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Is user-generated content (UGC) the new age of marketing? We’ve certainly witnessed a trend in that direction as consumers seek out greater authenticity and trust, favoring brands that are not only transparent but are also endorsed by real people. In fact, even if you’re not familiar with the term itself, you’ve almost certainly encountered some form of UGC in the past — photos, videos, reviews, or social media posts created by customers rather than by the brand itself. When leveraged correctly, it can serve as a powerful marketing tool to boost sales, build community, and establish credibility.
Scott Warner, founder of Gigg Media, is an expert when it comes to user-generated content. With years of experience helping brands from musicians to entrepreneurs to influencers, he’s mastered the art of empowering fans and customers to spread the word organically. Today, we’re breaking down why UGC should be a key focus for every business and sharing Scott’s proven strategies to harness its full potential. Let’s dive in!
Understand the Value of UGC
"User-generated content is the new age of marketing. If you're not approaching or focused on it, you are falling behind the eight ball."
UGC is more than just another marketing trend; it is about letting your most passionate customers and fans become the voice of your brand. Scott describes UGC as “the most powerful marketing tool on the planet” because it’s based on real experiences from real people. When customers share their satisfaction, it naturally builds credibility and authenticity, which paid ads struggle to achieve.
Scott emphasizes that every business, regardless of industry, can benefit from UGC. From dry cleaners to lawyers to restaurants, each can tap into the value of happy customers spreading the word about their services or products.
Create Compelling Calls to Action
"Don't send another product out without a call to action in it. We want to see you in your new outfit or show us how you use our product."
Encouraging your customers to create UGC is key. A well-placed call to action (CTA) can make all the difference. Scott suggests that businesses should think strategically about how to inspire their customers to share their experiences, such as adding CTAs on product packaging or sending personalized prompts via email.
For example, a simple card inside your product packaging could include a message like: “We’d love to see you in your new outfit! Share your look and tag us @YourBrand.” According to Scott, calls to action need to be integrated into every touchpoint with the customer to foster organic sharing.
Leverage Authentic Customer Stories
"Real content being put out by people talking about your product is substantially more valuable than just some professionally edited video."
Today’s consumers are savvy, and they value authenticity. Professionally produced ads can feel staged and disconnected, while real stories from real customers resonate. Scott advises using authentic experiences to tell your brand’s story, from featuring testimonials on your homepage to sharing customer-generated content on your social channels.
The goal is to let your audience see how your product fits into their lives through the eyes of people like them. He stresses the importance of putting user content to work and shifting away from heavily scripted marketing materials.
Collaborate With Influencers and Use Affiliate Models
"If an influencer says, 'Pay me this much money,' hang up. You want them to have the product and be able to speak to it from the heart because they've used it."
Influencers can play a pivotal role in amplifying your UGC efforts, but Scott cautions against blindly paying large fees for influencer promotions. He recommends partnering with influencers who genuinely love and believe in your product and are willing to promote it on a commission or affiliate basis.
By focusing on these genuine partnerships, you ensure that influencers aren’t just selling a product for money — they’re sharing something they truly endorse. This authenticity resonates more strongly with their followers, leading to more impactful promotions.
Automate and Aggregate UGC
"We aggregate brand mentions into what we call the social inbox and tee it up for you to use as marketing material."
One of the challenges with UGC is collecting and managing it. Scott’s company, Gigg, provides tools to automate the process of gathering and utilizing UGC. Their “social inbox” feature aggregates all brand mentions from social media and makes them easily accessible for marketing use. This way, businesses can streamline the process of collecting content and integrating it into their campaigns.
He notes that businesses should be cautious about the legal aspects of using content from private profiles and ensure they have the proper permissions. By using platforms that handle these complexities, you can safely and efficiently leverage user content to tell your brand story.
Believe in Your Product
"Believe in your product enough to take that approach. That's the way to do it. And it works."
Remember, successful UGC strategies start with a quality product or service. If your customers love what you offer, they’ll be excited to share their experiences without needing excessive incentives. Scott’s advice underscores the importance of consistency and intentionality in your marketing efforts. Keep refining your approach, measure what works, and don’t be afraid to think outside the box.
…Class Dismissed!
By focusing on proactive calls to action, embracing real customer stories, collaborating with genuine influencers, and automating the UGC collection process, you can build a community of loyal advocates who organically promote your brand.
