In our 2023 State of Social & User-Generated Content Report, we found that 66% of consumers believe that brands that use audio and video stand out more than those that don’t. However, less than 20% of markers believe they have the team and resources to create high-quality A/V material. This blog explores why audio and video marketing is worth the investment and how marketers can fill this production gap with cost-effective, trustworthy, and scalable solutions.

The Power of Video Content:

The dynamic elements of A/V content (such as music, sound effects, and motion graphics) convey information faster and more effectively than static images, keeping consumers more engaged. This increased engagement can lead to higher click-through rates, more time spent on a page, and better conversion rates.

Studies also show that videos yield better memory retention. Consider why airlines are now spending millions of dollars (yes, millions) on their passenger safety videos. Airlines could have maintained the old routine: a static voiceover echoes over the aircraft while a flight attendant performs an unenthusiastic demonstration with a few props. But the videos are undeniably more stimulating, which has increased the likelihood that a passenger remembers the safety instructions.

The elaborate demonstrations also serve as a meaningful opportunity for airlines to imprint their brand message (and even sell  advertisements).

So, beyond attention and retention, video content allows for storytelling. When companies share their values, it can foster an emotional connection with viewers, ultimately increasing customer loyalty and retention.

Tip: A simple (and cheap) way companies can share their stories is by showcasing their employees and work culture on social media platforms like TikTok. When customers see the happy and engaged faces behind a brand, it fosters a sense of connection and trust. Overall, transparency on social media can work as a form of social proof, increasing customer loyalty. (It can also be an ineffective recruitment tool!).

More Video Solutions:

The rise of A/V-friendly platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Reels, and even LinkedIn’s video feature makes video an increasingly accessible and essential channel for marketers. Besides Employee-Generated Content (EGC), here are some more tips for maximizing video material: 

User-Generated Content (UGC): The Most Authentic Way to Market

• When consumers share their unpaid, authentic experience online, companies can get rights to that content and repurpose it! (P.S. TINT can help with this ) 
• UGC fills in-person and online marketing channels at a lower cost than average campaign production. And it does all of this while getting even more engagement and conversions than brand-created content.
• There’s a reason that UGC is one of this blog’s favorite topics. 

Creator and Influencer Content 

• Did you know that there’s a difference between creator, influencer, and user-generated content?
• Employing or incentivizing creators and influencers to post video content can save marketers a lot of time while increasing engagement. 

Repurpose and Cross-Pollinate Existing Content

• Get the biggest bang for your buck by repurposing video content and cross-pollinating it to other channels. From one video, you can extract short video clips for multiple social media platforms, audio for a podcast, and a transcript for a blog post! 

Audio is important too! 

Although most marketers realize the worth of video marketing, a lot are mistakenly undervaluing the power of audio. But, since audio consumption is increasing, more marketers are seeing it as an esteemed asset.

Why Audio is So Great: 

Starting off: it’s practical and widely accessible. To engage with video content, you need to stop what you’re doing and look at your screen. Audio blends seamlessly into our lives; we can listen on commutes, while cooking, cleaning, etc. About two-thirds of the US population ages 12+ tune in to digital audio at least once per week. That number will continue rising with the increasing flexibility and accessibility of audio. 

Despite its low-maintenance, audio advertising has proven to be remarkably engaging and effective:  

• 61% of audio listeners stay tuned through ads, while only 19% of TV viewers actively watch TV ads. (Audacy)
• Audio ads “drive 24% higher recall” and “are more than 2x as likely to lift purchase intent and information intent” compared to display ads. (Digiday)

The bottom line: Audio is booming, and it’s time for marketers to tap in if they aren’t already.

Insights:

Utilizing sonic branding, breaking into the podcast space, and capitalizing on TikTok trends are a few ways to amplify your marketing strategy. 

Sonic Branding: 

A fundamental component of audio marketing is sonic branding, sometimes called audio branding, sound branding, or acoustic branding: the practice of using auditory elements to brand your product or service. Sounds create strong associations in our minds, making them a powerful memory trigger and a valuable weapon in any marketer’s arsenal.

In their A/V advertisements, Southwest Airlines typically incorporates the universal airplane ding that occurs several times during any flight.

When the familiar sound plays during their ad, a listener’s memories begin working, instantly adding a layer of engagement. The more and more they hear that ad, the more they associate the tone with Southwest. Then, if the listener gets on a competitor airline’s flight, they will hear that ding, triggering their subconscious to think of Southwest instead. 

Other companies use audio logos in more obvious ways. Think about the branding of insurance companies like Nationwide or Liberty Mutual– we strongly associate them with their jingles. (Take a second to recall their iconic verses…see?) Or how about that one fast food company’s “ba-da-ba-baba”? Are you hungry now? Now that’s some effective McBranding, and we’re lovin’ it. This deep association shows why companies should consider incorporating sonic branding into their marketing plan.

Podcasts: A Novel Form of UGC

Like video, audio is another great place to display authenticity. We’ve said it a million times: consumers crave authentic content from reliable people, which is why podcasts are a unique space for advertising. When the voice of your favorite podcaster is telling you to buy a product, it feels like a personal recommendation from someone you trust, even if they are just regurgitating their sponsor’s script. 

There is a lot more to love about podcasts, according to Basis Technologies: 

• 86% of consumers recall ads on podcasts more than any other channel.
• 74% of consumers report visiting a company or product’s website as a result of hearing an ad on a podcast they listen to regularly.
• 65% say they’ve made a purchase and 54% say they’ve visited a store because of a podcast ad.

Bonus: Trending Sounds

If you’re looking for a simple way to incorporate audio into your marketing strategy, get on  TikTok and start using trending sounds. The familiar music will recast your message as more relevant to your audience thus, boosting your reach. 

A TikTok study study found that if a brand features a song in their video that users like: 

• 68% say they remember the brand better 
• 62% say they’re more curious to learn about the brand. 

Further, consumers are 96% more likely to remember brands that use music that aligns with their identity (Leicester University). 

We discussed more about sonic branding on our podcast and our webinar with Eric Singer, Executive Producer at Coupe Studios Music and Sound Design.

7 Other Trends Shaping Marketing in 2023

Doubling down on audio and video content is only 1 out of 7 marketing themes we discovered in our research.

Download a free copy of the State of Social & User-Generated Content Report to see the seven themes defining marketing in 2023.

The post Audio and Video Content is The Future of Marketing appeared first on TINT.

Digital activations of any kind are generally under the watchful eye of a collective of digital practitioners. The “digital team” is often a nebulous collection of professionals that encompass everything from web design to CRM management to social media and UI/UX. Digital events are often the purview of this digital experience team. Digital Event Strategists will become the en-vogue job as field and event marketing continues to be a precarious industry due to the looming uncertainty of an extended or recurring pandemic. 

In this series, the TINT content team will explore marketing jobs of the future that have become immediate necessities for businesses trying to succeed against a swiftly changing status quo. You are welcome to use these sample job descriptions as you seek talent for these vital roles. (A link back is always appreciated:)

Sample Job Description

Job Title: Digital Event Strategist

Role Hierarchy 

• Digital Event Analyst
• Digital Event Specialist
• Digital Event Strategist
• Manager, Digital Events
• Director, Digital Events
• Vice President, Digital Events
• Chief Digital Events Officer

Job Purpose

The Digital Events Strategist is responsible for the ideation, development, and execution of a full-funnel virtual events program. This role works closely with the digital experience team and reports to the Director of Digital Experience. This role supervises a digital event analyst and supervisory responsibility may grow as the program expands. 

