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IT Metrics to analyze and track user engagement with UGC
In This Article
We all know by now that user-generated content is a terrific way to strengthen relationship with your customers. While it can be incredibly powerful for various reasons, you need to utilize some KPI’s to determine just how powerful the content produced by UGC contributors is.
In this post, we’ll discuss user engagement metrics to help you understand your return on investment on UGC campaigns. Let’s dive in.
Evaluating engagement in UGC campaigns
User-generated content is an effective tool for building a vibrant and interactive community. By encouraging users to share their experiences or opinions, brands can create a feeling of belonging and collaboration in the community.
In these communities, UGC acts as a catalyst for engagement, sparking conversations and amplifying brand advocacy. To maximize this potential, it’s important to track and evaluate community engagement properly.
- Rate of engagement: This includes likes, comments, shares, and reactions to UGC posts
- Performance of hashtags: The number of posts generated from a campaign-specific hashtags
- Growth of community: The increase or decrease in the number of followers, members, or participants during and after the campaign
- Sentiment analysis: Checking the tone of the content users produce (negative, positive, or neutral)
Example: LEGO: Ideas for LEGO.
Fans of LEGO were encouraged to construct a unique creation and garner public support on the LEGO Ideas website. If the inventor received 10,000 supporters, the LEGO board would decide whether to make it an official LEGO product that could be sold globally.
This advertising has a lot of wonderful aspects, showing how creatively people may use LEGO items. The participants would advertise the idea (and LEGO) online to garner support, broadening the audience base and raising brand awareness.
Allowing voters to select an idea also showed what customers desired to see in the stores. By transforming consumer suggestions into a real line of retail goods, this campaign elevated user-generated content to a new level.
UGC in ad campaigns
UGC has emerged as a potent weapon in advertising efforts because it provides reliability and authenticity that traditional advertisements frequently lack. Brands may demonstrate
- authentic customer experiences,
- Real perspectives,
- and invite prospective customers
to interact with their goods or services by including UGC into their ads. Customer reviews, unboxing videos, and creative posts are examples of user-generated content (UGC) that strengthen the emotional bond with audience and increase the impact and engagement of advertisements.
- Click-through rate (CTR): The number of people who click on your UGC-based ads
- Rate of conversion: The number of people who take the intended action after viewing the UGC ad
- Mentions and Hashtags: Track the usage of branded hashtags and mentions of your brand across platforms
UGC for social media campaigns
By incorporating user-generated content (UGC) into your social media strategy, you can take advantage of your community’s creativity and experiences. This will boost brand engagement, reach, and trust.
Brands can display content that feels more authentic and less promotional by encouraging users to submit their experiences, reviews, images, or videos. KPI’s to look at here :
- Reach of post: The number of unique users interacting who see the UGC post
- Rate of sharing: The percentage of total shares that result in engagement for UGC posts as compared to the sharing rate of non-UGC posts The number of times UGC is shared compared to the total number of engagements with other non-UGC posts
- Growth rate of followers: The number of followers increased due to the campaign
Example: Starbucks #WhiteCupContest
Starbucks, for example, left no stone unturned with their #WhiteCupContest. Starbucks used the hashtag #WhiteCupContest to encourage users to adorn their coffee cups. Customers could have their designs printed on reusable cups and enter to win a $300 gift card in exchange.
The campaign’s outcome? Starbucks’ organic reach and brand visibility were enhanced by a plethora of aesthetically pleasing social media posts that were widely shared. The campaign also increased awareness of the company’s reusable, environmentally friendly cups.
Tracking UGC for website performance
By offering new, genuine content that increases engagement, credibility, and search engine visibility, UGC can dramatically improve website performance. Including UGC on your website, such as product images, testimonials, customer reviews, or community forums, promotes engagement, and fosters trust with prospective buyers.
Because UGC frequently contains keywords and phrases that raise search ranks and enhance website performance overall, it not only boosts user engagement but also aids SEO efforts.
- Rate of conversion: The number of website visitors who make a purchase after engaging with UGC on product pages
- Time on page: The amount of time users spend on a page embedded with UGC
- Bounce rate: The amount of time users exit the page without interaction
- SEO impact: The change in the page ranking on Google search results due to UGC.
Example: Lulus Fan Photos
An excellent illustration of how UGC on the company website encourages conversion is Lulus Fan Photos. The women’s clothing brand Lulus includes fan-sourced images and product information on each product page. UGC of this kind goes beyond simple reviews.