Want to hear the full interview with Scott? Click here!
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Transcript
Scott: [00:00:00] User generated content is the new age of marketing. If you're not approaching or focused on user generated content, you are falling behind the eight ball. And it's only a matter of time. Like I mentioned,
Kirsten: do you know that there's something so simple that you could be doing in your marketing that you're most likely not doing that is going to lead to so many more customers, so many more leads and a better strengthened community. Today's guest is Scott Warner of gig media, and he's going to break down some of the very underutilized tools and tactics that we use or could be using in our marketing efforts.
This is going to be a masterclass on social media, user generated content, how to really get community and people talking about your product in a very organic and natural way. I learned a lot on this call and Scott knows his stuff moving from working with musicians to business owners and influencers.
He has had a really strong insight into. Where we can utilize social media to control the conversation of our brands and help expand even [00:01:00] further. So without further ado, class is officially in session. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for coming on.
Scott: Thanks, Kirsten. I appreciate it. It means a lot to have me or that you're having me on the show.
Thanks.
Kirsten: Of course. So give us a little insight into Gig and how it came to be, what your specialty is, all of it.
Scott: Yeah. Great question. So started Gig in 2013. I can't believe it's already been, I mean, we're coming up on what? How many years is that? We're almost 12. Wow. 12 years. Holy cow. Yeah. So we started originally for the music space.
It was meant to help. Artists be more impactful or effective in getting the word out about a new single and upcoming album, upcoming tour event show. And we built software to really help these artists leverage their greatest marketing team, which is their fans. And when it all comes down to it, your fans or your customers or your members, your students, whatever it may be, [00:02:00] they really are your greatest marketing team and helping you get the word out about whatever it is you're trying to push.
So we learned that it wasn't just a music space that needed the tools and software that we had built and We started selling it to other businesses and it went better than I had ever Anticipated it being and I wasn't really too fond of the idea about getting or selling the product to anything other than a music You know, an artist or a record label or so on, but it turned out to work out really, really well.
And so that's where we all started. And, and as time moved on, we were adding new features and developing new software to add to our feature set that continued to create more ways to reach out to your, your greatest marketing team. And then for them to. Reach out to their audience to introduce whatever it is you were trying to push or promote.
But in the past couple of years, we've really honed in on what it is that makes us unique or special. Uh, so it's all the different features and software that we [00:03:00] built to help both brands and businesses, influencers, build communities and bring. Like minded individuals that are passionate about something that want to learn about something to one place that the brand controls rather than a lot of these massive social media companies that are controlled by algorithms and other things.
So we really are a marketing machine on steroids that help bring groups together.
Kirsten: Well, the name of the company makes a lot more sense now knowing that it started out in the music industry. That's a really cool.
Scott: Yeah. Right.
Kirsten: Yeah. Awesome. I'm sure you're seeing some similarity to in having myself worked with artists.
We used to live in Nashville, so we were very familiar with the music scene and then shifting. We've also worked with influencers and there's such a similarity there. And then business owners, obviously all of it. They all need the same thing. They all need those raving fans, that core audience that's going to help propel them to the next level.
So I think it's cool that you've expanded out.
Scott: Yeah. Thanks. I appreciate it. So Nashville, I love that place. I actually served to your mission [00:04:00] for my church in Nashville. So I love, love Nashville.
Kirsten: I do too. I never ever wanted to leave. And yet here I am in the desert having this conversation with you.
Scott: Where did you live out there?
Kirsten: In Franklin.
Scott: Franklin. So Franklin Brentwood. Spent six months of my mission there. So love
Kirsten: it. Awesome. Yeah. We love it there so much. Okay. So back to marketing, because I know that this is an area a lot of us tend to, to struggle with. And I think there's been so many changes and so much that feels like it's out of our control.
So I love that you touched on that, that that's really a focus that's differentiating your company too, in bringing these communities to a place where we can control. Can you expand on what you mean by that and why that is so important?
Scott: Yeah, first of all, the mindset needs to change around marketing. We have thousands of tools, more than anyone ever had in years past when they were promoting or pushing whatever product that we're doing back in the day.
We have endless tools and ways to drive more awareness or exposure. And it's just a matter of, of [00:05:00] learning those tools. And that's one of the things we really, really focus on here at Gig. Really what it comes down to it. You got to focus on creating ways to get others to do the talking. And if you can figure that out, the rest.
