5 Ways to Use Fan Content to Improve Your ROI

By Juliet Carnoy
Published October 13, 2015

Do you want to increase the ROI for your social media campaigns?

Have you considered fan content?

Using fan photos in your marketing is an effective way to highlight your brand, products and customers at the same time.

In this article you'll discover five ways to drive ROI with user-generated content campaigns on social media.

Discover how to use fan content to improve your ROI.

With the proliferation of online channels in addition to those of traditional marketing, you're in a constant battle for your audience's attention. Rather than rely solely on your creative team to produce content, consider turning to your customers.

Putting in the time and effort to develop customer relationships typically means that your social media program will consume a large share of your marketing budget. For this reason, you may be asked to justify spending by providing concrete social media ROI. It's true that it's difficult to measure the business value of a like or a shared post, but you can successfully run social marketing campaigns and see real returns for your efforts.

Take a look at how these five brands have launched and managed user-generated content campaigns across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Charlotte Russe ran an exceptional social media marketing campaign to showcase the #CharlotteLook (how influencers were styling their clothes). Instagram users were asked to upload their favorite Charlotte look and use the campaign hashtag in their posts.

The company selected the most on-brand user-generated content from the campaign and displayed it on their homepage.

Charlotte Russe asked users to upload photos of their favorite look to social media channels using the hashtag #CharlotteLook.

Charlotte Russe linked each winning photo to the product pages of the items that were featured in the photo. This tactic resulted in viewers who engaged with the customer photos being 28 times more likely to end up on a Charlotte Russe product page.

6 Pack Fitness launched their #LeadThePack campaign with a weekly bag giveaway. They asked users to submit a photo for a chance be featured on the website and win a bag of their choice.

Ask your fans to submit photos for a chance to win a free product, like 6 Pack Fitness did with the hashtag #LeadThePack.

6 Pack Fitness's social media marketing strategy included displaying the best customer photos featuring their bags on the company's product pages.

The company saw an immediate impact on their ecommerce performance. Customers who interacted with one of the customer photos on their product pages were 2.7 times more likely to make a purchase and had 12% larger order sizes.

The Breckenridge Colorado Tourism Office ran a successful social media campaign that asked: Why do you love Breckenridge? Fans were asked to share their thoughts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Ask your fans to share their own perspectives about your products or destination.

Under the tagline #BreckBecause, fans formed an online community that showcased the authentic Breckenridge experience.

As a result of this campaign, GoBreck.com increased web traffic from social media by 841% and increased Instagram followers by 93%.

Ahnu has a customer base of active adventurers who wear their shoes. The brand launched its #Ahnu campaign to collect photos of cool things their fans were doing and interesting places they were visiting. The company displayed #Ahnu campaign submissions on their Facebook page, and viewers could vote on their favorite content.

Let your fans share how you fit into their lives.

The users who engaged with these customer photos were 12 times more likely to end up on the Ahnu website.

California Natural Products wanted to increase brand awareness about their Svelte protein shakes on social media. Under the hashtag #DrinkSvelte, they asked fans to post photos of themselves and their Svelte drinks.

Ask fans to submit photos with your products.

The best photos were displayed on the Svelte website, and the photos generated more than 2 million impressions online.

How to Leverage Your Own User-Generated Content

The brands featured in this article went above and beyond just collecting content. They dispersed it through a wide range of networks. The right marketing mix is different for every company, so you'll have to experiment with what works best for your business.

To get you started, here are a few ways that you can put all of that great customer content from your social media marketing campaigns to work for you.

Advertise on Social Channels. Advertising with user-generated content offers an authentic look into your brand. Place your highest-performing customer photos and videos in display ads to avoid ad fatigue and keep your retargeting campaigns fresh. Remember to budget in advance for strategic paid promotion and anticipate where you might want to conduct your content advertising outside of your owned media.

Use Your Owned Marketing Channels. User-generated content can yield significant results when used on your owned media and ecommerce websites. Place real customer photos on your product pages as visual reviews. These visual endorsements help articulate the value of your products or services. Also don't forget to repost customer photos aggressively on your social media channels and engage in conversations with your customers.

Don't Forget Print. There's no reason you have to stick to digital. You can place user-generated content on packaging and on physical and live displays. For example, Apple placed customer photos from their Shot on iPhone 6 campaign on billboards. Package inserts can be a cost-effective and versatile medium for building relationships with your customers. Leveraging your highest-performing user content can significantly bolster your print campaigns.

Conclusion

User-generated content campaigns are a great way to monitor and participate in social conversations as they develop and evolve. Visual user content can increase the ROI from your social media campaigns. There's no one-size-fits-all solution, but through trial and error, you can learn how to get the most out of your campaign content and celebrate your loyal customer base.

What do you think? What are some of the best user-generated content campaigns that you've seen? Feel free to share in the comments below.

Tips for using fan content to improve your ROI.

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.4&appId=159389674132284"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));About the Author, Juliet Carnoy

Juliet Carnoy is a marketing manager at Pixlee, a platform that helps brands to market and sell with customer photos and videos. She is a Scripps College alum and California native. Other posts by Juliet Carnoy »

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