User-generated content for digital marketing strategy: A blueprint for modern marketing managers

The marketing environment evolved to a point where one way marketing messages made way for interactive discussions. Now, even product design and the creation of advertisements developed by companies are also making room for more involvement by consumers. It is foreseeable that stakeholders will form new habits and expectations which will in turn raise minimum requirements for the processes around socially interactive marketing. Every marketing manager and senior policy maker would like to understand exactly what drives consumers to participate in User-generated content and how this impacts the business. This has become a key question at the heart of content marketing strategy and it affects our business intelligence planning. Multi-disciplinary researchers of marketing, media and IT sectors constantly renew their efforts to stay up to date with the fast moving technologically driven environment. The current phenomenon’s of social media and user generated content (UGC) is a point of convergence for several sectors, which started to receive exponentially more attention around the world. It is evident in by the amount of branded communities, independent social media platforms and brand sponsored communities on the web. One thing has become clear: The control has shifted from the brand to the consumer. Brands now have a choice: get ready to embrace a new way of marketing which is customer centric, or watch how consumers move on to other brands who enable them to socialize the brand online. With e-commerce evolving around user-generated content, this publication uses examples such as Amazon, Airbnb, Facebook and Odesk to help every business grasp the key concepts which underpin co-creation of value online by social businesses. No brand can survive without being social on the web today. 

This publication will help marketing professionals and web developers to understand what factors motivate users to contribute content online. It will help brand managers and policy makers to improve the user experience and to make crucial decisions at the heart of the marketing strategy. 

The Author, Adriaan Brits holds a MSC in Marketing and is a fellow with both the IDM (institute of digital and direct marketing) and CIM (Chartered institute of marketing) and teaches various digital marketing courses via Udemy.