Job Duties and Responsibilities

• The Digital Event Strategist is responsible for developing and administering a virtual events program that includes owned, partnered, and sponsored events.
• The Digital Event Strategist is responsible for meeting and exceeding identified quarterly key performance indicators that include, but are not limited to: marketing qualified leads, booked prospect meetings, specific attendance goals, and event revenue.
• This position is responsible for building and maintaining a technology stack that includes virtual event platforms, streaming software, and integrations to existing MarTech like the CRM.
• The Digital Event Strategist will prepare and maintain a balanced budget subject to the current budget model of the marketing department.
• This role will work with internal communications and customer success teams to find and recruit possible speakers, partners, and sponsors of events.
• This role will plan, monitor, and appraise the results of a digital event analyst including developing schedules, training, and implementing organizational standards.
• This role may work nights, weekends, and odd hours to ensure the execution of a successful event. 

Required Qualifications – Education and Experience

Qualifications will vary from industry to industry and company to company. Below, we’re exploring some of the considerations when setting education and experience requirements. Digital Event Strategists can, and should, come from a variety of backgrounds.

As a content team writing this blog, our knee-jerk reaction was to list a series of marketing and communication degrees. But deeper exploration and reflection has shown that many “traditional marketers” have struggled with adapting to this swiftly evolving realm. You should still consider a slate of Mar-Comm academic backgrounds, but we also suggest looking in some non-traditional places.

Museum Science or Library Science

Putting together virtual events and digital content is a curatorial process. Modern museum and library science programs explore technology, creating accessible content, and designing with the end-user in mind. These professionals are also often expected to conduct events, research, and write content. 

Curriculum Developers and Instructional Designers

Virtual events generally have a learning component that is part of their core value proposition. Who better to design learning experiences and deploy learning technology than pedagogs or people who specialize in translating learning to digital environments? Their familiarity with streaming and learning management systems may present opportunities to use new technologies that were previously limited to the educational space. 

UI/UX Designers and Researchers

User Interface and User Experience professionals live at the intersection of people and technology. Virtual event tools are becoming more and more robust. It makes sense to start with a humanist approach to mindfully design and build digital activations.  People will become more accustomed to participating in virtual events, requiring companies to focus on delivering exemplary user experiences every step of the way.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Productivity, Time Management, and Multitasking

As long as field marketing remains in flux, virtual events will continue to increase their market share and prominence. Digital Event Strategists will need to keep a variety of plates spinning. “Analog” Event organizers are familiar with the struggle of “herding cats”. This will be amplified as virtual events can take place across continents, timezones, and languages. 

The best organizers will be able to develop, grow, and maintain a varied virtual events program that includes webinars, online conferences, 1:1s, coffee chats, roundtable discussions, and more. 

Multidisciplinary Communication Skills

Field and Events programs have often served as bridge departments linking marketing to sales and customer success. Until the virtual events industry matures and solves the problem of monetizing online events, this link will be even more vital. Metrics and goals should be interdepartmental and the digital event strategist will need to speak the language of each division. Silos, already dangerous, will prove toxic and deadly to virtual events programs. 

Technical Familiarity: Hardware and Software

Event organizers are used to “putting out fires”. At digital events, they will be expected to be the source of truth, solving problems caused by both software and hardware. This technical knowledge will be invaluable as virtual events pull speakers and sponsors from around the world. Concepts like connectivity, stream latency, microphone pickup, and display resolution will be part of the day-to-day knowledge required to operate. 

—

Stressed about recruiting a Digital Event Strategist? Discover the power of TINT Virtual Events. Build immersive digital events in minutes, with no coding required. Schedule a demo with our event specialists today.

The post Digital Event Strategist – Sample Job Description appeared first on TINT.

If not already doing so, companies should take notice of customers expressing love for a brand online. With a defined UGC strategy, your company can extend the reach of your customers’ posts to connect with a multitude of new prospects. The campaigns you create will lead to increased conversions and—just as important—stronger bonds with your most ardent supporters.

Creating a UGC strategy from scratch can be tricky. That’s why TINT created this guide to getting started with UGC. In it, you’ll learn how to source UGC, how to encourage consumers to create content, the importance of user rights and strategies for repurposing UGC.

This guide is just a starting point for how TINT can assist you and your marketing team. For further questions, schedule a demo and visit with one of our TINT success managers—they have deep experience in helping brands implement UGC into their marketing stack. For now, let’s get you started on learning some of the essentials.

Discovering UGC in Social Networks

Prior to social networks, consumer-driven UGC was largely confined to unstructured blogs, review sites and message boards. Marketers had to put in effort to discover who was talking about their products online. Today, social media platforms have enabled brands to listen to what consumers are saying about them. In fact, many brands now have social support teams to ensure that complaints are fielded and praise is acknowledged.

Furthermore, marketers have the ability to search for photos and status posts praising their products. There are three ways that you can discover UGC in social networks: manually searching social networks, using a social content aggregator and implementing a machine learning process.

Manually Searching Social Networks

Most social networks offer the ability to search status posts by using Boolean operators. This lets brands manually type in text strings or even their URLs to see what people are saying and sharing about the brand.

In the same way that you might search for an email, you can manually search Twitter by visiting http://search.twitter.com. Additionally, you can see the latest posts featuring a specific hashtag by clicking that hyperlinked text in the social feed and then sorting by the top or latest tweets. Most major social network searches operate in a similar fashion.

Additionally, branded mentions are likely showing up in your company’s official social media account, so anytime a consumer tags your brand, that notification will pop up on the back end of the social account.

There are some challenges with these manual processes. First, you have to go through the hoops within each social network one by one, a time-consuming proposition and even more so if there are multiple branded accounts. Second, some of the branded mentions may show up only if you have native platform access to that social media account; this is typically a nonstarter for most major brands with strict social media governance in place. Finally, a manual process makes it all too easy to miss an important piece of UGC when searching through the noise of social platforms.

Using a Social Content Aggregator

A far superior option for discovering UGC is to use a social content aggregator. With a platform like TINT’s, you can define the parameters, hashtags and social media handles you want to search in multiple social networks. In fact, TINT has the ability to search over 15 platforms at once and filter posts by geography, date and audience engagement to help present the most important posts for your brand.

Using a social content aggregator saves a marketing team time, especially because you have the ability to easily secure user rights and cross-publish the content to your branded platforms. However, there are still manual processes involved, and you do have to ensure that you have the resources to curate social content.

Implementing Machine Learning

By far the best way to surface relevant UGC is to tap into the power of machine learning. You will initially need a person to manually sift through social media content and identify which posts are most relevant to your brand. During this process, a machine learning algorithm is studying the human’s actions to figure out what makes for the most desirable posts.

This is what HUE, a deep learning tool by TINT, does inside our platform. Not only does HUE learn from your actions to build a unique content profile based on your preferences, it also uses metrics such as CTR and engagement rates to further understand which content your consumers enjoy the most.

