Keeping social media social – why does this need discussion I hear you ask…

One of the main ways to increase authenticity within your brand is by making use of user-generated content (UGC).

Simply put, UCG is any form of social media content which is created by users and shared on the brand’s platforms.

This may be a review, an unboxing video, a reel showing a product – the key thing is that these are real people, who aren’t being paid to advertise anything (unlike influencer marketing, which is paid) - they’re simply sharing their opinions with their followers.

Why is UGC so powerful?

More and more, when people see something online which looks too polished, they assume that it’s either unattainable for them or it’s fabricated. 

Whether the images are genuine or AI-generated, viewers will look at it and think, ‘that’s not something for me’.

Gen Z, in particular, place less trust in brands which appear perfect online, and we need only look to examples like Fyre Festival to understand where they’re coming from – you can project a perfect image online, only to dramatically let people down when the product doesn’t live up to its own hype.

By utilising UGC you show your potential customers that your product is genuine, and that real people are using and enjoying it. 

The positive words of other social media users, whether they have a big following or not, often go much further to reassure people about the authenticity and trustworthiness of a brand than any polished company post.

How can I use UGC to make my brand more human?

The brilliant thing about UGC is that it runs on the basis that no money is exchanged for the content, making it available to any company on any budget.

It may involve you asking your customers to review their purchases on their social media platforms, or you could consider gifting your products in return for their posts. 

There are a whole range of options available, and I’ve written much more about how you can use UGC here.

Keeping social media social with people and pets

It may sound obvious, but one of the best ways to give your social media the human touch is to include humans in it! 

It’s hard to engage with a faceless brand, and users find social media channels much more relatable when there are people shown on their platforms. 

As humans we are hard-wired to relate to other living things, rather than stock images next to a slick sales-pitch caption.

This has been proven in scientific studies such as this one by Bakhshi et al., which found that on Instagram, ‘photos with faces are 38% more likely to receive likes and 32% more likely to receive comments, even after controlling for social network reach and activity.’

The researchers went on to investigate whether this positive engagement only applies to certain types of faces, but they found that ‘the number of faces, their age, and gender do not have an effect’. 

So don’t feel that you need to have a certain type of look or persona to be showing your face on social media – people want to see you, your team, and the people you serve, whoever they may be.

And as well as human faces, you can also show the human side of your account by showing some non-humans too: pets!

It has been found that across brands of various sizes and spanning many differing industries, including pets in social media posts can increase engagement up to 295%.

Whether it’s an office dog or your own cat, showing an animal on your feed can really drive engagement up by reminding people that there is life behind your account and your brand.

As social media users become more and more tired of seeing similar branded content from countless companies, you can buck the trend by including real people and real pets to cut away from the all-too-perfect social media personas out there.

Learn more about keeping social media social on our new LINGO programme

I’m so excited about our new LINGO programme, coming in 2024, where we teach you how to make your brand’s social media content as accessible and successful as possible.

Following the success of 2023’s programme, from 2024 we’ll be building on this by looking at how to use modern technology to save time on the tasks that can be automated and use that extra time you’ve freed up to keep your social media social and crank up the human in your own marketing.

We want to make our resources accessible to everyone across the world, so our 2024 LINGO programme will be in a downloadable format suitable for users in any country – you won’t miss out, no matter what time zone you’re in!

We can’t wait to have you on board and share more of the wisdom which will help your brand to grow by staying human in 2024. Click here to find out more and sign up to 2024’s LINGO programme.

In a sea of AI-created content and generic branding, why not make 2024 the year where your brand stands out by becoming more human, more relatable, and more authentic to the watching world?

There are loads of places you could start – by investing in UGC, getting involved in our LINGO programme, or simply posting a photo of your face. 

But if you’re not sure where to begin and you’d like to talk it over, we would love to chat to you; get in contact today and we can get the ball rolling to make sure you’re keeping your social media social.