Ultra abonnement.
If you regularly use social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, you've likely come across the term "UGC Creator" once or twice. You've probably even engaged with UGC creator content while not truly understanding what it is but wanting to learn more. Many UGC creators are sharing their journeys of building portfolios in hopes of selling their content to brands and inspiring other creators. In this blog post, we'll be diving into what a UGC creator is and how they differ from other types of content creators that you may be more familiar with.
To start, UGC stands for user-generated content, traditionally the name for content that customers organically post when sharing products and services from their favorite brands online. Instead of brands pouring money into advertisements and photoshoots to create content themselves, they use authentic content from their customers (usually in the form of a repost) to build their social presence and inevitably entice new customers. However, when people are just posting on the fly about products they love, they're not caring about things like perfect lighting or aesthetics, which is where UGC creators come in. UGC creators make content that feels authentic but has a certain level of professionalism that brands may not come across when sorting through mentions and tags from real, everyday people.
See an example of UGC creator content here.
What's the difference between an Influencer and a UGC Creator?
While both Influencers and UGC creators fall under the content creator umbrella, they are not the same. Influencers are creators who have built a unique community and whose influence can drive them to purchase a product or service based on their recommendations shared online. When brands work with influencers, they're looking for quality content and to tap into that particular person's audience, which likely fits the demographic a brand wishes to reach. For an Influencer, growing a social media following is their primary concern.
On the other hand, a UGC creator technically doesn't need a following for a brand to work with them. When a brand works with a UGC creator, they want to tap into their content creation skills to get high-quality, authentic feeling content. UGC creators generally don't have to post the content on their platforms because they are selling it to brands to use at their discretion. Additionally, UGC creators don't have to appear in the content—it's about the product. The effectiveness of an Influencer is heavily weighted on their power to convert followers to shoppers. At the same time, a UGC creator must make aesthetically pleasing content that resonates with the brand's audience.
If you need an example for clarity, let's look at a hypothetical case of a photographer and how they would position themselves as an Influencer vs. a UGC creator.
Influencer: As an Influencer, a photographer would likely share tips and tricks for taking and editing photos and even share some of their must-have equipment. A brand that's launching a new camera lens may reach out to partner on a post of them trying out the lens and teaching their audience about it. The post would live on one of their social platforms.
UGC-Creator: On the flip side, a photographer on the UGC creator path would create content showing how to use the equipment but not necessarily give their opinions on it because building influence is not their primary concern—creating stellar content for brands to use is. The content would live on the brand's social feeds with no obligations to the creator to post it on their own.
If you've been exploring your options as far as getting into content creation, following the path of a UGC creator may be more your speed if you don't care to build a following and simply want to flex your creative muscles and generate revenue doing so. So, what do you think about UGC content creation? Let's chat about it on Twitter.