When the target group reports themselves: User-generated content enables participation
At the beginning of the year we wrote about user-generated content as a trend in social media marketing. Now we want to deepen this topic and show in which projects we use UCG to get the message across and enable the target groups to participate.
People trust what they know. This fact means that we tend to believe friends or family rather than a politician or a bank chief, because “they” are not part of our environment of trust. At the same time, people are always on the lookout for others who are similar to themselves. This type of self-affirmation is existential for our (survival) life and self-esteem. Because belonging to a group has meant security and protection from the very beginning of mankind.
So how can these findings be applied to modern communication and marketing today? Very simple: let the target group have their say and involve them in their work. Numerous projects and campaigns are currently being launched under the keywords participation and “user-generated content” (UGC) - the focus is always on the authentic person and his story.
Matrix also makes targeted use of these approaches in projects. Always with the aim of conveying the customer's message or topic to the target group as authentically as possible and taking into account the needs and wishes of the user. We already touched on UGC in our post on the social media trends for 2019. Now we want to present some application examples.
Concept for social media work of the consumer advice centers
How can consumer advice centers in Germany better reach young people? Matrix should answer this question with a social media concept. Instead of simply relying on our experience, we asked the target group themselves: At a workshop at a school, high school students and employees from the consumer center discussed the possibilities of integrating social media into communication work. The fact that user-generated content was ultimately seen as an important part is at least as crucial as this completely participatory approach to developing the concept.
Image film for the Eifel district
The task in this project: to produce an image film for securing skilled workers in the Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm. In order to give the film a professional look - as the viewer is used to with image films - we decided to work with testimonials. So the technical component remains in our hands, but those who are also to be addressed as the target group have their say: people who base their lives in the region. The important question here is where we film the testimonials. Instead of just meeting them in the business environment, we also met them privately and thus draw an overall picture of the living space that they have created in the Eifel district.
Testimonials and UGC at "Next Career"
We have a mixed form of testimonial work and user-generated content in the project "Next Career" applied. Here we are dealing with a sensitive topic: doubts about studying or even changing subjects or dropping out of studies. Many students feel bad because of their doubts, so our goal was to show that it is perfectly normal and important to deal with these worries appropriately - and to find solutions. So here we worked with films in which we portrayed testimonials. It was important to us here that the protagonists could also bring their story into the concept. They looked for the locations with us, selected important messages that should be conveyed and took us with them into their own personal world. Your user-generated content: A message to all the other students that they presented in their very own way in each video. Different forms of expression were represented, from self-painted posters to described study boards.
In order to get even closer to the target group, we also had students or those who had switched to an apprenticeship write their own blog posts. These were then only edited by our editorial team and are posted on the project website's blog as stories of their own. In this way, we let the actual target group participate in the communication work - and turned them into micro-influencers in their own circle of friends and family. We gave them the space to edit the message that they wrote themselves and to share it with people in order to help others.
MINT project zdi: young people become actors themselves
We use UGC most extensively in the “Future through Innovation.NRW” project. This is about the STEM funding for children and young people from all over the state. At schools, universities, in companies or school laboratories, schoolchildren can deal with the natural sciences and technology in various ways. The aim is to make these subjects attractive to the next generation in order to counteract the shortage of skilled workers.
Such a topic is primarily about the individual interests of individuals. And the question of whether the friends are also interested in STEM. Therefore, what counts for us above all is the influence of young people on their direct circle of friends - every participant in a zdi course can, as a micro-influencer, inspire others about the topic. That is why we specifically rely on UGC for our social media work: be it take-over actions of ours Instagram channel or reports of MINT projects on our zdi portal - The young people can report themselves. Of course, our editorial team always has an eye on the content. The top priority, however, is that the opinions and content of the users are always reproduced authentically and almost unchanged.
In addition to digital forms of exchange, we also rely on participatory event formats. One example is our BarCamp, which "YouthScienceCamps", where the zdi community meets in real life and discusses, experiments and exchanges ideas about MINT. This creates a dynamic that is generated in the target group itself - you can hardly get any closer to the users. Participation guaranteed.
Conclusion: use UCG authentically in projects
UGC gives your target audience a voice and helps spread your message and encourage participation. This does not happen with partly artificial advertising slogans, but quite authentically with the help of convinced users. Feedback from the community can also improve the offer. For example, products or services can be optimized.
The range of possible uses is wide: both testimonials and take-over campaigns are part of UGC and can achieve the desired effect depending on the project. The smallest bet is a like. However, the dimensions are unlimited, for example Tesla ran a campaign under the slogan Project Loveday, in which fans produced cinematic web videos. User-generated content is therefore also a tool for community building: the active involvement of users leads to them recognizing themselves as part of a community.
Contact Person
Are you interested in our approaches to target group participation? Then speak to our team of experts.
Fabio Mancarella
mancarella@matrix-gmbh.de
Arne Klauke
klauke@matrix-gmbh.de
