If you’re on TikTok, you’ve probably heard about User-Generated Content, also known as UGC. Simply put, if you have ever purchased a product and posted about it on social media, you created user-generated content. You can user-generated content to create another stream of income for yourself as a content creator. In this post, we will go over what UGC is, why brands love it, and how you can get started.
UGC is exactly what is sounds like, content created in an “organic” way by users or customers. According to Animoto’s Blog it is: “any form of brand-specific content that is created by an audience instead of the brand.”
Statistics show that most consumers trust word of mouth from friends, family, and other customers, which is why influencer marketing is so successful. From a company’s perspective, hiring a creator to create user-generated content is a good investment.
User-generated content is a smart investment for companies, because of many reasons. One being that content created by users seems more organic and relatable. Aside from that, when hiring a content creator, they do not have to hire a model, photographer, or rent a studio. Which makes UGC cost-effective. A third reason is that brands now have content to use in their marketing efforts.
Influencing and creating user-generated content are similar in the way that you as a content creator get paid for creating content. However, they are very different in other aspects. Firstly, when working on UGC content, you are getting paid for the deliverables but not for promoting the product to your audience. In most UGC partnerships, you do not have to post on your own social media. This is good because it allows you to work with more brands and create content for them without seeming inauthentic and saturating your page with ads.
The terms used in the contract also vary. Since you’re essentially selling the content you create, you are giving the company the rights to use the content as they please for a certain period of time, usually “in perpetuity”. When you’re being hired by a brand to promote them on your social media, then usage-rights are negotiated and we recommend to never give rights in perpetuity (forever). But because UGC is different, brands might want to own the content forever.
Chances are you have most likely already created user-generated content, if you have create content around a product you already own. But do you start making money from UGC? The good thing is that you don’t need a big platform to land clients. Because you’re not promoting the product with your audience, the quality of your content is what matters.
The first thing you need to start doing is creating content and building a portfolio. Then you want to pitch yourself to brands and tell them you’re able to create compelling content featuring their products. As usual, it might take some time to start earning from UGC, but it is a viable way to create yet another income stream for yourself.
To learn more about UGC, follow @jessicaelisecreative, @ahmnasocial and @socialsheetcheat on TikTok. They share their story and also a bunch of tips and tricks in the UGC space.
When we talk about UGC at Klaia, we want you to be informed on the best things you can use as a content creator to get ahead. Whether it’s something like this, financially, hearing from other influencers, or simply just being able to keep all your content and business in one area; we just want you to be the best content creator you can be and that starts here.
