The previous post focused on the advantages of User-generated content (UGC). This post focuses on the disadvantages of user-generated content and its effect on companies. These can affect the company and brand image and force other consumers to go to a competitor. I will discuss the following disadvantages in this blog post.

Companies give up control to a certain extent

• By allowing users to post content on their site, they are allowing users to have more control in the sense that they can post a variety of things, that may or may not be good for the company and brand image

Negative reviews and wrong perceptions can drive other consumers away

• Users who are disgruntled due to poor service will post on the site, causing other users and consumers to see
• Users may have a wrong perception of the company or may have had a bad experience due to some reason. They may post this on the site, which can have a negative impact on the image of the company if not addressed properly

Lack of moderation of comments, which can include offensive language, spam comments, and insults can damage the brand’s website and cause traffic to move away from the site

• Users may get annoyed by the spam comments or posts that others post if the site is not moderated correctly, therefore the site must be monitored and moderated by the company at all times

User-generated content (UGC) is content that is uploaded to a company’s site by its users and customers through the use of blogs, community forums, reviews, and comments and opinions sections. There are many advantages and disadvantages of UGC. UGC can have either a positive impact or negative impact on a company’s marketing efforts and the image of the entire brand. In this post I will discuss two of the advantages of user-generated content to companies.

Firstly, UGC enhances the user’s experience in various ways.

• Allows users to voice their opinions
• Allows users to read comments or reviews posted by other users
• Allows users to feel that their view and opinion counts in the company and have a personal interaction with the company
• New and fresh content is uploaded to the site by users, which creates interest for other users
• More brand awareness for users as they read posts by others and as they browse the site

Secondly, UGC serves as its own marketing tool to promote the company and its products or services.

• The company is able to provide better service as it can directly address issues faced by its users
• Positive reviews by other customers and users create this positive word-of-mouth across not only the company’s site but also across various social media platforms, as a user is likely to post on other mediums
• The company can actively monitor, listen, and engage with users and provided a more effective service to its users

Here is an example of user-generated content used  in a Taco Bell advertisement, where the UGC is the instagram pictures.

UGC in Taco Bell Advertisement

Instagram has also joined the bandwagon, now adding advertisements to its application, after having over 150 million users. It was a matter of time before the Facebook subsidiary added advertisements to its app. Free social media sites have usually earned majority of its revenue through ads. For example, Facebook earned $655 million from advertisements in the last quarter according to the article “Poll: What Do You Think of Instagram Ads”.

Now that they have added this feature, it will be interesting to see the type of content that comes through these advertisements. Usually, people get annoyed and irritated by advertisements on Facebook. They find them  irrelevant and not useful at times. For advertisers to be successful on instagram, they must make sure that the material they put out or share is valuable to the user and allows for a two-way communication to exist between the user and the advertiser, perhaps through the comments section. It can be a very successful form of advertising if used appropriately by brands, as instagram has the hashtagging capability, allowing for content to become viral. If not,  users will get annoyed by the constant ads being targeted towards them.