User-Generated Content (UGC)
Content your customers create about your business — reviews, photos, videos, posts — instead of content you make yourself.
User-generated content, or UGC, is any content made by your customers or fans rather than by your business — a review, an unboxing video, a photo of your product, a shout-out post. It's persuasive precisely because it comes from real people sharing real experiences, which tends to carry more weight with potential buyers than polished marketing.
Businesses encourage it by asking happy customers for reviews, running photo or hashtag campaigns, or simply making a product people want to show off. You can then reshare the best of it (with permission) on your own channels. Because your customers create it, UGC gives you a steady stream of trusted material that would be expensive to produce yourself.
Why it matters
People trust other customers more than they trust ads, so UGC is some of the most persuasive and affordable marketing you can put in front of a buyer.