The acronym is so oft-repeated that it seems almost archaic now.

Don’t get me wrong! Enough and more has been published on user-generated content by marketers of every stripe that writing about it, once again, seemed to be a futile exercise.

But the fact is: user-generated content (UGC) although an overused, regurgitated marketing tactic, is here to stay.

Why?

Because people tend to trust UGC 1200% more over commercial content from brands, since content generated by regular customers tend to resonate with other customers more than pushy, promotional messages released by brands, and, going by these stats, very soon, UGC may be the only form of marketing left to reach clients.

Sports brands seem to have realized this and are making the most of it. And given that user-generated content of sports brands is highly visually driven, the customer engagement rate of such content is also quite high.

(For the uninitiated, visual content gets 94% more clicks than content without it.)

Unsurprisingly, sports brands such as Nike, GoPro, Adidas, Lazer Sports have UGC baked into their marketing strategies as a way to engage, retain, and reward customers.

The biggest plus: The healthy growth of UGC content could be attributed to a generous contribution by sports fans themselves. And sports marketers are acknowledging this fact and taking advantage of it in their marketing strategies.

Let’s take a look at how the sports industry is leveraging UGC content:

# Laser Sports

In the world of cycling, eCommerce brands are looking for ways to touch base with customers in a positive way. And given that cyclists around the globe connect uniquely, it made sense for the cycling industry to make the most of this association.

For example, cycling brand Laser Sports leverages user-generated content to foster deeper relationships with its online customers.

To celebrate its 100 anniversary, the oldest helmet manufacturer in the world roped in famous athletes and teams, who had being wearing their products for quite some while, for their UGC campaign.

The brand made use of the Photoslurp platform to display products that cyclists had been proudly wearing and, in the process, inspiring other cyclists to wear them as well.

# Nike

Nike collaborated with Instagram to conjure a UGC campaign called Nike PHOTIiD. With 65.7m followers on Instagram – a brand with the most extensive fan base – it made a hell lot of sense for Nike to run a user-generated campaign leveraging Insta photos.

The campaign had a two-pronged approach: one, to focus on the Nike brand and two, to satisfy the creative urge of the audience.

The result: The campaign helped Nike turn a good number of followers into customers. Almost 100,000 shoes were created and sold within the first hour of the week. And during peak times, almost 600 shoes were designed every hour.

Throughout the entire campaign, Nike witnessed a click-through rate of 8% to buy designer shoes via the customer’s respective Nike ID.

# SheFit

SheFit, a sports bra brand, is making the most of user-generated content via its emails. The upgraded integration between Yotpo and Klaviyo (ecommerce marketing software) enabled the sports bra brand to quickly and easily integrate user-generated content into their emails.

According to Luke Butler, director of marketing for SheFit, adding UGC to their emails has increased the CTR of the brand by almost 5.8%.

# Adidas

This major sports brand has set up separate Instagram and Twitter accounts, called “Adidas Originals,” to highlight the exceptional contributions of influencers and customers on its social media profiles. And, amazingly, these profiles have more followers than its main account.

For instance, the Instagram account of Adidas Originals has over 33.8m followers. The account displays new merchandise photos, and more importantly, how Adidas customers are happily donning mismatched pair of shoes; additionally, how celebrities are supporting their brand, among many others.

These photos make the account more exciting than Adidas’ main account that’s into posting several general and commercial-looking images of products. Adidas Originals is not a one-way marketing tool, but also a way for fans and consumers to show their love for the brand.

What’s more, for a global campaign ‘No Fakers, Creators Only,” that featured football stars such as Paulo Dybala, Lionel Messi, and Mo Salah, Adidas invited fans to post videos on its microsite.

The videos showing the best football skills received a pair of Exhibit Pack boots of their choice and a signed Real Madrid jersey.

Wrapping Up

With 4 of the world’s top-notch sports brands embracing UGC to engage with their customers directly, this form of content has almost become the sine qua non of the content marketing world.

Sure, Nike and Adidas boast of a massive follower count and all, so it becomes a tad bit easier for them to generate a whole lot of UGC content. But then, don’t forget, UGC is cost-effective as opposed to other mediums, so brands, per se, won’t stand to lose anything if they want to try UGC.

Over to you now, have you tried leveraging UGC content for your brand?

The post The Prolific Use of User-Generated Content by Sports Brands appeared first on SiteProNews.

So, is your business seriously considering the use of social media as a lead generation tool or are you blinded by a bunch full of lies that are making it difficult for you to use this tool seriously?

No matter what, if you are not taking social media seriously, you are leaving a lot of money on the table.

Here I walk you through 4 big social media lies that could be affecting your business growth prospects:

Lie #1. Social Media Platforms are nothing but Cheerleading Squads

If you think social media platforms are nothing but cheerleading squads, I dare say, you’ve got it completely wrong my friend.

Just like you are hell-bent on measuring the return on investment for PPC ads, it goes without saying that you should be equally keen on figuring out the ROI for the precious time, energy and money you spend on different social media networks. 

