same time, UGC helps to build trust and the two-way relationship, so that benefits both brand and customer. Now, go ahead and leverage UGC – one of the most powerful micro-influencers marketing tools – and make your brand more rewarded, increase customer loyalty and save a lot of money without much effort!