It's easy and a lot of companies don't necessarily focus on that as much as they should, especially in the early stages. And so if you are starting a business or you already do have a business, the big question that you need to ask yourself is what are you doing to give your customers a reason to talk about you?
What calls to action are you putting out there to get them to respond to? And how are you driving them to where you want them to be? And that could be a website, that could be an event, that could be a number of things. But the point is, you want to have. A reason or a place for them to go and you want to control it.
Too many businesses think the best place for conversations to be happening are places outside of their website or their social pages. And there is power in that. But really when it all comes down to it, you want to be controlling. [00:06:00] Where those people are going and talking about your brand and you need to take control of your brand, especially when things are happening outside of the places that you control and you can control.
So we, that's stuff that we provide to help people get better at, at taking control of their brand.
Kirsten: Yeah. So what would that look like? I mean, even using our brand as an example, Millionaire University, we have the podcast, we're bringing in digital products. We're expanding the audience. We're meeting them where they're at on the podcasting apps, but what would that look like for us to expand and really control that conversation and be more connected to that community and ensure that they're sharing us out more?
Scott: Well, you're doing three things right already with me. And number one, you're collaborating and you know, I have a decent following in social media. So if you put this out and it's a good piece of content. I reshare it, which introduces more people to you. So collaborations are huge. And that applies with influencers as well as like minded brands.
Collaborations are big. The king of all is content, [00:07:00] just content in general. This is content. So the more pieces of content that you can put out there around your brand and what you do and what you're up to, the better off you're going to be when it comes to marketing. And then anytime you're doing these type of podcasts, you want to create ways to engage your listeners.
So anytime that you're talking to someone, ask them a question or ask the person that you're interviewing to call upon their following, to take action in something that could be donating to a charity, it could be come learn about this event, join our, our webinar or calls to action are huge. People love taking action, especially if it's something they're passionate about or interested in learning more about.
And so for you. You're doing those things well, and you just got to remain consistent and take notes on the things that are working and be ready to ditch the things that aren't. So that's what I'd recommend. But like, in general, that's, I'm just pointing out things you're doing right. Cause you asked about your podcast, but those same rules apply.
Those are, [00:08:00] Those are universal ways of thinking, or you need to have a universal way of thinking when it comes to marketing this day and age. You have so many tools, you just got to use them.
Kirsten: Yeah. Well, I think sometimes something I've noticed for myself as an entrepreneur and the rut that we can get in is We become attached to a certain methodology or we don't even ask the question.
Why, like, why are we using Instagram? I've been asking myself this lately. I have my own podcast too, and I've been trying to stay consistent with weekly episodes. Consistency matters, like you said. And then the deeper question has come in of why? Why, why do I need to do weekly episodes? What is the purpose of utilizing this podcast?
Obviously I feel compelled to share something and I have this message I want to convey. That's my business's vision, right? But like what's my purpose in utilizing these different marketing channels? And have you found that that sometimes it's the obstacle when you work with clients where they become rooted in, well, this is just how it's always been and how it's supposed to be.
And that that's an important thing that needs to happen is just distinguishing them. [00:09:00] That's a
Scott: great thought. Great question that anyone and everyone should be considering, especially when it comes to building a business. One of the things that I'm always pushing or driving with clients as well as influencers is think outside the box.
You got to think outside the box. If you're not thinking outside the box, you're just going to continue to do the same things that everyone else is doing. And it's only a matter of time before those things die out. So when you're making an effort to do things that haven't been done before or testing or trying things that haven't been done before, or the stage has been set by a forward thinker.
That is trying things outside of the norm, do it, go after it and make an effort to do things a little bit differently. Social media is incredibly important. It's a tool that everyone should use if you're a business not leveraging social media It's only a matter of time before you're going to die out because the world is on social media You look at statistics and the time that's being spent on social media [00:10:00] by The average Joe or Sally Schmo every day, you're going to notice that that's where they live, right?
I mean, people are still putting billboards up on the freeway. You know, what's crazy is the majority of people's eyes aren't even on the freaking road. They're looking at their phone. More than they should. That's unfortunate, but that's why there's people thinking outside the box about how to make a safer environment for drivers to not necessarily have their eyes on the road all the time, because they know that's where they're living.
They're on their devices. But the big thing to consider as you're leveraging social media is what are your plans to do with it? You're asking the right questions. Yeah, you've got some great tools to reach a large audience, but what, what are your goal? What's your goal with these different social media channels?