To quote a cliche: Time is money.

In short, you shouldn’t just discard your social media activities as a sideline thing. On the contrary, social media platforms should be used as a solid a lead generation tool to drive your business forward.

So, no matter what, make sure to measure your ROI on social media postings as well.

Action Item: Use VOAL to Measure your Social Media ROI

The marketing team at HubSpot has figured out a formula to calculate the ROI for Social media posts. The metric is called VOAL (Value Of A like).

You can read more about this on the HBR blog. Once you have nailed down your VOAL, you can plan out your social media efforts with confidence to generate positive ROI. For more information on how to accurately measure your social media ROI, you can consult some top social media marketing companies.

Lie #2. Influencers are free to Post Content without the #ad Hashtag

If you have roped in influencers to promote your products and services, then it becomes mandatory for them to use the #ad hashtag. Why? Because the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has mandated it.

In other words, FTC wants brands to tell customers that what they are seeing is a paid ad.

I know what you are thinking now! Won’t customers be discouraged seeing the #ad hashtag on your post?

According to Activate’s 2018 State of Influencer Marketing Study, Consumers are not discouraged by sponsored content, provided they are coming from influencers with whom they share a close bond.

So, the only thing that marketers need to care about is to be doubly sure of the influencers they are roping in for promoting their brand. Simply put, they need to hire only those whose values are in keeping with the brand’s values.

This way disclosing about sponsorship won’t hurt customer sentiments.

For the uninitiated, the FTC has cracked down on more than 90 Instagram celebrities, athletes, and other influencers and marketers who failed to clearly disclose their relationships with brands while promoting their products through social media.

To cut to the chase, transparency is the need of the hour when it comes to influencer marketing on social media.

Action Item: Use Social Media’s Built-In disclosure tools for Influencer Marketing.

• Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube have built-in disclosure tools. Influencers can use them to tag brands to signal that a given post is sponsored.
• As per FTC guidelines, ambiguous disclosures, like “Thanks,” “#sp,” “#spon,” “#ambassador,” and “#collab;” should be avoided. Posts should clearly state “#ad” at the beginning or somewhere where it’s easily noticeable.
• Products sent in exchange for coverage (where money isn’t involved) should also be tagged as #ad.

Lie #3. Social Media Marketing Should be Free

Nothing could be further from the truth! If anything, the majority of online businesses’ have succeeded because of their paid ad strategies and not because of free social media postings. Posting on social media every day and thinking that algorithms will work their magic is asking for too much.

Sure, some companies base their success on different free social media marketing strategies. However, the same doesn’t hold for all companies. Successful companies have always invested in their growth.

Never mind big businesses. Even small businesses should think about investing in social media.

Action item: Learn how Buffer benefitted by investing a meager $5 in Facebook Ads

With just a $5 investment in Facebook ads, Buffer achieved the following results:

• Page Likes – $0.57 per like
• Clicks to the Buffer for Business landing page – $4.01 per click
• Boosted post – $6.35 per additional 1,000 people reached

From a broader perspective, an investment worth $5 per day might well fetch you these numbers: 

• Page Likes – 9 likes per day
• Clicks to the Buffer homepage – 1 per day
• Boosted post – 787 new people reached

Lie #4. 1000 Social Media Fans is Next to Nothing

In the social media universe, a few hundred thousand followers is practically considered nothing.

But the reality is that even 1000 followers are enough to make a living.

Action item: First things first. You need to produce enough that each of your 1000 followers agrees to pay you $100.

Second, you need to establish a one-on-one relationship with these followers, so that they pay you directly, and not through intermediaries. Now, imagine if each one of those 1000 fans pays you $100, you would make $100,000 per year. Isn’t that enough to make a living folks?

Wrapping Up

There you go! 4 social media lies that could be ruining your business prospects. Just follow the corrective actions mentioned above, and your business is sure to witness some good returns on your social media initiatives.

Are you aware of any more social media lies? Share them in the comments below.

The post A Bunchful of Social Media Lies Ruining your Business Prospects appeared first on SiteProNews.

Say, for instance, print writing principles such as “Write as you talk,” “Brevity is everything,” “Avoid foreign phrases” among many others apply aptly to the online copywriting world as well.

But then, as they say, it’s wrong to take things at their face value. You need to scratch the surface, look over and beyond the conventional sayings, to discover the actual wisdom governing these principles.

Here are those 5 taken for granted offline mistakes that have seeped deeply into the online world as well:

Mistake 1: Write As You Talk

Walt Whitman, the 18th-century American poet, essayist, and journalist was known for ridiculing “dictionary makers.” He insisted on language being “broad, low, and closer to the

ground.”

Staying with Whitman for a second, the high priest of rambunctious underlined the need for a simple prose, when Victorian English was the order of the day.

Two more centuries have gone by and Whitman’s writing principles

still echo in the voice of several top copywriters and the CEOs they work for.

“Write as you talk” has become the web mantra these days. The emphasis on banishing jargons and burnishing simple words that help you converse effectively has become the order of the day.

