What is UGC and how to use it for virtual events? 

Meta – The love of your customers that pours through their social media posts, mentions, comments, reviews is user-generated content. 

What is User-Generated Content? 

Any content created by your users that shows their opinion about your brand is user-generated content. Your users can be your customers, clients, or even employees. 

All the content created by these users about your brand and its product or service is termed UGC. You will find UGC everywhere in the online space because people today are more open to sharing their thoughts. It may be an appreciation post of a fashion label by the customer, a Google review of the restaurant, an unboxing video of the latest laptop, etc.

84% of the people who read online reviews trust them as much as they trust a personal recommendation. UGC plays an important role in engaging and influencing the decision-making of people. That’s why event organisers and marketers are using UGC in virtual events as an asset and encashing it with higher conversions. 

You can also collect and use UGC in your virtual events with the help of UGC platforms. 

Top recommended UGC platforms 

Taggbox 

Taggbox is the best UGC platform that brings all forms of user-generated content from 18+ social media platforms to the fingertips of the brands. With its advanced features you can collect, curate, moderate, personalise, and even analyse your UGC wall for your virtual event. 

Stackla 

Stackla is a UGC platform that focuses on visual User Generated Content. You can collect UGC from multiple platforms and present them on a creative social wall for your event. It has AI that gives you indications on which UGC content can work best. 

Pixlee

Pixlee helps users collect visual UGC, reviews, and even influencer content. You can manage the content easily with the robust tool. Pixlee also helps you track the performance of your social wall. 

How to use User-generated Content for virtual events 

UGC is a powerful tool in marketing your event and there are many ways in which you can use it. UGC will make your event’s experience more engaging for your audience. Here is how you can use it: 

1. Create a Social Media wall with UGC 

The most common and easy way to implement UGC is to collect the best user-generated content from social media platforms using an aggregation platform and present them in an interactive social media wall. 

2. Use UGC in marketing your event 

People trust authentic UGC more than the marketing content. UGC can be a key player in promoting your virtual events. Since everything is done online, it’s difficult for people to trust an event host and speaker (unless renowned) and pay for events. 

So, if you are promoting your virtual event, the best thing you can do is use pictures of your past events shared by your attendees. It will boost your virtual event ticket sales. 

3. Run a live contest 

People love the competitive spirit and winning free prizes, so what’s better than running one at your virtual event? Run a contest where your attendees have to share their entries through social media. Then you can aggregate them and present them at your virtual event. The contest and UGC will encourage live participation at your virtual event. 

4. Run social media campaigns 

You can reshare the UGC on your social media pages and create a buzz. Get people curious and interested in your event. You can also get industry influencers in the loop to create more engagement and reach. This will get people involved and anticipate your virtual event. 

What else?

Just like a regular event, a virtual event requires as much attention and engagement from your audience to make it successful. Of all the practices and strategies, leveraging User-Generated Content can be your best bet. 

Go on now, shortlist the tool you deem fit as per your needs and requirements, and aggregate User-Generated Content to increase the overall vibe of your virtual event! 

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Jack Roger is a technical writer. He is passionate about researching meaningful content and also putting it into words, such as innovation, technology, UGC, and digital marketing trends.