Users can contribute their photo reviews, indicating their body type and size, as seen in the image below, so that others can see how the clothing might appear on them. How did it help? By showing how actual people—including the customers’ contacts—use the items, UGC integration into product pages enables customers to relate to the brand on a personal level, therefore increasing rates of conversion and their time on page.
Measuring UGC for product launch campaigns
Brands can build trust and authenticity with the target audience by encouraging customers to submit their reviews, unboxing stories, and initial impressions of the new product. Because people naturally share their experiences with friends and followers, UGC can increase the reach of product launch campaigns and generate organic word-of-mouth marketing that supports conventional advertising efforts.
- Pre-launch engagement: The number of shares, comments, and impressions of pre-launch posts.
- Sales velocity: The speed of sales in the first week after the product launch, influenced by UGC which can be measured by providing unique promo codes or URLs to influencers or users generating content. This will attribute the sales directly to UGC.
- Customer feedback: The quantity and quality of product-specific UGC reviews, encompassing all user-generated feedback post-launch. UGC reviews of unboxing posts.
- Hashtag usage: The number of posts using your product-specific hashtag.
Example: Apple’s #ShotoniPhone campaign
In an effort to promote the new iPhone 6s camera, Apple asked iPhone owners to submit their finest images. Users were encouraged to post their finest iPhone photos on social media by using the hashtag #ShotOniPhone.
The plan was to select the best images and post them online, in Apple stores, and on billboards in other locations. The coolest low-light shots taken by regular people with iPhone lenses were included in that user-generated content (UGC) campaign.
In addition to regaining the trust of skeptics, Apple was able to lower research and production costs and avoid having to redesign the iPhone camera because of all that creative user-generated content. Additionally, Apple gave those customers a sense of exclusivity by integrating their visual assets into a worldwide marketing effort. As a result, #ShotOniPhone has become a stand-alone online movement, and the hashtag has come to represent pride and excellent work.
Analyzing UGC in influencer collaboration campaigns
Influencer partnerships offer a special chance to harness the influencer’s existing following and reputation to promote UGC. Influencers contribute to the creation of genuine, captivating content that appeals to their followers and advances a brand.
- Rate of engagement: Combined user engagement metrics from influencer content, likes, shares, comments, and reactions
- Reach and impressions: How many users were influenced by the campaign through the collaboration? To track that, use social media analytics to measure unique views and total displays of UGC, monitor referral traffic and hashtag usage, and analyze engagement metrics to assess influence
- Affiliate links or promo codes: Conversion rates that you can track through unique influencer codes
- Follower growth: The increase in followers during the influencer campaign
Example: Glossier
Glossier hires top Instagram influencers who receive their products before they’re released. Glossier enhances their UGC edge by allowing influencers to publish product reviews and images under the hashtag #glossier. Glossier reaches a wide user base by enticing influencers with a large following to provide UGC.
Metrics for measuring UGC performance in contests and giveaways
Giveaways and contests are great ways to promote a company or product and encourage UGC. Brands can encourage consumers to produce and distribute images, videos, or creative submissions centered around a certain topic or product by providing rewards like awards or discounts.
Using user-generated content in freebies and contests frequently boosts brand awareness, audience participation, and engagement. Additionally, it creates a feeling of community when users share their material with friends and followers, increasing the campaign’s reach and making them feel personally invested in the brand’s success.
- Number of entries: Total number of people who apply for the contest
- Virality metrics: Total number of shares and mentions driven directly by the contest
- New follower count: The increase in followers during the campaign period
Example: National Geographic’s #WanderlustContest
To increase followers and engagement, National Geographic developed a potent UGC campaign: to join Wanderlust, U.S. residents with public Instagram accounts had to upload a photo and include the campaign hashtag in their comments.
By encouraging users to upload their best nature photos, National Geographic promoted a healthy outdoor lifestyle using the hashtag #WanderlustContest. The winner was awarded a fantastic 7-day trip for two people exploring Yosemite National Park, which boasts some breathtaking landscapes ideal for lovely photos like the ones captured by contestants.
Keep track of your UGC with Idukki
Because of its reach, engagement, and authenticity, user-generated content is a potent tool for contemporary marketers. Brands can learn a lot about their customers’ preferences and actions by monitoring and evaluating the performance of user-generated content.
Idukki helps you with these insights. By helping you regularly add new, fresh content to your website, Idukki’s UGC widgets improve SEO and user engagement. Idukki’s analytics dashboard monitors UGC performance and offers valuable information on ROI, conversion rates, and sales.
Want to see how Idukki works? Try a demo today.