However, here’s the thing:

There’s a huge difference between conversational prose and pedestrian prose. While attempting the former, you may end up sounding more and more like the latter. For starters, the Pedestrian prose is more about your causal ummms and ahhhs. If you don’t flush them out, things such as grace, style and, richness may suffer.

The bottom line: Beware of pedestrians while driving down the conversational road.

The high priest of contrarian essays Christopher Hitchens while extolling the virtues of “Write As You Talk” Principle During his Writing Classes.

The point Hitchens was drawing our attention to was this: Everyone who can verbally communicate can also communicate in written words.

There is just one problem, though: Only a few can verbally communicate effectively.

The bottom line: Write As You Talk – only if you can speak eloquently and clearly.

The Moral:

• Write with discretion and sensitivity
• Let the written and the spoken word cross-pollinate
• Eliminate downright pedestrian words such as “um” and “like.”
• Don’t use emoticons to get your point across

Mistake 2: Brevity is everything

Clarity is king of writing. Brevity is just part of clarity. In other words, writers shouldn’t skip essential details in their attempt to make their copy as brief as possible.

What’s your take?

I don’t think it would be any different from mine because you and me as writers know, for a fact, that clear writing helps communicate messages effectively.

And, sure enough, clarity comes with tight writing. In short, tighter is better. Shorter isn’t.

The purpose of writing is to communicate messages effectively. No matter how precise and concise your writing is, no matter how impeccable your spelling and grammar is, if your writing

lacks clarity you might as well have written in a foreign language.

The Moral 

• Never sacrifice clarity at the altar of brevity. Put another way; don’t cut your copy too much if it’s affecting the clarity of the sentence.
• Tighten your copy in subsequent drafts.
• Make someone read your prose to further tighten or loosen the sentences.

3.  Higher premium on “We” than “You”

According to an article by Crazyegg, The #1 Website Copy Mistake that Most Businesses Make, is when businesses focus more on themselves than their customers. “We do this and we do that,” doesn’t exactly sit well with customers.

According to American writer and critic Constance Hale, it’s politicians who have this tendency to slide into the first person plural noun “we,” especially when they become presidential candidates. And the “we” here stands for “my campaign and I.”

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s “We” become infamous when she said, “We have become a grandmother of a grandson called Michael Thatcher.” As expected, her “we” earned widespread guffaws.

The political “we” has effortlessly permeated into the business world as well.

Sure, it’s okay to talk about “we” that’s about your businesses sometimes. But, whenever possible, it’s best to focus on the customer. Speaking of the benefit your product is gonna offer

to the customers will keep the customers focused on your website.

4. Avoid Foreign Words and Slang

“Avoid foreign words.”

The paragons of style William Strunk and E.B. White clearly advised writers against the usage of fancy words and foreign languages in writing.

Regardless of what gurus of grammar and prose spout, the online world is flooded with writers who love to flout rules and flex their foreign word muscles, maybe because it adds more life and charm to the copy.

Recently an article published on one of the top-notch sites Crazyegg caught my attention. The title read “Any Startup Can Blow Up Their Website Traffic for Free With a Single Blog Post.

Here’s Exactly How To Do It.” The post was brilliantly done. The word Au contraire, a French word, however, stood out. It got me excited and Googling.

I was happy to learn that this foreign word could be used (at least sometimes) as a replacement for “Quite the contrary” and “On the Contrary.”

The Moral:

• Use plain talk. Yet there’s no denying the fact that a little bit of spice in the form of a foreign word or slang revs up the copy.

• “Don’t shun slang, especially if it’s vivid and musical and fills a gap in the lexicon,” says Hale in her book “Sin and Syntax.”

5.   Misjudging “They’s” and “Its”

Nope! Still thinking about how one could commit such a simple error as this, think again. You too would be committing the same error unintentionally without even realizing it.

Allow me to explain with an example:

#1. Your child needs special guidance; it’s better to give them extra classes.

#2. Anyone could make a cake if they are up to it.

Did you spot the errors? If you are well aware of the grammar basics, you would have at once figured out where the problem lies.

For instance, in the first sentence, the child is a singular pronoun and so it should be followed by “he” or “she” and not “them.”

Likewise in the second sentence, anyone is a singular pronoun and so it should be followed by “he” or “she” and not they.

Simply put, the pronouns should match with their antecedents in terms of age, number, and gender.

Conclusion

Web copywriters, get a grip.

With the online web world flourishing, web copywriting has become an important arrow in the web marketing quiver. It’s the key to leads and conversions. So, lurking in the shadows of rigidity and old-school tenets won’t yield positive results; however, fashioning the text based on modern requirements might help.

And finally, an apt quote that’s sure to resonate with modern-day writers:

“Human beings don’t speak according to the rules of the AP Stylebook. We curse. We cry. We make up words. We go on sarcastic tangents.”

Philip Eil in his elegy for alt-weeklies in Columbia Journalism Review

The post 5 Offline Copy Mistakes Rampant In the Online World (And How to Fix Them) appeared first on SiteProNews.