The sun was shining, the weather was beautiful, and marketing was in the air. Spring into UGC was the inaugural in-person workshop from Team TINT. We chose the San Antonio Botanical Garden to provide a beautiful backdrop and plenty of source material for our social media scavenger hunt.
The workshop focused on the power of authenticity. User Generated Content is one of the most powerful drivers of engagement and conversion in the modern marketer’s toolkit.
By the Numbers:
- 92% of consumers trust recommendations from others, even people they don’t know, over branded content. (SocialTimes via ExpertVoice)
- 81% of consumers now rely on UGC, including personal recommendations, when forming their purchase decisions. (Deloitte)
- 70% of consumers say that online reviews are their second-most-trusted source next to direct referrals. (SocialTimes via ExpertVoice)
One of the hot topics of Spring into UGC was rights management, legal rights, and terms of service. We talked about Social Media Copyright and examined Brammer v. Violent Hues to consider implications of unauthorized use.
The room was a mix of nonprofits, agencies, and businesses. We explored the many flavors of user generated content. For our friends in internal communications, there is employee generated content. Our friends in the political or advocacy areas will often leverage constituent generated content to support their cause, campaign, or candidate. We have specific use cases for hospitality and tourism around customer generated content. We also touched on fandom generated content (and that blog is coming soon).
To celebrate the “Spring” part of Spring into UGC, we hosted a scavenger hunt. All the attendees were asked to take at least three photos: something edible, something colorful, and something unique. They shared the content through the Botanical Garden hashtag or texted their photos a unique TINT sms number.
When Team TINT designed the Spring into UGC workshop, we know the photos would be great. But we were absolutely blown away by the variety, quality, and quantity that participants created during the 15 minute walk through the garden.
The session reconvened and we talked about ways to utilize the gallery of photos we suddenly had. The most popular suggestions were:
- Display it on screens to drive engagement.
- Embed it on the website to allow visitors to know what to expect from their Garden experience.
- Make it shoppable and incorporate it with the plant sales that the Botanical Garden hosts every month.
- Obtain the rights and reuse the content in print marketing or community advertising.
- Obtain the rights and print it on t-shirts, postcards, or calendars.
Overall, it was a great experience to bring together marketing and communications professionals from around the city (and nearby Austin) to talk about strategy, tactics, and how they can Spring into UGC.
Are you ready to Spring into UGC? Schedule a demo today and discover how TINT can help you leverage the power of user generated content.