With machine learning, the massive amount of online content can be culled down to a few smart selections that are manageable by a human team. Your team will get the best pieces of UGC and always have the final say on which ones to repurpose.

Encouraging Consumers to Create UGC

Many household-name brands have an abundance of UGC, but many of companies need help in encouraging consumers to create social media posts and photos that feature your brand’s products. Fortunately, the same tactics for generating UGC that work for big-name brands also work for small companies. Here are our top strategies for getting your devotees to speak up online.

Hashtag Campaigns and Contests

One of the tried-and-true methods of generating UGC is to directly ask consumers to create it by starting a hashtag campaign or contest. Defining a branded hashtag for consumers to use makes it easy for your team to zero in on customer posts by searching on that unique term.

Travelocity is one brand that did this exceptionally well with their #IWannaGo campaign and contest. The brand encouraged users to post about their dream vacation with the #IWannaGo hashtag by giving away a free trip. This campaign saw over 25,000 people create content with the hashtag in an effort to win the grand prize, all while promoting Travelocity to their social connections.

Influencer Partnerships

Another way to get people to create UGC is to partner with social media influencers on a campaign. Working with an influencer to get a flattering review of your brand is table stakes; take it to the next level by asking that influencer to ask their network to create UGC with your branded hashtag.

The best examples of this are when influencers present a provocation to their audience in branded hashtag challenges on TikTok. Guess recently collaborated with TikTok influencers for the #InMyDenim challenge, for which people were asked to submit a video of their denim style with the associated hashtag. The campaign was a smash—as described in TINT’s guide to advertising on TikTok—with over 10.5 million video views that contained the hashtag!

And if you think an influencer has to have millions of followers to be effective, think again. Partnering with microinfluencers and nanoinfluencers is one of the hottest digital marketing trends around—in spite of a lower follower count, their audiences tend to be more engaged.

Securing the Rights to Reuse UGC

As more organizations realize the power of UGC, they still lack an understanding of the importance of securing UGC user rights. Even though it’s become acceptable for the average person to screen-grab images for their social media posts and share the latest memes, that kind of behavior can get a brand in trouble. Simply put, users own the copyrights to their creative works, which includes photos they take and post online.

Not only is it unseemly for brands to repurpose a consumer’s image without permission, it could result in a legal skirmish. The only way that a brand should reuse consumer content is with explicit permission.

TINT grasps the importance of user rights, which is why a workflow was built into our platform to help brands with content rights management. With just a few clicks, you can send a personal note to the user via direct message, asking them for permission for your brand to reuse the photo. This interaction is documented and available as proof that the person gave you permission to repurpose their content. Furthermore, TINT’s copyright detection algorithm can uncover whether the user is the originator of the image or if they copied it from somewhere else. 

Make no mistake, securing user rights matters. Not only can you deliver a positive interaction with your most loyal fans, getting explicit permission to repurpose UGC can protect your brand from any issues down the road.  

Repurposing UGC on Branded Properties

Now that you’ve successfully encouraged consumers to create branded UGC and have methods for discovering it, the important question is what the heck are you going to do with it? In the past, the simple act of having users create this content to generate brand awareness was enough. But if you stop there, you are missing out in a major way.

This content is equivalent to massive word-of-mouth marketing, so don’t let it die on the vine in a lone user’s social network. Savvy brands know that the real magic lies in repurposing UGC across branded properties to help convert prospects down the funnel. Here are several ways that you can do this.

Amplify a Consumer’s Post in Your Social Network

Often, branded social media accounts have a higher number of followers and different audience subsets than the consumer who created the social post featuring your brand. While it may be the most basic way of repurposing UGC, simply reusing the photo in your branded social media channels can offer you a lot in return.

Worried about overrunning your permanent social media feed, such as your profile’s Instagram wall? Consider reposting UGC in an ephemeral way, like with an Instagram story, a strategy that Maui Brewing Company applies really well.

Create Social Proof in Ecommerce Product Galleries

While having a staged product photo with crisp lighting and a white background is absolutely necessary, consumers also want to see what your product looks like in the wild. One way to do this is by repurposing UGC into product galleries.

Do this by either including consumer shots in the gallery for a particular product or creating a landing page with all UGC pictures in one place. And with TINT, you can make those images shoppable with hotspots and CTAs so an online shopper can instantly make a purchase. 

Show Brand Love in Web Galleries and Digital Displays

It remains as true as ever that people want to be seen and heard. Responding to this desire by showing off your loyal fans’ photos in a gallery will make them love you even more. And with TINT, you can easily create a collage of UGC photographs in an online gallery or digital display.

With online social galleries, user photographs can quickly land in an elegant layout on a dedicated landing page. It provides some bragging rights for your customers to say that they were featured on your site. Digital displays in the physical world take this up a notch by featuring a user’s photo in real time on physical displays. For a brand advocate, this feeling is akin to that of a passionate sports fan being shown on the jumbotron during a game.

One brand that implemented both of these UGC strategies well was Krispy Kreme. The donut chain wanted to dominate the #NationalDonutDay conversation and UGC was key to rising above the noise. In addition to the official hashtag, Krispy Kreme created a branded hashtag and encouraged customers to append it to their posts. This made it easy for their marketing team to source UGC.

Krispy Kreme featured the best customer pictures from the day in an online gallery and in-store digital displays. The results were astounding. Web traffic increased from 25,000 sessions to over 330,000, and Krispy Kreme was Twitter’s most-mentioned brand on National Donut Day.

Using Consumer Photos in Paid Media Efforts

As marketers, we sometimes find it hard to think like the customer, instead living in our own world of detailed product information. We focus on the technical specifications of our new gadget, the square footage of our spacious hotel suite or getting the perfect shot of our limited-release menu item. While we live and breathe a campaign for months, it’s easy to forget the one thing that matters to the consumer: Is the product awesome or not?

It’s in answering this question that UGC shines. And it may be worth putting some paid media behind those images to show on a large scale what real customers think about your product. Case in point: Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” campaign.

Instead of speaking to the incredible technology behind the cameras on their phone, Apple let its users do the talking by showing what they created. The campaign initially featured photos and videos by everyday users and has now progressed on to high-production videos, such as one by Selena Gomez and an impressive short film by stuntman-turned-director David Leitch called Snowbrawl. But even as the user-generated content turned from amateur to professional, Apple’s message has been clear: this is what you can do on our device.

Getting Started with a UGC Program, Powered by TINT

This guide to UGC was created as a primer for brands looking to implement consumer content into their marketing programs. While it has covered many of the most common topics and inquiries, the TINT customer success team is ready to discuss your unique needs and assist you further. Be sure to request a demo today to book a time with a member of our team. Learn more about how TINT helps the world’s best companies generate greater audience engagement and increase sales conversion.

Garrett Heath is a social media and content marketing consultant and founder of MarketingBytes.io. Header photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Getting Started with UGC appeared first on TINT.

The Medium Is the Message

Do you think that you’re going to simply be able to port over your Instagram and Facebook ads to TikTok? Think again.

Consider the differences between brand advertising on LinkedIn and Facebook. Sure, a brand can exist in both spaces. But the types of messages that pop up in the professional world’s social media platform are very different from those that show up in the world’s largest personal social network.