And I would hope your reason is to drive them somewhere or to commit them to doing something or going someplace or accessing something or buying something that you control. And if you're doing that, social media can become your [00:11:00] very best friend and your greatest ally, the greatest tool to help drive whatever you're trying to push, but make sure.
That the outcome and how you're using social media is leading to your ultimate goals And that's something you should understand before you start pushing things on social media. What is your goal?
Kirsten: Yeah Well, and what is your opinion on this? I found that there's a little bit of a push and pull with marketing and product development.
And sometimes you need to have that awareness of marketing and social media and what's going on in the landscape in order to drive what you're doing in the business and the forward thinking and the development. Have you found that to be true in the clients that you've worked with where they might come in with a set idea and they have the product and you have to even do some tweaking of product based on market and strategy?
Scott: Yeah, great question. I mean, yes, yes, sometimes clients come in with a powerful product. That's perfect. In fact, I'm since we're here, I'm going to just show you something. So this is one of our new clients. This is called a aroma therapist. It's actually one of the coolest devices I have ever seen. And this is an [00:12:00] unpaid promo.
But This applies to your question. So you're welcome. Aromatherapist as we talked to this, they're great. They're great people, but this product they came in, showed us. And I think this is the pura killer. I think it's a sensi killer. I think this is the best device for anything regarding the best smells in the world.
And they came in and they showed me the product. They have a subscription model where they send these awesome pucks out and. These pucks last for 30 days and you just replace it. Doesn't make a sound while it's working. And this is what they came to us with. And so what GIG does, you know, what we do with our team of specialists and creatives is we look at that product and we help guide A lot of their decision making on how they want to market this.
A product like this is absolutely ideal for influencers. I mean, if influencers are talking about it the same way that I just talked about it, the chances are they're going to buy it and they're going to want to know more about it. So what I should do at the end of [00:13:00] this is you should be the influencer for this.
I won't take credit. You're the one that got me thinking about it. So this would essentially be a way to promote the product. You're an influencer. I'm talking about the product on your podcast. And people are going to learn about it. So they might as well give you a code to give out, right.
Kirsten: Yeah.
Scott: To benefit from a discount that you can make some money on.
So the point is every product, every effort, every initiative is going to have a universal approach to social media, but some things you got to tweak to make sure that the message is relayed properly. So it resonates with the audience you're trying to reach. And so there definitely is a universal approach, but you definitely also want to make sure you're messaging it in a way that resonates with the audience you want.
Kirsten: Yep. And I love that you just demonstrated that I actually have one of those and I'm an affiliate. Yeah, there you
Scott: go. So. Yeah, the one and done well done. That's how
Kirsten: business works guys. If you're listening, like it's really just a matter [00:14:00] of connecting with the people. Like you said, it's collaboration and it's the consistency of putting out the content and making sure that you're connecting the dots between what problem does this product solve and how does it benefit me?
And then how do I take that message to social media? Make sure that I'm controlling the narrative. So can you tell me some good suggestions and ways outside of affiliate programs and things like that, where there's a financial incentive, even to our audience members who are watching our content? Cause this is even a micro strategy on Instagram.
We want shares, right? We want content that's getting shared. So do you have any suggestions? I know this is going to be dependent on the business, but to being able to think differently on how to do
Scott: that. Yeah. Every single person on planet earth has something good to offer. And once you recognize or realize that life becomes really interesting, there's something you can learn from any person that you see walking around.
Anywhere. And believe it or not, every single one of these people likely influence one, maybe [00:15:00] two people, some millions of people, right? So some just random person that may have come across or stumbled across some of your content that you're sharing on social media, you may be influencing them. Or like friends from high school, from 20 years ago, these are all, we all are interconnected.
And that's why right now, this day and age, you have more tools available to you than ever before. Especially with social media. So it goes back to what I was talking about at the beginning of this is if you're pushing a product, an agenda, an idea, a way of thinking, a charity, it doesn't matter what it is.
The question you have to ask yourself is what are you doing to give others a reason to talk about you? And if I take a step back and I look at all the different companies, you know, that I've started, or, you know, just locally, uh, recently opened a donut. Destination that we're that's exploding. It's called spudly donuts.
