User generated content (UGC) is increasingly being recognised by savvy digital marketers as vital to helping drive sales via their websites.
Many are coming to the realisation that UGC is a vital part of the jigsaw when it comes to driving visits, time spent on site and sales via their websites.
Recent research reveals 84 per cent of millennials say UGC has influenced what they buy, whilst featuring user generated photos at the point of purchase boosts conversion by up to seven per cent. And with Instagram becoming the second largest social network (emanating from the US), photos and videos are becoming more important and influential than ever before.
The good news for marketers is there’s huge amounts of UGC available to brands across a wide range of social media - the likes of YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Over two billion pieces of content are published by consumers about brands every day. Data from Comscore and others reveal just how influential this ‘UGC gold’ can be, which is fuelling the number of organisations who are starting to capture and use it across their owned media properties.
However, there’s pitfalls for the unwary with all this UGC. US retailer, Duane Reade, got caught up in a lawsuit not long ago when they posted a photo (without permission) on Twitter of actress Katherine Heigl holding two of their bags.
For marketers the question is - how and when can UGC be used within the law?
There are two straightforward ways to gain permission. The first is by obtaining ‘explicit’ permission from the content creator. For example, when marketers run campaigns that are intended to generate UGC, such as a photo contest on Facebook, the terms and conditions usually make it clear that by entering the participant agrees that their submitted content may be used for marketing purposes.
Alternatively, they could do this by obtaining “implicit” permission. This is the case where specific campaign hashtags are used as part of a campaign, for example a photo contest on Instagram, where the hashtag can be announced on the network with a link to the competition rules and associated terms and conditions.
The simple answer is to have clear terms and conditions stating you reserve the right to use UGC created around the promotions you implement.
When should permission be requested?
There will be times when brands will spot ‘killer’ UGC outside of campaigns they have run. It’s these types of scenarios where marketers can come unstuck. The bottom line is brands need to ensure they stay within the law and obtain the appropriate permissions from the content creator. This means they should explicitly ask and request permission to use UGC.
The good thing is consumers usually do give their permission, as they are already spreading positive advocacy about your brand. They should, therefore, be excited about the prospect of featuring in your marketing campaign.
Rights Management in Practice
It makes sense for brands to make the whole process of negotiating the rights minefield as straightforward and as legally buttoned down as possible. The obvious solution is for marketers to source a supplier or platform in this space who can do this.
Ideally it should be a preferred developer for a social media platform, such as Instagram, and one that provides solutions that extend to other popular social networks, including Facebook, Google+, YouTube and Twitter. After all, UGC is created across a raft of social networks.
In fact the supplier should enable marketers to request and track content rights in three different ways.
The first is to manually grant rights if you’ve had offline discussions with a user, for example via email or the telephone.
The second is to manually contact a user providing a special “Claim URL” where they can sign in and grant/deny rights to the chosen content. When a user follows the link they will be asked to sign in with their social network account and then see a list of content that are pending rights (one or more items). They can then grant or deny rights to you on each item.
Finally, have the supplier platform automatically contact the user by tweeting or commenting on their content post with the claim URL displayed. When a user follows the link, they will run through the same steps outlined in the manual process detailed above.
With a rights management system in place it’s possible to harness positive UGC with peace of mind; ensuring interactions and engagement via your social and owned digital channels are maximised. Then it’s simple to setup some feeds around hashtags, comments, accounts, and then curate the best bits and publish out to an array of digital routes. The positive UGC can be collected and used in a variety of different ways, including socialising brand sites, bringing mobile apps to life or showcasing products on in store displays. Just remember to make sure you have well-defined terms and conditions, and outside of that, clear procedures in place to ask permission before diving in and using the magic ingredient to driving sales that is UGC.
By Richard Jones, CEO at EngageSciences.
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