TikTok, too, requires ads that are tailored to its audience. This social network was built on the premise of people creating short-form mobile videos that are quirky, funny and fast-paced. This isn’t your grandma’s social network—the videos are often bizarre and full of non sequiturs, the perfect hotbed for humor of the younger generation. Truly, the medium is the message—you better adapt your content to make it a good fit.

In-Feed Advertising

Like every other social platform on the block, TikTok lets brands insert in-feed advertisements to promote their products. However, brands looking to make a splash on TikTok are going to have to ditch their perfectly lit product shots and overly contrived influencer poses.

The users of TikTok are more interested in something real, unpolished and even oddball, according to Evan Horowitz, CEO of the agency Movers and Shakers, in an interview with AdAge. “If Instagram is all about your aspirational best life, super-polished and filtered,” Horowitz said, “then TikTok is really about being raw, honest and filming in your bedroom.”

Power of the Hashtag Challenge

The fuel that powers TikTok is the hashtag challenge. The best example right now is the “Flip the Switch” challenge that everyone is talking about. You start with two people standing in front of a mirror. One stone-faced person is holding the phone while the other is dancing. When the lyric “flip the switch” comes up in Drake’s song “Nonstop,” the lights go off and the two people switch places and clothes. Flip the Switch videos run the gamut from Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez to a dad and his daughter in which he puts on his little girl’s clothes.

What makes hashtag challenges so much fun is that they are wacky and reproducible. This drive for people wanting to participate can be explained through social cognitive theory, which posits that people are motivated to model the behaviors of others. And while many brands have hopped on a hashtag challenge, others are using the TikTok advertising platform to promote their own challenge.

Sponsoring Branded Hashtag Challenges

At its core, creating a hashtag challenge is more about brand awareness than it is about CTR, CPC or online conversions. The digital marketing play here is to promote a challenge that aligns with your brand and reap the rewards of both (1) impressions from user-generated content and (2) earned media from outlets talking about your challenge.

One brand that did this well was the apparel company Guess, with their #InMyDenim challenge meant to appeal to Gen Z consumers during the back-to-school season in 2018. Not only did Guess pay to do a branded takeover of the TikTok homepage to advertise their challenge, they also partnered with multiple influencers to show their denim style.

TikTok reports the results of this challenge on their website, saying that over the course of six days, the #InMyDenim campaign sparked:

• 5,550+ UGC videos
• 10.5M video views
• 14%+ engagement rate
• 12,000 new followers for Guess on TikTok

Creating a Sponsored Lens

During the 2020 Super Bowl, soda brand Mtn Dew launched a commercial spoofing Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.” The spot was a promotion for their Mtn Dew Zero beverage with the tagline “as good as the original”—in the commercial, well-known scenes were played by different actors.

The company became one of the first CPG brands to develop a branded “effect” for TikTok, turning the person filming into a twin to complement the television spot and encouraging people to use the hashtag #BetterThanTheOG” on their posts.

Don’t Let that TikTok UGC Gold Go to Waste

If you’re going to put a lot of effort and money into a branded hashtag challenge or a sponsored-lens campaign, you shouldn’t let that UGC go to waste. That is where the TINT platform can help. As it recently announced, TINT now gives brands the ability to embed TikTok videos on their website and digital displays.

By using the TINT Content Finder extension for Chrome, you can quickly navigate to the specific TikTok video you want to embed and choose the location you want to feature the video. Now, your brand can leverage all the hard work you’re doing on TikTok by featuring user-generated content on your site. If you’re looking for an innovative way to connect with Gen Z, be sure to request a TINT demo today to learn more about our TikTok integration!

The post Advertising on TikTok appeared first on TINT.

1. Ask Students to Show #WhereIStudyNow

Consider taking a cue from Trello’s #WhereITrello campaign, an effort that TINT profiled as one of the five ways to use social media UGC. Trello, an online project management and list-making application, has many users who work remotely. The company invited them to show off their workspaces and post images of them with the hashtag #WhereITrello.

Universities have a similar opportunity to connect with students by asking them to post where they are now studying with a #WhereIStudy-inspired hashtag. Students can show how they are adapting to the situation and maybe even share some best practices of how to buckle down and get the work done amid the distractions at home.

2. Highlight a New #StudyBuddy

In light of study groups being disbanded, many students could be turning to other study buddies as they work from home. Whether it’s an adorable pet, child or even stuffed animal, use the opportunity to let your students show who—or what—their new study buddy is. If the buddy is sporting the school colors, even better!

On the same note, consider hashtag challenges and some gamification to encourage students to continue working together online. New study buddies could include people that they might not normally connect with in class. See if students can flip the script and work with different peers or make new friends during these unusual days.

3. Demonstrate Unity with #MyFightSong

Many students lost out on a major way to show off their school spirit when March Madness was canceled. One of the reasons that sports feel viscerally important is that they connect us to our tribe members. And with the tournament canceled and spring sports suspended, many people are missing this connection.

Help maintain the collegiate spirit by hosting a #MyFightSong UGC campaign. Ask your students to sing and perform your school’s fight song and upload it online. From there, cull some of the best entries and cut them together to showcase a variety of students singing your school’s song. Not only can this campaign showcase unity, it can also highlight the diversity of your students and where they come from.

4. Showcase #HowImHelping

Sure, COVID-19 has had dramatic effects on the economy and our daily lives. But in spite of this tragedy, there are plenty of people doing good things for their communities. As Fred Rogers, aka “Mr. Rogers,” once said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

This is your chance to look for those helpers among your students and highlight the good work they’re doing in their communities. Many are shopping for their elderly neighbors, assisting with food bank efforts or even donating blood. Ask them to share their experiences with a #HowImHelping hashtag. Don’t let the grim outlook overshadow the positivity that your students are bringing into the world.

Highlight Student-Driven UGC with TINT

Please note that each of these hashtag ideas should be customized with your university name or mascot to make them unique to your school. Not only will this help you surface relevant UGC with the TINT content aggregator, it will also help students connect with their peers across physical locations by searching the social networks on those hashtags.

But take it a step further. After finding some of the best UGC posts, reach out to those students and request the rights to repurpose the content. From there, your digital marketing team can use the materials across social media platforms and in email newsletters to highlight your students and continue to build meaningful connections. Furthermore, you can set up a page on your website that uses TINT’s experience builder to effortlessly create a web gallery of all your student-driven UGC.

Obviously these are trying times. Our lives have been upended, and the ways that traditional higher education is delivered the remainder of this semester have fundamentally changed. But in spite of the news, there is still a lot of good happening in the world and meaningful connections can be made. TINT is proud to play a small role in facilitating this interaction. If you have any questions or want to see how TINT can assist with your UGC efforts, please request a demo today. 

Header photo by delfi de la Rua on Unsplash.

The post Facilitating Student Connection with UGC During COVID-19 appeared first on TINT.

Add a Personal Touch 

The most powerful is the most personal. Guests don’t want to be viewed simply as a head-in-a-bed, they want to feel important and valued. Luckily, in the hospitality industry, there is plenty of opportunity for making it personal. 

When a team learns something about a guest, they should act on it. Couple in the corner suite celebrating an anniversary? Send up a bottle of champagne and strawberries. Business executive mentioned he saw his favorite beer in the bar? Send over a pint or a drink ticket to comp out his next pour. 

