Living in a Mobile and Social Media world: User Generated Content
As a result of fragmented media and the proliferation of marketing messages, marketers have turned to what has now become the now tried and (sometimes) true tactic of user generated content.
UGC has challenged the norms of traditional content and spawned powerhouse sites like YouTube, Wikipedia and Trip Advisor. From a brand marketing perspective there have been some gems, such as the recent Old Spice campaign and the Doritos “Viralocity” campaign (aka name the new chip flavor). UGC campaigns can help achieve many marketing objectives such as:
• Find brand advocates – these are people who are loyal to and champion your brand. They consistently generate brand awareness through word-of-mouth, participate in events, discussions, and influence purchase intent
• Generate trusted referrals – remember consumers are more likely to “like”, “follow”, “check-in”, “become a fan” or endorse a brand because their friend does
• Deepen consumer engagement and establish a two-way dialogue
• Extract consumer insight
• Entertain and provide unique consumer experiences Wither Mobile? Users upload their content (generally video, text, or audio), usually via their desktop or laptop. The first question we ask is “What about mobile?”. Mobile gives your consumers the opportunity to engage anytime and anywhere,in context with how they experience your brand (and most handsets support all relevant content types). Enter consumer spontaneity, instant gratification, and integrated campaigns into your UGC world. There are several methods to activate UGC in the mobile world:
• Interactive Voice Recording: Consumers can record a message that gets played for others to hear – See Rogers “Beg-For-A-Blackberry” campaign • SMS: Consumers can send a message to a shortcode that gets posted to a UGC platform
• MMS: Augmenting the text message, richer forms of media can be delivered (or uploaded) via an MMS shortcode, longcode or as an MMS email – See Malibu Rum “Urban Limbo”
• Email: All smartphones support photo capture and email - See Budweiser Boston Pizza "Biggest Football Fan"
• Downloadable application: A native application launches the camera functionality, and integrates social media APIs (like TwitPic and Facebook Connect) to allow users to upload content - See Ontario Tourism “Discover my Ontario”
A two way conversation Uploading content via mobile is just scratching the surface. We see mobile being used in both directions - for content viewing, voting and commenting. It’s important to ensure your UGC website is optimized for mobile viewing (take the extra time to develop a mobile YouTube channel for video) and that the uploading user interface is compatible with touch screen interactions. Leverage social media site APIs for content liking, fanning and other social hooks. By adding mobile you’ll provide a contextually connected UGC environment that will increase reach, deepen engagement and permit consumers to advocate for your brand 24/7.
Want more insight into the intersection of mobile and social media? Check out the SocialMobile presentation by Vortex’s own Timothy Quinn on Slideshare.
Brady Murphy