How Giveaways Help Generate Fresh, User-Generated Content

Turning Audience Participation into Valuable Brand Growth through Giveaways

User-generated content (UGC) is one of the most effective ways any brand can build trust in the market. However, it’s not easy to get people talking about your business. Creating the posts, images, or videos takes time and effort, so simply asking users to do so won’t work.

Well, unless there’s an incentive, which is what giveaways offer. When done right, these campaigns are a powerful method of getting user-generated content that can promote your brand in an authentic way.

Here’s a look at why UGC contests are a smart strategy for any brand looking to grow. 

Boosting Brand Mentions

User-generated contest giveaways involve different types of content, but one thing is constant – the brand name. Whether people are sharing posts, writing reviews, or creating photos, these are usually designed to have a brand name, and every interaction helps enhance the brand’s visibility.

One of the best advantages of this type of content generation is that your brand will be amplified by real users, not promoted ads. This helps give your brand name more authenticity as users will trust brands recommended by other users more.

To maximize engagement and boost brand name visibility, you can use a hashtag to make everything easy to track. You should also have clear and simple sharing rules that encourage participants to share more about the brand or how they’ll use the prize.

Driving Product Reviews

Generally, the giveaway prizes should be your own products. This creates excitement about the brand and products, encouraging users to share their experiences with the various products or the brand.

But besides that, people will be excited to know the winner and what they have to say about your product. They can share their excitement and product reviews through a social media post, an unboxing video, or a written review on review sites. Whichever way, this is real, unfiltered feedback that lots of people will be interested in, so it will help create a perception of your brand to a large audience.

When giving out the prizes to winners, encourage them to share their feedback on social media through an incentive such as a discount on future purchases.

Collecting Photos and Videos

Giveaways are a great incentive for people to share photos and videos related to your brand, something they wouldn’t naturally share. For example, if you sell beauty products, you can ask people to share their ‘glow up’ journey after using your brand. All the images and videos shared will have your products or brand in the comments or the media itself, giving you a huge marketing boost.

This type of content generation is much more valuable than any polished product videos you can share, so people will trust the brand more. It will also go a long way in boosting your SEO ranking for the particular keyword you choose to focus on, both on Google and social media.

Creating Long-Term Content Opportunities

The impact of giveaways on user-generated content doesn’t end with the campaign. When users create social media posts, reviews, images, and videos, this is content that you can use at any point.

Since it’s authentic, you can repurpose the content and use it on your website testimonials or your Pinterest board. You can also feature the content in your email newsletters, social media posts, and even ad campaigns. The content adds a strong degree of authenticity to any ads you create.

Boosting Community Engagement

Giveaways are a great way to bring together users with the same interests and get them to create content about your brand or products. For example, if you run a bookstore, you can have participants share their favorite reading spots. This will get people engaging in the interesting contest on social media, helping generate content with your brand in the tags and comments.

This helps turn a simple giveaway into a community of people with the same interests, and it will be easy for them to stay connected to your brand even beyond the contest.

If you are thinking about launching a giveaway, start with a clear goal, offer a prize that aligns well with your brand and marketing efforts, then encourage participants to share their content in creative ways. You can also partner with a promotion agency to ensure efficiency and the success of your campaign in creating a more engaged and loyal community around your brand.