These small gestures may be Hospitality 101 for many concierge teams, but the intention here is specific—get people to post about this experience online. So push that anniversary gift a little further and make sure to include a note with the hotel’s current hashtag or Instagram handle. That gentle reminder can be enough to move that gift basket from a word of praise shared between two guests, to an Instagram story shared with hundreds of potential customers. 

Make Your Space ‘Insta-Worthy’

Social media is often referred to as the highlight reel of our lives. For a property to make it onto someone’s social feed, there must be something worth sharing, something with a “wow” factor. 

It may be a fantastic view, a mural or a welcome wall with eye-catching art—the exact element doesn’t matter. Rather, it is the intention of creating these spaces and opportunities for guests to share their experience. 

A fantastic example of this is seen at The Surfjack Hotel & Swim Club in Waikiki, Hawaii. Tucked away from the beach in Honolulu, The Surfjack doesn’t enjoy the ocean views that may come to mind when you imagine a hotel in paradise. However, The Surfjack still boasts one of the most recognizable and Instagrammable focal points in the dense Waikiki tourist district. Their “Wish You Were Here” pool is a ready-made postcard right there in the center of the hotel. The pool is a place people want to be and be seen, making it social media catnip.

Inspire UGC with a TINTmix Digital Signage Wall  

Even without the Instagrammable focal point, it’s possible to create a physical reminder to encourage guests to engage with the help of our TINTmix product. This visually appealing feature can round up the most exciting guest snapshots, owned media and even advertisements. 

Utilizing TINTmix, properties can create a physical space that both showcases the UGC of scores of guests and provides an opportunity for new guests to contribute. Social media, at its core, is about sharing stories. When guests are reminded that others have shared their experiences at a property, they are much more likely to do the same. 

Be Present on Social Media 

It may seem obvious, but simply being present and not allowing social channels to become stale is a massively effective way to encourage UGC. This doesn’t mean just posting regularly, but also responding to questions and comments with a genuine voice. 

If a brand is asking guests to join in on the conversation, the brand should be the one to lead that conversation. This can mean responding to comments and DMs, liking followers’ content, following back or even running contests and giveaways. 

Having an active presence on social media shows guests that a brand’s social channels are a place where their voice can be heard and valued. That trust and connection is invaluable and can’t truly be replicated anywhere else in the marketing stack. 

A Simple Ask 

Even if a property is picture perfect, it’s unlikely that all the guests will want to post on social media about their experience. What’s more likely is that the majority of guests have a great experience and, while they might be grateful and have a positive view of the hotel, they won’t create a social media post about that experience without a prompt or reminder. The act of asking guests to post on social doesn’t have to be cringeworthy, though. 

Something as simple as including the hotel hashtag or Instagram handle in a check-in or check-out email or even on the room keycard can serve as a perfect reminder. Brands ask for reviews this way all the time, so a social media post is just a different version of that same ask. 

Start the Conversation and Build Your Community

It may not be any single one of these strategies or tools that gets a guest to post about the hotel. Often, it’s a mix of all five—remember to provide multiple opportunities for a guest to share their story. 

TINT can help make those opportunities effective and plentiful. Are you ready to start the conversation around your property and build your community? Contact us to schedule a demo and see how we can help encourage your guests to become marketers! 

This post was contributed by Chrissy Chavez. Photo by yeongkyeong lee on Unsplash.

The post 5 Ways to Encourage Guests to Post About Your Hotel appeared first on TINT.

Fortunately, a number of technological advancements have made the proposition of implementing a social ecommerce solution far more accessible. Here are a couple ways that you can take advantage of UGC to drive social ecommerce strategies.

Create a Feed of Curated Customer Product Shots

You’ve done a lot of work of cultivating a passionate group of customers who love your product. Now it’s time to let these folks become unofficial spokespeople for your brand by showcasing authentic photos of them using your products. That’s exactly what a curated feed of customer product shots does.

By searching brand specific hashtags, handles or keywords, you can quickly discover UGC from these fans to be repurposed on your branded website. This is where a platform like TINT can help you excel by giving you the ability to collect the most engaging, relevant and impactful content across 15 different channels. And you can then showcase these amazing customer photos on your website with an out-of-the-box gallery on your website.

Furthermore, rather than a catch-all gallery for UGC, savvy brands implement a product gallery of consumer-generated content that showcases their products in real life. This kind of social proof helps to increase purchase conversions and decrease cart abandonments because users can actually see what the product looks like in real life.

Make Those UGC Images Shoppable

It’s one thing to have a nice photo wall of happy customers for online visitors to see. It’s another thing entirely to have those images actively work a prospect through the purchase funnel.

Too often, these images are posted in insolation from the rest of the site—while the images may serve as visual candy to inspire potential purchases, they are often not connected to the specific product that’s featured in the photo. So, a potential customer may be ready to make a purchase but have difficulty in actually finding the product they want to purchase. This is naturally more complicated on a mobile shopping experience, when screen real estate is at a premium.

The solution? Make those UGC images featuring your products shoppable. Do this with TINT by adding product call to actions (CTAs) and hotspots.

With a product CTA, the request to make a purchase is always visible on the photo. Some brands favor this very forward way of marketing as it clearly illuminates that the product featured in the image can easily be purchased with a quick click. For those companies that feel a product CTA takes away from the overall aesthetic of the photo, a hotspot strategy is one way to link the image to the product while preserving the experience.

Either way, making those consumer photos shoppable is one way to take UGC to the next level. And instead of having to tag every product manually, take advantage of TINT’s deep learning algorithm HUE to quickly scan the social content produced by your audience and automatically map the images to your product catalogue to make them shoppable.

Secure User Rights to Repurpose UGC

While UGC is the lifeblood to any good social ecommerce program, one point must be emphasized: you must secure the rights to repurpose consumer photos throughout your product galleries.

In a world where memes catch like wildfire and digital assets are so easy to lift, it’s imperative for brands to protect themselves from copyright infringement. This means that you must have explicit permission—that is documented—in order to use and repurpose the content that your customers create. After all, the last thing you want is consumers who love your brand to be turned off because you reused their photos without permission.

With TINT’s out-of-the-box user rights management platform, your company can repurpose UGC legally and safely throughout your marketing channels. Simply identify a piece of social content that you want to reuse and the platform can kick off a process to reach out to that user, secure their permission to reuse the photo and document their acceptance.

Furthermore, the TINT copyright detection algorithm can quickly identify if that user was the actual creator of the asset. This safeguard helps protect your brand from using any photos that the social media user didn’t actually possess the rights to.

TINT Can Help with Social Ecommerce

If your brand is looking to take the next step with social ecommerce, TINT is here to help. Our platform not only offers ways to create social image galleries, but also empowers you to create clickable hotspots and CTAs to help a prospect go from interest to purchase. This is done while protecting your brand by securing permissions from your consumers to repurpose their photos. Request a demo of the TINT platform today.

Header photo by Anete Lūsiņa via  Unsplash.

The post Implementing a Social Ecommerce Strategy on Your Website appeared first on TINT.

In addition to being a digital marketing consultant, I also operate an independent eCommerce store. Many of the strategies that I write about and suggest to clients have been battle-tested in my own digital storefront. And every year I make a New Year’s resolution to try at least one new marketing tactic so that I can offer perspective on new ways to convert customers.

