For example, dog subscription box retailer Bark uses UGC in its Instagram strategy to showcase various dogs of Instagram for engaging and adorable content. The brand always tags the original creator to give teacher data due credit. It’s important to note that you should ask permission before reposting a users’ photograph onto your brand account.
Here’s an example of one of Bark’s UGC posts:
A screenshot of a UGC post on Bark's Instagram
As a way to build a community and encourage your customers to share their photos of your product is to put some sort of call-to-action for your followers. Share this in your bio, like we see below on Nestle’s Instagram bio—the brand has asked for users to tag its profile in photos of their “delicious moments.”
A screenshot of Nestle's Instagram bio asking for UGC
8. Provide value on social media
There are so many different types of content you can create on social media. Some will—of course—be more promotional in nature, because your business is to make a profit both solve customer’s problems and needs as well as make a profit.
However, you need to ensure there’s a good balance between your promotional content and the educational and free value you provide to your audience, whether it’s freebies, discount codes or knowledge.
Share your business’ value visually in a Facebook or Instagram carousel, or you can create an X (formerly known as Twitter) thread that shares information like we did below.