At the end of 2006, Time magazine did what that normally does. They named a Person of the Year. In keeping with the past, the Person of the Year is the person or people who made the “strongest influence” on history in the past year. Sometimes the Person of the Year is a force for good, sometimes not so much (Hitler). In 2006 though, Time did something unexpected. They named you the Person of the Year. Ya, that’s right you. And well, me too. Actually, all of us. All those who contribute to the internet were seen as the strongest influence on history for the year 2006.
But how have you and I had such a strong influence on history? Not just in 2006, but really every year since? It’s called User-Generated Content or UGC. And it’s kind of a big deal
What is UGC?
So what is User-generated content? UGC is any type of content provided by unpaid contributors. There are few important things to address about this definition. Let’s start with the use of the term “user”. This is a hold-over from the software development industry. As marketers we typically don’t like using the word “user” to refer to consumers or customers, as it dehumanizes people a bit. But because UGC platforms like social media and product review sites originated from the software industry, the “user” moniker stuck.
Actually, let’s talk a bit more about how we refer to these people contributing content to us online. One of the concepts in Media Theory that gets a bit of attention is how we refer to people. Media and cultural studies often refer to them as “audiences” or receivers of content. In marketing, we describe these same people as consumers of content. Unfortunately, neither of these perspectives is adequate in this modern age where people can now contribute to the online communities that exist around their favorite products online. Hence, the word “contributors” in the definition.
I should add though, that the idea that we audience/consumers were just passive couch potatoes in the past but now we want to finally be active participants—this is bogus. The reality is, we’ve always been interested in being a part of the creation process. Whether it’s sitting in a live TV studio audience, being a contestant on a game show, or a “star” of reality TV. The difference is now we have the internet and online platforms, which allow all of us to contribute content with widely available and affordable tools (laptops, smartphones). There’s nothing strictly “online” or “digital” about UGC. It’s just now these online or digital tools make it so much easier for users, er audiences, I mean, consumers to contribute.
Finally, these contributors are unpaid. That may be a little confusing sloggers like Casey Neistadt actually make quite a bit of money, he’s making money from advertising on his content deliver platform (Youtube) or video sponsorsBut that doesn’t necessarily mean they are not getting value from it. Don’t forget that there is a certain amount of social currency attached to those upvotes on Reddit, retweets on Twitter, and likes on Facebook.
Feedback vs eWOM
There are two ways to think about UGC:
- What are consumers saying to me?
- What are consumers saying about me?
The first is customer feedback. This is nothing new. It used to be customer comment box with the notecards and little pencils. Now our techniques are a bit more sophisticated, but the underlying concept is the same: Ask your customers for their honest feedback and use that input to improve your products and services.
The second is word-of-mouth, or in this case, electronic word-of-mouth, since it is facilitated by electronic means. But this really isn’t new either. If I tell any one of you—face to face—about a new restaurant and how great it is, this word-of-mouth can be very persuasive and useful to a brand (in this case the restaurant). As with customer feedback, the concept is the same, but the tools have changed. We now have social media, review sites like Yelp, and other platforms we must pay attention to as marketers to ensure we’re aware of what’s being said about us online. When consumers engage with each other and bring brands into their dialog, we call this word-of-mouth. When it’s done online, we call in e-word-of-mouth.
BTW, eWOM is UGC, but not all UGC is eWOM. For example, if a customer sends a direct message to a brand or posts a question to a brand on social media, that’s UGC, but it’s not eWOM.
Not all UGC or eWOM is created the same, however. In fact, there are different levels of involvement that a user can engage in when creating UGC.