Leverage UGC for Multi-Location Corporate Reputation Management

User-generated content (UGC) is a cornerstone of corporate reputation management. 

UGC refers to any form of content created and shared by individuals not officially affiliated with a brand. These creators are typically customers, and their content takes various forms, including customer reviews, social media posts, photos, videos, and blog posts related to the corporate brand or its products.

As consumers increasingly rely on reviews and feedback, UGC offers a unique opportunity for enterprise businesses to gain insight into the customer experience. 

In this post, we’ll discuss how UGC can help you enhance brand visibility, help manage corporate reputations and cultivate trust across your locations at scale. 

Benefits of UGC in Corporate Reputation Management

Authenticity and Trust

People trust people. UGC reflects firsthand customer experiences and opinions rather than polished marketing messages from enterprise-level brands. It’s more relatable and authentic to the average customer and facilitates an instant sense of connection that resonates and makes upholding a consistent brand image a lot easier. 

Increased Engagement

Don’t underestimate social media clout. Your customers want to be featured on your website/socials and interact with brands that actively share their content by liking, commenting, or reposting.

Further, when customers share their experiences, it encourages others to join the conversation, driving higher levels of engagement. 

When supporters create and share brand content, they effectively become brand ambassadors. It’s organic amplification that’s a no-brainer for multi-location marketers to tap into. 

Cost-Effectiveness

Content creation is expensive. UGC content is free. If you get the right permissions, you can use that content anywhere (website, socials, email marketing, etc.) to promote your products/services and reduce the need for expensive in-house production and internal resource exhaustion. 

Types of User-Generated Content Beneficial for Multi-Location Businesses 

1. Customer Reviews and Testimonials: Reviews provide social proof for your customers and influence purchasing decisions. They also contribute to local SEO, meaning you should encourage customers to leave reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, or TripAdvisor to boost online visibility. At the very least, you should feature positive customer reviews on your corporate website. 
   
   Example: Samsung leverages review content on its landing page to foster brand loyalty, credibility, and authenticity. Reviews give potential Samsung customers insight from real users' experiences. These reviews, accompanied by star ratings and detailed feedback, provide a transparent view of product performance and customer satisfaction, creating trust. 
   
   
2. Social Media Posts: User-generated social media content can significantly enhance visibility and engagement across your corporate brands' locations. This includes content such as posts, stories, branded hashtags, and reels that mention or tag your business.
   
   Example: DoubleTree by Hilton effectively showcases UGC by inviting guests to share their experiences with the hotel’s signature chocolate chip cookies on social media. By asking guests to tag @doubletree in their posts, they encourage them to share photos and stories of their experiences with the brand, creating a sense of community and engagement.
   
   
   
   
3. Photos and Videos: UGC photos and videos build trust in your business. They are a relatable and transparent way to help customers understand what to expect when choosing to work with your business. 
   
   Example: Target encourages customers to share their experiences by tagging @Target in photos that showcase how they use Target products. This strategy fosters a sense of community among shoppers, allowing customers to visualize themselves using Target items in their everyday lives. It also generates a wealth of UGC the brand can feature on its website and social media platforms. 
   
   
   
   
4. Blogs and Articles: Customer-written blogs/articles are a great way to spotlight a customer experience. Besides providing free marketing content, these posts can also be used to promote/improve products and services. 
   
   Example: Orange Theory features a compelling blog post titled "What To Expect During Your First Class Back At Orangetheory, According To Members.” This post provides potential members with real-life and relatable content while fostering a sense of community and trust around the brand. It demystifies the workout process, helping new members visualize themselves in the classes while alleviating apprehensions they may have about joining.
   
   
   
   
5. Surveys: Customer satisfaction surveys can generate valuable insights and feedback that can be shared as UGC. Responses can be used to highlight customer experiences and preferences, making them an effective marketing tool. Ask for surveys via text or email. We love text here at Widewail (it’s more personal, direct, and almost guaranteed to be seen) but emails work too. Whatever makes the most sense for your business. 
   
   Example: Safelite enhances customer engagement by sending text surveys after each interaction, allowing for real-time feedback. This direct approach increases engagement, improves service offerings, and promptly addresses concerns. Positive feedback can be displayed on their website and social media (with permission). Negative feedback can be used to make improvements. 
   
   

Key Strategies to Incorporate UGC

Encourage UGC Creation

Your customers have likely already created some form of UGC for your business. To get more, you need to actively encourage and incentivize your customers. 

Activate the voice of your happy customers by offering rewards/incentives like contest entries, discounts, or access to new products or features. The potential for incentives is often enough to motivate customers who would otherwise not participate. 

The easier you make it for customers to submit UGC, the more content you’ll receive. Create dedicated spaces on each of your location’s websites or social media pages for customers to easily submit reviews, photos, or testimonials specific to that branch.

Monitoring and Curating Content

With multiple locations, content monitoring becomes more complex and even more important for any corporate reputation management strategy.

Utilize tools that allow you to monitor reviews, social media, and other mentions online all in one place. This ensures you don’t miss anything and makes it easy to measure how well your locations are performing individually. A centralized platform is key to building a strong reputation across locations. 

Remember to regularly audit UGC across all locations to ensure alignment with overall brand messaging and values while still allowing for local flare.

Engage and Respond to UGC

Empower your employees to respond promptly to all types of feedback, both positive and negative, with personalized responses. Give them review response templates, and train them in conflict management. This will generate more UGC and improve local SEO across your brand's locations. 

Use UGC to highlight unique aspects of each location, fostering a sense of community around individual branches. Take this a step further by creating location-specific social media accounts or pages to facilitate more targeted engagement with local customers.

Showcasing UGC on Multiple Platforms

Feature customer reviews, photos, and testimonials that convey your brand's image prominently on each location's website and social media profiles. In addition, create a centralized UGC gallery on your main website that allows users to filter content by location, showcasing the scope of your brand's presence.

One of the most effective ways to showcase UGC is to incorporate it directly into your marketing materials and advertising campaigns. Highlighting real customers' experiences in local communities is a persuasive type of social proof that will help build trust in your brand. 

By investing in User-Generated Content (UGC), you tap into the authentic voices of your customers, fostering trust, boosting engagement, and enhancing your brand's online reputation across multiple locations. This strategy not only elevates your overall brand image but also enables each location to cultivate its own unique identity within the larger brand framework.