In 2018, I went all in with developing a robust email newsletter that was extremely valuable in growing my eCommerce business. In fact, this is still a strategy that I am bullish on for my clients to this day. The past year saw my implementation of an SMS messaging service that resulted in incredible web traffic and conversion rates. I also tested out a live chat feature on my website that had mixed results—namely because my product is niche and has appeal for a limited audience.

In 2020 it’s time to pick a new strategy or two to test out for my eCommerce store. Here are some of my leading contenders for digital marketing strategies to test out in the new year.

1. Digital Billboards

Billboards are everywhere and you can reach a captive audience stuck in traffic, but the cost to purchase signage has always been a barrier to entry for a niche eCommerce retailer like myself. That was until Blip Billboards entered my market. The company is disrupting this traditional channel by enabling entrepreneurs to purchase space on a billboard in the same way that one would buy online display ads.

Factors such as location and time of day affect pricing, but rates tend to range between 1 cent and 50 cents per ad display, what the company calls a “blip.” All of a sudden, having a billboard is quite accessible to a company like mine.

And digital billboards mean you don’t have to commit to a singular message like you’d have to with the traditional medium. In addition to testing out different copy that I produce in-house, I’m also keen to experiment with how user-generated content (UGC) would perform. After all, word-of-mouth marketing is extremely powerful, and repurposing UGC from a social content aggregator like TINT can provide the social proof that pushes a person stuck in their car to become a customer.

2. User-Generated Content

One of my biggest shortcomings as an eCommerce retailer has been not showing how buyers are actually using my products. This is probably the biggest fail on my part because, again, word-of-mouth marketing is one of the strongest ways to get a consumer to convert. So this year, I’m going to up my UGC game.

Initially, I’m going to work on discovering social media posts that feature my products, and I’m going to reshare them across social platforms. Not only is that going to make potential customers feel more connected to my brand, it’s going to show them how beloved my products are.

I also plan to embed UGC on my website so that the shoppers who don’t follow me on social media can see firsthand what people think of my products. But instead of downloading images from social or messing around with each social post’s embed code, I’m going to implement a TINT webpage gallery.

From the social content aggregator, I can select and upload the best UGC to be featured in my shop. And even better, I’m going to make those social media photos shoppable by putting hot spots and CTAs that help take my visitors from interest to checkout.

3. Radio Spots

Similar to billboards, radio has been notoriously difficult to make small media buys in. But advertising on the radio can now be bought online without ever having to talk to a rep, thanks to iHeartRadio’s Ad Builder.

The product is currently in beta, but it allows small businesses to purchase airtime for as little as $200 a week. The platform asks you a few questions about the geography and demographics (gender and age) of the listeners you’re trying to reach, before proposing a list of stations your advertisement will air on. In going through this process, I discovered that for $200, I could reach an estimated 48,000 to 65,000 people a week, for a cost per one thousand impressions (CPM) of $3.07 to $4.16.

And you don’t have to worry about recording your ad—iHeartRadio will do it for you. The platform asks you for the tone you want (for example, serious or funny), information about the products you’re promoting, your tagline, and your URL. The audio engineers then cut a 30-second spot to play on the radio for $100, but they currently have a promotion where you get even that for free.

4. Influencer Marketing

I’ve done a considerable amount of research into influencer marketing the past three months. And although I’ve been skeptical of this digital strategy, one thing emerged from the data: influencer marketing works. This is especially true when it comes to microinfluencers and nanoinfluencers, social media users who have a smaller following but whose audience is deeply invested in what they have to say.

January may be the perfect time to identify and reach out to these influencers, discover what they are looking for in a partnership and find ways that we can support each other. And with Facebook and Instagram rolling out creator accounts over the past summer, I’m particularly interested in seeing how a paid social media campaign around an influencer’s post could boost my sales. This type of paid partnership could benefit my brand in three ways: (1) I can get content created by a social star who knows what specifically works on a channel like Instagram, (2) I can tap into their organic reach when they share the content, and (3) I can further spread the message through paid promotion to a targeted audience.

Cheers to 2020!

These are some of the digital marketing tactics that I’m looking to try out in 2020. What about you? What are some of the new platforms and channels that you’re interested in?

The post Digital Marketing 2020 New Year’s Resolutions appeared first on TINT.

The guidance for picking the perfect customer review became clearer with the release of the article “Leveraging User-Generated Content for Product Promotion: The Effects of Firm-Highlighted Reviews,” published in the July 2019 Journal of Information Systems Research. The researchers conducted and analyzed three studies. We’ve distilled their findings into best practices for choosing the perfect customer reviews. 

The researchers created a system called “The Overall Conceptual Model of the Effects of Firm’s Highlighting Practice.” That’s quite a mouthful, but in brief, the model outlines three elements that affect the receptiveness of a prospective customer to a selected review:

1. Message Characteristics (Review Extremity)

2. Information Context (Variance in Other Reviews)

3. Source Characteristics (Firms Reputation)

These three elements should serve as a guide when selecting customer reviews to display on your website, social, or to favorite/sponsor on review sites like TripAdvisor. 

Read More: How to Ask for A Review

1. Message Characteristics

This element considers the “extremity” of the review. Marketers may be inclined to select a review that shines a perfect light on the company. They may also be tempted to pick a review that aligns more specifically with their current marketing efforts, e.g. this glowing review mentions the tilapia and we’re having a special on fish this month. 

When choosing reviews, resist the urge to go for the most glowing ones. Research shows that overly perfect reviews can trigger skepticism, especially among undecided customers. Instead, opt for positive but balanced reviews that acknowledge minor flaws. This approach builds trust and shows your brand is authentic.

The study warns that this can alienate or dissuade consumers who are unsure of your product’s value or quality. The research suggests that “firms can alleviate consumers’ skepticism by selecting a positive but less extreme review”. This is to say, consumers are skeptical of overly perfect customer reviews. A more moderate review, perhaps even a slightly critical one, shows the company’s authenticity and sincerity in using this type of user-generated content. 

Other older studies also suggest that the first piece of marketing “stimuli” given to a user affects how a consumer acquires additional product information. The study cites Jarvenpaa’s 1990 study, “Graphic Displays in decision making.” Placing a review in a prominent position on a site is an indicator of the company’s marketing intention or persuasive message. This meta-awareness makes a prospective customer less inclined to be influenced by that message.

The study may put it best, “[a] positive yet less extreme marketing message, which is relatively conservative, is found to effectively alleviate consumers’ skepticism about the message and marketer’s ulterior motives”.

2. Information Context

Information Context considers the variety (variance) of customer responses from review to review. Again, marketers may be tempted to select the most perfect customer reviews or a handful of the best ones, but how does that look against the greater body of all reviews of a company or product?

Part of the consideration for this element is the ease of access to additional review content. Brightlocal’s 2018 consumer study found that people generally read ten reviews before feeling able to trust a business. Do you have ten reviews that, when placed together, tell a clear narrative about your product? 

The study reminds us to be wary of the process of causal attribution. The marketing psychology rule states “the consistency of the message with other relevant information and the credibility of the message source will heavily influence consumers’ acceptance of the message.”

