How Influencer-Generated Content Is Different From Other Content

Both brands and marketers are working with a plethora of different types of content, and one of the most popular and successful types is influencer-generated content. Content marketing has become a must for most major brands in today's ultra-competitive digital landscape. Over the past decade, the rapid rise of social media has led marketers to put a strong emphasis on UGC, which is an acronym for user-generated content. This belief developed from the idea that interactions with consumers on social media produces organic, highly-reputable advertisements for your products or services. For instance, when you see a friend praise a brand on their Instagram page, you immediately know you can have a sense of trust in its products. This same ideology is that makes influencer generated content different from other forms of content.  

How Influencer-Generated Content Is Different From Other Content

For those who may be unfamiliar, influencer-generated content is when brands work with influencers to create content that promotes their products and services on social media and/or websites. Influencers are social media personalities that typically specialize in a particular niche. Influencer-generated content is different from the likes of user-generated content and brand-generated content. With influencer-generated content, brands discover influencers whose interests, values, and audiences align with those of the brands’ to promote their products and services. Unlike user-generated content, where everyday users of a brand often post about it on social media to their friends, relatives, and colleagues. brands can utilize an influencer to generate their own content tailored to be promoted directly to the consumer. The reason this is more effective than UGC is simple... Influence.

Influence Is Powerful

Influencers are professionals, many of them often making a living from their promotion of products. Their word is their brand, so they take pride in creating interesting, high-quality content for their audiences. Brand deals bring about both opportunity and status in the industry, so by consistently promoting only reputable brands and products, they can continue to grow their follower counts and attract more brand deals. It's for this reason influencers rarely promote products they do not like or truly endorse. The growing relevance of social media influencers has led to a shift in consumer behavior. Whether it's fashion, music, fitness, travel, or any other niche, influencers have quite literally become the modern-day taste-makers of this generation. They invoke huge trust with consumers because of the influence they have on the purchasing decisions of their audience.

Consumer Purchasing Behaviors Have Changed

At one time, traditional advertising was essentially the only game in town. We watched commercials between segments of other television commercials and listened to ads on the radio during our daily commute. But times have changed, and with those changes has been the purchasing behaviors of today's consumer. Many of today’s consumers simply don’t trust traditional advertising. They view it as overly 'salesy' or unreliable, so when they seek out recommendations and referrals on brands or products, they typically turn to their friends, as well as the people they follow and admire online. And nowadays, they are turning to the internet more and more frequently and looking for the guidance of an influencer.

Content Creation Can Be Expensive

There’s no set dollar amount for social media content creation, but Virtual Measures reported that content marketing campaigns in 2018 typically cost anywhere from $5,000 to more than $50,000, depending on the size and scale of the initiative. For large companies, those big content creation budgets can be even higher. By eliminating the need to create content internally, you can slash your budget. IGC allows you the flexibility to create reasonable budgets for your brand, which means you won’t experience any unpleasant surprises as you continue your campaign. You also have to worry about quality. Creating content with high-production value doesn't always equate to a higher overall value when it comes to effective content marketing. Influencers can create highly-engaging, personalized content at the touch of a button on their smartphones if they so choose, and this can make a substantial difference in how you allocate a campaign budget, and how you can scale your efforts.

Brands Can Repurpose Influencer-Generated Content

Another powerful difference with IGC is that it can be tinkered and repurposed into content for different platforms. An example of this would be an influencer’s social media posts being repurposed for a page on your brand’s website that showcases what people are saying about a specific product. There are several ways to repurpose content, and the trust an influencer brings into the brand partnership is evergreen as it applies to the content.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Influencer-generated content may just sound like a trendy buzzword or a marketing ploy. However, it’s worked for thousands of businesses that want to expand their brands and enjoy greater visibility online. IGC gives influencers the chance to tell their stories from their individual points of view, which makes them more credible. Explore the powerful benefits of IGC by partnering with an influencer marketing agency as a productive alternative to searching for influencers on your own.

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