Letter #39: How to get more people to talk about you
A simple tactic for getting your audience to engage with your brand.
Hey hey! 👋
A few years ago, I saw Trello inviting its users to share their Trello work board using the hashtag #WhereITrello on Instagram.
My initial thoughts: wow, so exciting to see how others are using Trello to manage their work!
But a few more thoughts later, I realized this type of UGC was GOLD for the project management software.
Think about it, it’s an excellent way to engage users, increase brand awareness, give people ideas to set up their Trello boards, and even get some new users.
To top it all: it’s getting more people to talk about your brand. Smart, isn’t it? 🤓
But that’s not all! There are so many ways to create more, original content from this.
Example:
A series on how others are using the tool (on the blog or Instagram Stories — even a live show would do)
Deep dive video or text case studies on a few people who are using Trello in an outstanding manner
Including pictures of those posts in blog content and sharing them on social or creating a carousel of use cases (with user permission, of course)
See where I’m going with this?
If you’re managing your company’s social or looking to create original content or getting more of your audience to talk about you, adding UGC to your plan is a solid way to win.
But how can you source the best, most authentic UGC?
Ivonne Aldaz who handles Marketing at TINT, a user-generated content platform has the answer.
I asked her our usual trio of questions:
A mistake that Ivonne made when trying to identify authentic UGC from faux UGC
An actionable tip to get more people to engage with you
And, a secret tip for producing the best UGC
Here’s what she had to say:
👉 Learn from Ivonne’s mistake: Unintentionally or accidentally not giving credit to the user it's due.
“A mistake I once made was not properly tagging a piece of UGC in a newsletter I sent to over 20k people. The lesson? Triple-check your work (including the links).”
👉 Do this today: Incentivize your audience to engage with you.
“You can (and should) give your audience guidance — and add this audience across marketing channels consumers will interact with (i.e. website, social media, in-person activations, etc). It can be as simple as ‘share your photos by tagging #InsertYourHashtag or @BrandName for a chance to be featured on our channels.’”
👉 The secret tip for producing epic UGC: Ask.
“Ask your customers to share content about your brand (and tell them how and where to share it). According to TINT’s State of UGC 2022 report, 60% of consumers want more guidance from brands, so tell your audience what you need from them – even better if you can show them.”
So today’s takeaways:
Always make sure you’re correctly crediting the UGC creator
Incentivize users/customers to talk about you
Show your audience how to talk about your brand
That’s all for today folks.
Have you seen other brands winning at producing UGC? Hit reply and share them with me
Cheers,
Masooma