There are several ways to approach selecting reviews using Information Context. Each method is dependent upon the variance among all reviews you’re considering and also all the reviews that are easily accessible to a prospect who is evaluating you. 

Consider the broader context when selecting reviews. Do your chosen reviews align with the overall sentiment expressed in others? Here’s how to approach it:

• High Variance: Choose a mix that reflects the diversity of opinion but leans positive.
• Moderate Variance: Highlight reviews that offer constructive feedback you can turn into a marketing advantage.
• Low Variance: Use your strongest reviews confidently, but keep an eye on consistency to maintain credibility.

High Variance in Reviews

If there is a wide range of variety in the score and context of a review, then users who look at other reviews will be increasingly susceptible to being persuaded by those other opinions. Try to select a collection of reviews representative of your brand while still curating out the less friendly voices. 

Moderate Variance in Reviews

If there is a more moderate range of variety in the score and context of a review, then marketers should include a handful of perspectives from the middle-top of the pack. This isn’t to say that you should select overly-critical or negative voices. But, perhaps, choosing a true perspective allows you to take ownership of a fault in a forward, authentic way. This could also be used to promote current marketing efforts. A customer complaining that the food came out too quickly after an appetizer could support lunch specials emphasizing the speed of service. An older customer complaining about younger working professionals taking over the hotel bar can support targeting of that demographic. Be creative in your selection and think beyond the five-star review.

Low Variance in Reviews

The path forward is much more focused on companies with low review variance. If your reviews are positive, select the best; the rest of the social proof will support your voice. If your reviews are inclined toward the negative, then perhaps this type of UGC is not the most effective tool for your immediate tactics. Cultivate trust and encourage more positive reviews from your top customers. 

Source Characteristics

Source Characteristics take a firm’s reputation outside of individual reviews into consideration. Consumers with less positive opinions of a firm’s reputation will gravitate towards reviews that confirm their bias. They are also “especially sensitive to subsequent negative reviews than positive reviews.”  

The article cites the definitive 1990 article in the Journal of Consumer Research, “The Effects of Advertiser Reputation and Extremity of Advertising Claim on Advertising Effectiveness.” The article, in short, says that the better a firm’s reputation the more extreme a marketing claim they can make. Firms with renowned reputations can make extreme or over-exaggerated marketing claims, and people will be inclined to believe it. Conversely, consumers will be skeptical and unreceptive to marketing or advertising from organizations with negative reputations. 

The study summarizes by saying, “Firms with lower reputations will benefit from highlighting a less extreme review, whereas for highly reputable firms, the difference incurred by review extremity will be less evident as these firms are in a better position to get consumers to believe in their marketing claims in general.”

Your brand’s reputation plays a key role in how reviews are perceived. If you’re well-regarded, you can highlight more extreme praise. But if your reputation is less established, focus on moderate, credible reviews to win over skeptics. For example, a new restaurant might highlight a review praising the food quality while noting a minor service hiccup that was swiftly resolved.

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Choosing the right customer reviews doesn’t have to be complicated. By focusing on authenticity, context, and your brand’s reputation, you can leverage reviews that truly resonate with your audience. TINT empowers businesses to curate, manage, and showcase reviews from across the web, turning social proof into a powerful marketing tool. Ready to see how TINT can elevate your review strategy? Explore our ratings and reviews solutions and discover how we connect with platforms like Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, and more. Learn more today.

Keep up to date with trends in user generated content, social media, and marketing by subscribing to our newsletter. 

The post Picking the Perfect Customer Reviews appeared first on TINT.

What’s in a Hashtag? The Story So Far

Simply put, a hashtag is a precise type of social media metadata tag that allows users to quickly find other messages containing specific types of content or themes that they find relevant.

If you’re interested in seeing pictures from Venice, Italy, for example, head over to Instagram and search for the hashtag “#Venice.” You’d see an impressive volume of published UGC containing that hashtag—allowing you to see images, videos and other posts relevant to Venice from users worldwide.

Since 2007, hashtags have dominated social networking sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter among others. When you consider there are now about 2.77 billion social media users worldwide, it’s easy to see why it’s rare to find someone who still calls it by its “pound sign” original name.

The Power of the Hashtag: What These Campaigns Mean for Marketers

 

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A post shared by Johnny Lo ???? (@jitsslo) on Nov 30, 2018 at 7:19am PST

Brands can easily leverage hashtag campaigns to increase engagement in ways their audience finds interesting and relevant. If you know which popular terms people in your target audience use and follow, you can incorporate those terms into your posts to make it easier for them to find your content. This often creates its own momentum. The more you can incorporate relevant hashtags to steer a particular conversation on social media, the stronger that conversation will become. Hashtags don’t just ensure someone can hear your voice—they ensure your voice is as amplified as it can be.

Creative hashtag campaigns are used in just about every way you can imagine. #AskMeAnything is a great hashtag to encourage your audience to reach out and ask questions about your products, services, or even your industry. Anyone who wants to participate in the discussion can do so using the hashtag, making it easy for you to engage your audience and even easier for them to participate.

 

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Hashtag campaigns are also popular fixtures in giveaways on social, including Instagram contests. Search Instagram for #giveaway and you’ll see plenty of promotional campaigns that encourage users to post UGC using strategic branded hashtags to enter for a chance to win a giveaway. Not only would a hashtag campaign like this increase your audience engagement (let’s be real—everyone loves a good giveaway), it would expand the amount of positive UGC about your brand. Suddenly whenever someone searches for the hashtag associated with your brand name, they can see enthusiastic, positive UGC about you. How nice is that?

Whether your hashtags are created by your brand or organically by your audience, oftentimes the most effective hashtag campaigns tend to have some type of organic component to them. This does a great job of spurring engagement with targeted audiences who are most likely to find value in your brand. Consistent, valuable interactions over time build a relationship of trust, and that’s exactly what causes your audience to keep your brand story conversation going strong.

The Massive Influence of Gen Z

 

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The impact of hashtag campaigns is particularly important within the context of Generation Z – otherwise known as Gen Z. Born between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s, there are more than 60 million Gen Z individuals today. Collectively, this generation has roughly $44 billion in purchasing power annually, and that number could easily approach $200 billion when you consider their massive influence over parental and household purchases. Never underestimate the influence a 17-year-old has over what their parents see, experience, and ultimately, are willing to pay for.

Likewise – consider that Gen Z is expected to account for 40% of all consumers by as soon as 2020. Not only is this group influential today—their influence will increase every year. As this generation leaves school and enters the workforce, their purchasing power and disposable income will grow. It’s critical that brands take note—if you can capture the attention of Generation Z today, the returns could increase exponentially for a decade or more.

The size and power of Gen Z is enormous, and represents an incredible amount of untapped potential for savvy brands who know how to command Gen Z’s attention in a relevant, authentic and (most importantly) cool way. With this in mind, it’s no wonder we’re seeing Gen Z engagement skyrocket through hashtag campaigns that incentivize their brand engagement. So how do you create marketing campaigns with this radically different approach in mind? With hashtags, of course.

1. #ShotoniPhone – Apple

 

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One of the best examples of a successful Gen Z hashtag campaign is also among the most recent. This year Apple relaunched its #ShotOniPhone campaign – one that asked users from around the world to submit their best photos shot on an iPhone for a chance for that content to be used in a future Apple marketing campaign.

