Whether the service you offer is white-collar or blue-collar or whether it’s legal representation or landscaping, you are going to want to take advantage of user-generated content for your social media presence. User-generated content helps you maintain an active social media presence without overextending your marketing efforts and it helps you form stronger relationships with your clients.
We can expand on these reasons in just a second. First, let’s start by addressing what user-generated content is. In the context of digital marketing—which includes not only your website but also your active presence on social media platforms—you’re always looking for fresh material. A boring, static, inactive online presence just loses people’s interest. But when you constantly have new material to share with them, people are more inclined to pay attention.
The problem is that you’re busy. You’re a service-based business, after all. Sometimes it feels as if you’re constantly on the road, going to clients, and performing your service in order to get paid. You don’t have time to take pics for Instagram or write up a clever message for Facebook.
That’s why businesses, especially service businesses like yours, count on user-generated content. This is the stuff your followers (aka your customers) are already saying about you online. You just share it to your own business page, with their permission, of course.
Why is this such a great marketing tactic? Service businesses that share user-generated content usually:
Have stronger relationships with their followers
It’s true—when you include a positive review of your service on your website or you share before and after pics from a project on your Facebook page, you’re telling your customers that you value their feedback. They’ll be more likely to give you a shoutout on social media in the future too.
Seen as more reliable and trustworthy
You can tell people your service is the best out there, but will people believe it? Maybe not. At least, not when it comes from you. But when it comes from former customers? Then they’ll definitely believe it. Content that originates from your customers will be perceived as a more reliable endorsement.
More active overall on social media
It’s tough to have a solid social media presence when it’s just you who is creating the content. However, when you have your followers and customers providing you with content? All of a sudden, those holes in your social media schedule start filling themselves.
What User-Generated Content Should My Service Business Share?
The tricky thing about user-generated content is that you don’t always know what your followers are going to say or share. But if it’s positive, then you can ask them for permission to repost it on your business page. In addition, if it’s negative, you also have the chance to address the feedback constructively.
Two ways that a service business can share user-generated content:
Share a review
Whether it’s just a few positive words that somebody wrote on Facebook or a lengthy review they posted to Yelp or Angie’s List, take a few highlights and put them into a graphic on Canva. You could even create an entire Testimonial section on your website.
Repost pictures
If your customers post pics from their experience with your business, hit that share button. To boost the likelihood that people will take pics, you need to make sure your service feels like an experience. Make it exciting and make it fun. People are more inclined to take photos of things that feel like something significant in their lives.
How Service Businesses Can Encourage User-Generated Content
“Okay, I like the idea of user-generated content,” you might be thinking, “but nobody else is posting about me on social media? How do I get them to do this?”
It might be that some people just don’t think to brag about services on social media. Unlike the restaurant/bar industry (where they want to share pics of food or cocktails) or the retail industry (where they’re excited about cool new products they bought), they might not be as excited about getting a service like tax prep or car repair.
That being said, some services really are Instagrammable for some people—a great haircut or home renovation is worth bragging about. As we said earlier, it’s important to make your service, no matter what it is, feel fun and exciting.
Beyond that, here are three methods for garnering user-generated content that your service business should know:
Encourage, encourage, encourage
Just tell people you’d appreciate a shoutout on social media if they appreciate the work you did. Most people will do it if they’re prompted—it just might not be something they think about off the top of their head.
Make sure you have a page on all platforms
Even if you aren’t active on all platforms (because not every business is suited for every platform), you should at least have some sort of account so people have the option of tagging you. You might be surprised by what people say about you on Twitter, for example, or about the media they send out on Snapchat. As long as they’re okay with it, you can always take that material and share it on a different platform where you have more followers.
Share user-generated content on a regular basis
When your followers see that other people are bragging about you on social media and that you’re actually sharing that content, they’ll be more inclined to follow suit. This doesn’t mean you have to share every last thing you’re tagged in on social media—but you should at least aim to do it regularly.
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