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User-generated content (UGC)

At its most basic, user-generated content (UGC) is content created by regular people on social media rather than brands.

User-generated content can help increase brand awareness and customer loyalty by allowing businesses to tap into their customers’ excitement and creative energies.

Traditionally, brands have collected that organic content through contests, branded hashtags, or simply reaching out to ask permission. When brands reshare that content with their own followers, they’re implementing a UGC campaign.

However, the meaning of UGC has expanded in recent years to include the work produced by freelance marketers. Brands pay “UGC creators” to produce content that looks like organic UGC. Unlike influencers, who promote brands using their own channels, UGC creators hand over the content they make for distribution on the brands’ own channels.

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