Tens of thousands of people submitted gorgeous User Generated Content on Instagram and Facebook under the hashtag before ten winning submissions were selected to be used on billboards, in Apple retail stores and online. This is important because, according to USA Today, both the iPhone and the larger Apple brand have a tremendous amount of positive buzz with Gen Z buyers.

Not only did Apple effortlessly generate an enormous amount of UGC – each one of those photos was essentially an ad for the iPhone, as they all showcased just how powerful the smartphone’s camera had become.

Apple’s #ShotOniPhone” campaign is arguably one of the best examples of leveraging UGC in a hashtag campaign like an Instagram contest. Thousands of people from around the world were incentivized to submit countless photos shot on their iPhone devices, for a chance to bring awareness to their own abilities—and maybe win a prize. As a pretty sweet result, Apple increased audience engagement and received countless beautiful UGC to use in future marketing campaigns, completely free of charge. That’s the textbook definition of a “win-win” situation.

2. #LetsDoLunch – Domino’s Pizza

This campaign from pizza giant Domino’s is a really great example of mutual trade. In other words, “if you do something for me, I’ll do something for you.” Studies show that pizza brands in particular already have the attention of Generation Z – and Domino’s has always been a leader in this space. Previously, they created quite the buzz on Twitter when allowing people to place pizza orders by tweeting a pizza emoji to Dominos.

During the campaign, Domino’s ran a promo on social that leveraged an incentive for huge discounts off a lunch order for using the #LetsDoLunch hashtag in tweets. Not only did users win steep discounts, but the number of social posts referencing Domino’s soared—boosting their brand value as well. It’s also another example of Generation Z’s collective affinity chain restaurants and fast food businesses in particular.

3. #IHOb – IHOP

 

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In 2018, IHOP pulled off an unusual move on social when they flipped the “P” in their logo upside down – temporarily becoming IHOb. Using the hashtag campaign #IHOb, the company invited people to “guess” what that “b” might stand for and many, many people took them up on it.

It was eventually revealed to stand for “International House of Burgers,” but even after the company reverted back to IHOP, the impact was already massive. More than 30,000 people responded on social with guesses, and the brand’s “answer” was reshared more than 15,000 times. There’s no denying it—the brand remains one of their top ten favorite restaurant chains as per a survey of more than 1,800 young Americans.

4. #2018Wrapped – Spotify

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Spotify’s campaign is notable because it features a different flavor of UGC—streaming data. At the end of every year, Spotify dives deep into its user data from the previous 365 days to come up with a custom playlist of the top 100 songs for that period. Not only were users able to see and stream the most popular songs using the #2018Wrapped hashtag, but they could also see analytical data like top genres, the number of new artists discovered, the total minutes of music streamed and more.

Experts agree that not only was this a masterful example of free advertising, but it was also an incredibly transparent one. During a period where consumer faith in brands is notoriously low, Spotify threw open the door on a year’s worth of streaming trends—giving people a peek behind the curtain, so to speak. It’s the type of campaign that music lovers look forward to every year. Since Gen Z is known for their eclectic music tastes – this hashtag campaign was a brilliant way to shine a light on their unique music consumption habits as well.

To put this all into perspective, two out of every three people in the US and the UK use Spotify. The music media giant is one of Gen Z’s top streaming services of choice, and over 50% of people would happily pay for Spotify in the future. Take these data points into consideration and you can see why the brand uses marketing techniques like this hashtag campaign—they naturally skew towards younger users.

5. #WorthSaying – L’Oreal Paris

 

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The #WorthSaying hashtag campaign from L’Oreal Paris deserves a round of applause, because not only did it significantly expand the beauty brand’s reach, but it tapped directly into the Gen Z value of social consciousness and a larger responsibility. The hashtag campaign was simple enough: women were asked to share ideas that were important to them that were #worthsaying. In exchange, L’Oreal Paris pledged to donate $0.25 every time the hashtag was used to TIFF’s Share Her Journey

Women across social channels decided to share strong, powerful messages that were #worthsaying—and they spoke volumes. This campaign incentivized Gen Z to engage with the purpose of empowering women to and support charitable contributions they cared about at the exact same time.

The campaign has gained a momentum of its own between relaunches for #WorthSaying and #ShareHerStory, in the spirit of championing women storytellers. The campaign has been able to strike the heartstrings of Gen Z in the best possible way. Bravo!

6. #MaytheFourthBeWithYou – Everyone

 

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Star Wars is a global phenomenon that has won over the hearts of previous generations and continues to capture the attention of younger generations annually. Every year, fans get together to celebrate May the Fourth—a play on the Star Wars phrase “May the Force be with you” that celebrates Star Wars Day. Hashtags like #MayTheFourthBeWithYou and #MayThe4th are always quick to make an appearance. Savvy brands move even quicker to leverage public attention to offer brand engagement incentives.

Everyone from Lush Cosmetics to Corvette to Lego and beyond got in on the fun this year, increasing awareness and audience engagement on social in one fell swoop. What makes this example unique is that the hashtag didn’t start with a brand – it started with fans themselves. Participating brands simply showed that they were willing to participate in a conversation that was already happening, and that they could do so in a fun way that was in keeping with the spirit of the holiday.

The most recent Disney “Star Wars” film branding is an excellent example of how to successfully market to multiple generations – both to Gen Z and their parents. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” alone made over $936 million at the domestic box office and remains one of the highest-grossing movies of all time You cannot reach a number that high without capturing the attention of Gen Z, roughly 25% of the entire United States population.

7. #GoProMillionDollarChallenge – GoPro

Source: GoPro

Instagram contest, anyone? Hold on to your seat belt for GoPro—a brand with a product built to go viral. This particular hashtag campaign took the form of a contest. GoPro challenged their own community to help them create the “most epic highlight reel ever,” and in exchange, the company split $1 million among all of the featured contributors. Anyone could upload any clip to social media for consideration, so long as they used the hashtag #GoProMillionDollarChallenge.

The results? 25,000 submissions came pouring in from around the world. These were combined to form the company’s Million Dollar Challenge video that was 100% User Generated Content, through and through. It’s an absolutely show-stopping video and an epic example of a brand highlighting authentic UGC. The video features 66 clips from 56 creators, who each took home an impressive $17K.

GoPro ranks among Gen Z’s top ten coolest brands, and we definitely see plenty Gen Zers using this hashtag across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms. Not only did this campaign confirm that Gen Z members are nothing if not content creators and curators, but it also singles out GoPro as one of their collective favorite brands. Well done!

Inspiration for your next Instagram Contest

 

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A post shared by Barbara Jarrín E. (@barbarajarrin) on Jul 22, 2019 at 3:06pm PDT

Hashtag campaigns are the perfect opportunity to amplify the power of an existing campaign by making it easier for your audience to discover your content, contribute UGC, or participate in an Instagram contest. 

That said, crafting and executing your own successful hashtag campaign is often a lot easier said than done. Trying to figure out which hashtags really captivate your audience, or when and where to use them can quickly dominate your time. This is why UGC experience tools are so invaluable to increasing audience engagement and participation.

Inspired for your next Instagram contest? Don’t overlook the importance of a UGC experience platform in your authentic marketing strategy.

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