User-generated content (UGC) is now an essential lever in any social media strategy to boost social proof.
In an ecosystem saturated with bland content often produced by artificial intelligence, UGC provides valuable authenticity that strengthens a brand's credibility and optimizes marketing performance.
Find out why UGC has become essential and how to use it effectively to maximize engagement, reach, and conversions on social media.
Originally spontaneous and unregulated, UGC has evolved over the years.
👉 To learn everything there is to know about UGC, read our ultimate guide.
From the early days of social media, consumers informally shared their experiences with brands, such as the famous Starbucks cup with a name, often misspelled, written on it.
Brands quickly recognized the potential of this authentic content: today, they encourage, reward, and even pay for it to enrich their social media content strategy.
Skincare brand Erborian uses several UGC content creators to enrich its Instagram feed with social proof based on the different skin types of its users.
By valuing the voice of your customers, you create a close connection and a sense of belonging.
UGC humanizes the brand and encourages interaction with its community.
Example: a brand that reposts its customers' photos in stories or posts often generates more comments and shares than 100% institutional content.
This proves that authenticity generates more resonance.
Creating social media content is often time-consuming and expensive.
UGC allows you to maintain a regular publication schedule by relying on creators who know the platforms' codes.
This saves time and money, while remaining relevant.
Every piece of UGC is social proof in action: it shows that others have tried, approved, and validated the product.
This reassurance reduces mistrust and speeds up the purchasing decision, directly boosting conversions.
UGC is therefore extremely powerful social proof: an unboxing video or product test is worth more than an advertising slogan.
In a digital purchasing journey, seeing other satisfied consumers creates an immediate sense of trust and reduces friction.
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Social proof is strategic for your brand, and we can probably help you gather UGC for this purpose. Discover our platform!
Social media algorithms favor content that generates interaction (likes, comments, shares).
User-generated content is often perceived as more authentic and therefore more engaging, allowing it to reach a wider audience.
A well-crafted UGC post can naturally generate more virality than advertising content, especially on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Pinterest, where humanized videos are highly valued.
As a brand, you undoubtedly have your own artistic direction and a carefully crafted tone of voice.
By using UGC, your content is more likely to catch the eye of your followers who are not used to seeing this style.
User-generated content brings variety, authenticity, and a fresh perspective to your products or services.
Whether it's photos taken in real-life situations, spontaneous videos, or customer testimonials, these visuals break up the monotony of your feed and reflect the diversity of your community.
This allows you to reach different targets and highlight the various uses of your offerings.
Once you have collected content generated by your customers via Loyoly, the challenge is to use it effectively in your social media campaigns.
It's not just a matter of reposting: UGC must be strategically integrated into your editorial line and reflect your brand objectives.
Here are the levers to activate:
UGC can be used in a variety of formats.
Each social media platform has its own codes:
The important thing is to adapt the content to the platform without distorting it: authenticity remains the key to UGC performance.
UGC should not be used at random: integrate it into themed campaigns or narrative threads.
Here are a few ideas:
UGC can (and should) be anticipated in your content planning as an editorial pillar in its own right.
Examples:
This allows you to have rich, regular content that is aligned with your marketing highlights.
You can schedule your posts in advance in an editorial calendar with the help of Swello.
Before publishing UGC content, make sure you follow certain rules:
Even the best-thought-out UGC strategy is not enough to guarantee results.
To measure its real impact and optimize your future actions, it is essential to track specific performance indicators.
This is where social media management and analysis tools such as the French platform Swello come in.
With its advanced features, Swello allows you to measure the effectiveness of your user-generated content on different platforms and generate a ranking of the best posts/stories.
UGC is based on authenticity and engagement, but its value remains primarily marketing-related.
Without accurate analysis of the impact, it is impossible to know:
To evaluate your UGC campaigns, here are the key indicators to track regularly:
Once you have collected these metrics, use them to:
Loyoly allows you to collect UGC content through missions in the loyalty program while automatically validating usage rights.
Swello complements this by strategically distributing this content on social media.
Together, they offer a seamless solution to engage the community and amplify the reach of customer content.
Loyoly is a loyalty and referral platform combined with UGCs, which helps to engage customers in 40+ ways to increase LTV and social proof, while reducing CAC.
