Transform Your Business with User-Generated Content Creation

Utilizing user-generated content creation has emerged as the top strategy for enhancing awareness, interest, and trust in businesses. People telling other people about their experiences with your product or service is infinitely more powerful than any other marketing you could create—and doesn’t cost you a penny. Engaging with users and fans of your company helps to grow your business and create a robust online presence.

What is User-Generated Content?

User-generated content, or UGC, is original, unpaid content that users create and share online in their social media posts, blogs, videos, and photos about their experience with a product or business. When your mom posts a pic of the vitamins that make her feel ten years younger, or when your friend posts a video about the brilliant doctor that finally diagnosed their rash, that’s UGC.

According to the “State of UGC 2021 Report,” user-generated content is the most trusted content. Consumers trust genuine customer reviews far more than other types of content about a business or brand.

In healthcare, UGC can also be personalized content caregivers or patients create; it can include testimonials, reviews, treatment experiences, personal health journeys, and interactions in online support groups or forums.

People want to read about success stories related to health. User-generated content can significantly impact healthcare businesses by sharing first-hand case studies that can promote brands and influence potential clients.

Enhancing Your Healthcare Content Strategy: The Benefits of User-Generated Content Creation

Let’s break down the benefits of user-generated content creation when planning the content strategy for your business.

Trust

In healthcare, trust is essential, and people are more likely to trust a person’s actual experience over a business’s claims of greatness. User-generated content is credible, authentic, and unbiased, using regular people’s opinions and experiences rather than a business’s advertising.

Most people claim that UGC influences them more than the content made by businesses, so UGC about your brand can level it up in the eyes of consumers. Users are more likely to trust and interact with UGC because it is real, relatable, and engaging. This content leads to a better reputation for your business and increases patient confidence.

Awareness

User-generated content platforms can boost the awareness of your business. Users post on social media, sparking questions and conversations about your brand. They can include a business’s hashtags when sharing about the real-life use of your product. Online platforms offer many opportunities for patients to discuss their connection with you and your brand. People enjoy discussing what they like and what works for them, which can help spread the word about your business.

Using user-generated content creation is an excellent opportunity for businesses to share expert advice, education, and resources, increasing engagement with your patients and promoting the development of a cooperative environment and reputation around your brand.

Engagement

User-generated content creation plays a pivotal role in healthcare, enabling patients to share their health journeys and concerns, and to seek answers from a broader community. Questions like “What works for you?” or “What was your experience?” are central to this process. It not only informs but also creates a comforting space for support and a sense of belonging among patients.

You can participate in these discussions and engage with patients by answering questions; clearing up misleading, confusing, or inaccurate information; and establishing guidelines to protect private health information within discussions, demonstrating care and commitment to your patients. This patient-provider collaboration helps people feel important and valued.

User-generated content creation benefits both brands and users. You get your name and brand out there as a trusted source, and users can feel heard and noticed, solidifying their partnership with you.

Insights

UGC offers valuable consumer feedback and insight into your business or product’s performance. Feedback can help identify common concerns or patterns your business can improve for greater client satisfaction. Ratings, reviews, and patient feedback provide reliable data highlighting improvement opportunities.

How Can User-Generated Content Improve Your SEO Rankings?

UGC adds a stream of fresh content about your brand. Search engines assign value to platforms and websites that are active and update their content regularly. It is essential to use  the right keywords and have user-friendly platforms that encourage online users to comment, interact, and share, shining more attention on your brand and improving SEO rankings.

User-generated content employs natural language and words that a person searching for answers to their questions would use when typing into a search bar, often using specific long-tail keywords that, due to what your clients are typing and discussing, may lead them right to you! 

When online users mention your business, link to or share your content, it shows search engines that your business, and online content about your business, is valuable to users. This improves traffic and positions your business as an authority, helping to improve your SEO ranking.

What are the Best Ways to Encourage User-Generated Content?

Encourage people to produce more user-generated content to use in your marketing. Let them know what you’re looking for and make it easy for them.

• Ask questions, and ask for their thoughts, opinions, and photos. 
• Acknowledge and ask to reuse existing UGC. 
• Request recommendations and feedback. 
• Provide comment boxes, sharing buttons, and branded hashtags for consumers to use, which give them a chance to be recognized or featured. 
• Respond and interact. 

This process helps create a sense of community that keeps them coming back!

User-generated content offers many benefits for your healthcare business, from building trust to increasing awareness, fostering engagement between you and your clients, offering insights for improvement, and helping SEO ranking. Health businesses can look forward to increased client confidence, growth, and success by harnessing the power of user-generated content.

References

Ma, T., & Atkin, D. (2017). User generated content and credibility evaluation of online health information: A meta analytic study. Telematics and Informatics, 34(5), 472-486. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0736585316302556 
Mazouri, H. (2021, July 14). User-generated content: 5 steps to turn customers into advocates. SproutSocial. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/user-generated-content-guide/
Oladipo, T. (2022, June 6).  A Straightforward Approach to User Generated Content that Connects. Buffer. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r8hZEU7Lfa2nyrSPPKAsnoMXzsOr9E61CXARg2wsu9o/edit# 
Pruthi, N., Wadhwa, R., & Bansal, R. (2021). Analyzing Role of User Generated Content in Marketing in Digital Age. Nolegein Journal of Information Technology & Management, 4(1), 1-4. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354473799_Analyzing_Role_of_User_Generated_Content_in_Marketing_in_Digital_Age 
Saura, J.R., Reyes-Menendez, A.R., & Filipe, F. (2019). Comparing Data-Driven Methods for Extracting Knowledge from User Generated Content. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 5(4), 74. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2199853122001925
TINT. (2023). The State of Social & User-Generated Content 2023. https://715411.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/715411/TINT%2520-%2520Downloads/State_of_Social_and_UGC_2023_TINT.pdf?utm_campaign%3DSOSUGC%25202023%26utm_medium%3Demail%26_hsmi%3D243159802%26_hsenc%3Dp2ANqtz-8p40RmM6cahqtGI6AaexQqAb3jMiZgXAUwpzVoHk0LwZj9Ui09uUXoI-EIBshsc3Mew0DGiZkXwvsdYcQyYPUS_nfO8w%26utm_content%3D243159802%26utm_source%3Dhs_automation&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1685214028900621&usg=AOvVaw33AUZRRyHqdFADg-ljLseq.