Why your business should promote, not discourage user-generated content (UGC)

In the old days, the website guestbook or bulletin board were the only ways users generated content.  These days, with Web 2.0 there are a plethora of tools including blogs, social networking sites, discussion forums, reviews and media sharing which enable users to contribute content. 

The media have been quick to embrace the benefits of user-generated content.  Almost everyone has a phone these days and most support taking photos and videos.   Why hire thousands of roving reporters when you can simply buy (or better still, obtain for free) at the scene footage and images of the latest scoop directly from your readers ?  

However many businesses are too wary about what people might say to embrace user-generated content on their own sites.  Most traditional marketers and business owners are too conservative.  Heaven forbid if your customers put up something that detracts from your brand.  Most people don't see the return on investment of putting their time into filtering out the bad comments.  But as I'll explain, embracing user-generated content can not only strengthen your brand but save your business time.

Regardless of your industry, your customers are your biggest asset.  Afterall, they are the ones buying your product or service.  Ask yourself, would you rather your customers provide constructive feedback and information on a site which you control, or go behind your back and posting negative feedback elsewhere ? 

In fact many big brands have embraced user-generated content in a big way as a key marketing strategy.  When the AFL and NAB ran a competition asking fans to generate their own kick-to-kick videos for Auskick junior football commercials, they not only gained footage for free, but they and they found another way to engage and involve their fans.

Whether the individual bits of content they contribute are negative or positive, the ability for your website users to generate content has a net positive effect - an improvement of your customer relationship.  Your customer's feedback is important to the ongoing development of your products and services, and how they perceive your products and services is equally important to understanding their needs and defining your pitch.

Content on the World Wide Web is king.  It generates your search engine traffic.  More importantly, search engines don't discriminate based on where your content comes from.  Google doesn't care whether an article was written by you or one of your customers.  But you do.  Creating content takes time and money.  Not every business has a full-time writer on hand.  So letting your customers create content is a really good way to reduce your efforts but get the same results.

So what's the simplest way that you can encourage user-generated content ?

Letting users add comments or annotations to your articles, classify content with user-defined tags is probably the easiest way to get started.  There is no harm in trying and you might find that it stimulates conversations and questions you may not have even thought about.