Facebook Group Cork Board & UGC

What is UGC, and how do I use it? How should groups on social media platforms, like Facebook, help promote themselves to their target audience? By taking advantage of UGC! Let’s dive into the world of UGC, but first, let us define the acronym.

According to Claire Beveridge’s article on Hootsuite,

“User-generated content (also known as UGC or consumer-generated content) is original, brand-specific content created by customers and published on social media or other channels. UGC comes in many forms, including images, videos, reviews, a testimonial, or even a podcast.”

Next, we are going to look at Cork Board. Cork Board is an online food and wine community on Facebook. Cork Board admin and its members are continuously posting food images, along with new recipes and ideas for people to try.

According to the About section of the group,

“The purpose of the Cork Board group is to create a warm, friendly and respectful area for people to share opinions and ideas on food and wine. People will share recipes, learn ways to tweak existing recipes and discover wine pairings for different meals. The purpose of this community is for members to form relationships with each other through everyone’s love of food and wine by connecting, interacting and sharing.”

Now that we understand the definition of UGC (user-generated content) and the purpose of Cork Board, we can figure out to use it for the group. User-generated content, content by the target audience (customers), can be any of the following:

1. Images or videos
2. Blog post
3. Reviews and testimonials
4. Social media content (Tweets, tags, shares and live streams)

Beveridge had the perfect statement in her article,

“Simply connect with the most important people in your business: your audience. Most will be excited to be featured on your channel.”

Techniques Cork Board employs to create user-generated content are asking members to take pictures of the final results of their recipes and share them with the group. This encourages UGC from all group members and increases group engagement. At least once a week, member posts one new UGC on the group’s feed, which then other members engage with and share with others.

The YouTube video How to Find and Effectively Use UGC (User Generated Content) on Instagram provides valuable information on user-generated content. The video stated there were three ways to find UGC on Instagram. Those three ways are:

1. Check Instagram Tags
2. Instagram Stories
3. Branded Hashtags

Cork Board takes advantage of the use of hashtags on its post for people to be able to search for content. The prominent hashtags used by the group are the following:

1. #groupcorkboard — uses the name of the group, so searches lead people to their Facebook
2. #popthecork — uses this for those discussing wine
3. #pintherecipe — uses this for the recipe content
4. #helpacookout — uses this for cooking and recipes

Cork Board is a new community on Facebook, so it’s still finding its footing. The group needs to continue using hashtags to attract others to the community and find new ways to encourage UGC from members. Click on the link — Cork Board — and join in creating a new UGC for the group, helping share the love of food and wine with others.

References

Cork Board. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/groups/374115524159853

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge-ifG5a7QA

What is User-Generated Content? And Why is it Important? (2022, January 13). Retrieved from https://blog.hootsuite.com/user-generated-content-ugc/