Crowd Sourcing User Generated Content

     These days user generated content (UGC) is the cream of the crop of online marketing content, and why not?  Lets see, UGC is free, its frequently positive, provides a bump to your SEO, and is usually based around online environments that thrive of a world of  cyclical  and mutual feedback.  I mean look at YouTube for example - a site that exists essentially ony because users create their own content. 

     Under Armour's Whats Beautiful blog is a great example of how just providing a platform for users to report and publish content can be a powerful source of first hand, real time feedback - something invalubale to a marketer.  UA's blog not only serves to help generate user content, it increases the ways in which potential customers can interact with brand in a more organic way than in the past. 

But what is the best SOP for marketers to develop a platform or network to help users better share content?  Well here is no real answer to this - the best advice I give some of my clients is that you have to "field of dreams," your online content environments - if you build it they will come.  That doesn't mean don't mean do it without foresight - in fact research is the best way to build an environment that suits your users. 

     For a recent client - a toy company - we have developed (albeit painstakingly) a database of people that are influences in the world of blogs, websites and online content creators with categories that overlap with the demo and interests of our end users.  We then used email software to invite these people to join our top secret "T--T-- Network."  The pitch being that in exchange for access to our marketing support and products we ask that the influences review the products and generate content for their respective sites.  We had a surprising rate of opt-in - and now have begun to use the relationships we have developed to partner with the network in new ways such as co-sponsoring blogs or inviting guest bloggers to write for us. 

      The net effect has been profound in that it has allowed us to capitalize on the multiplier effect that UGC can have on generating traffic to your site and raising the profile of your brand, cause or product.  By creating a sense of community through inviting these people into a Network of other people of like minds and interests we have also begun to create for ourselves an identity of what it means to be a part of the Network in a truly organic way.  It has also allowed us to use this network as an effective tool to crowd source information on our products that allows us to guide the content in a way that is consistent with our brand and message.