You know, we make it very clear that anyone that's eating one of our donuts, we want them to talk about the greatness of it. We want them telling everyone that it's the best donut ever. So [00:16:00] we have calls to action that are connected to the box, you know, that people open that said, we want you to post about it, right?
We want you to talk about it or with Bam Bam's barbecue. My cousin and I, you know, started Bam Bam's barbecue and. You know, we came up with creative ways to name the products that we sell or the food. It's the best barbecue in the world. I'll tell you right now, it's the best barbecue in the world, Kirsten.
There's no one out there that makes better barbecue than Bam Bam's. But me saying that, that's easy for me to say. It's my cousin and I's joint, right? My cousin makes the best barbecue ever. Of course, that's easy for me to say as the owner. But if you're saying it, Or any of these other people that are going in there are saying it, that's how we win.
And that's what we focused on when we opened it is what are we doing to tell or get these people to go and share with the world how great this stuff is. And you don't even have to pay for it. That's the thing. No, stop paying crazy amounts of money to people to go and push your brand. Anyway, I could, that's a, I'm going off on a tangent, but if I would say what's the most cost effective way for you to drive your brand, it's really building a call to action [00:17:00] that you give to whoever is using your product.
Whatever it is to go and tell the world about how great it is. And you got to be proactive in creating those calls to action. And your work becomes a lot easier because people are doing the work for you.
Kirsten: Yeah. Well, and how much are you incentivizing that when you have those calls to action on the packaging, like you mentioned?
Can you give us some other ideas on how we can facilitate and invite people to be a part of sharing? And then also, is it always just out of the goodness of their heart? How often are you providing incentive? Is it obviously you have to have a solid good product?
Scott: That's the answer. You just said it. It's a solid product.
People love and take pride in sharing great products with other people. They want to be the first to announce to the world. I love music, right? So I love introducing new bands to friends and family because it's like, I found them first, I discovered them, right? People really take pride in the products that they love.
So if the product is great, you're not going to have to give them an incentive to go and push your product. They're [00:18:00] going to do it because they're proud of a product that they discovered, found, and they want to tell others about it. That's the name of the game. And so that helps so much. That should be your marketing effort in the early stages of your company.
Now, as time goes on. You know, there, there can be appropriate times to pay an influencer to go and talk about your brand, but that shouldn't be the focus. Too much money is being spent on that. These days, you have way too many tools and should have other ways to get people to do the talking without having to pay them.
You're paying them by providing a great product.
Kirsten: Yeah.
Scott: And that's what gives them that reason.
Kirsten: Love it. So what are, I know that you said that aromatherapist is one of your clients and they have a really strong affiliate model. So is that one of the things that you, when people come and work with you, that you utilize to create a little bit more incentive for sharing rather than just paying the influencer one time to promote product?
Cause I know that we have people listening who are coming in, who have a variety of business models. So for our product driven businesses, would you recommend that being typically a stronger model over influencer [00:19:00] marketing?
Scott: Yeah. Look, so, if an influencer says to you, and a lot of influencers are going to hate me for saying this, but I will continue to say this.
If an influencer says, yeah, I'll talk about your product, pay me this much money, hang up on them. Or say, hey, it was so nice to meet you, and get the step in. Walk away. Because you know what that tells me? When someone asks for a flat rate, That says, I don't have enough confidence in what I'm pushing or driving to generate enough deals to make the money that I'd love to make if I were to talk about your brand or product.
I think trade is sufficient. So you want them to have the product and be able to speak to it from the heart because they've used it. But if they're asking for flat rates, there's other ways to go about doing it. There truly is. And work with influencers that actually believe that they can go and get it done.
I did a test case with a company a couple years ago. And this company, and I won't mention them. This company paid 50, 000 to a young lady, that beautiful young lady with millions of followers, 50, 000. [00:20:00] Ask me how many products she sold off one post that she shared on Instagram. And it was likely it was likely mom or grandma, if I were to say, and I said, stop doing that crap.
And this is happening all over the place. And fortunately, a lot of brands don't trust influencers, right? They don't trust them. They hear things or they want to believe that they can go and get it done. So I told this company, I said, Hey, I have an idea. I think, I think there's this other really amazing woman that can drive and sell it.
Maybe just give her one of your products, give her a bag, a purse, or whatever you want to call it. Yes, it was a person, but I said, let her talk about it. This woman drove over 30, 000 in sales and it took a 15 percent commission. There you have it. When you're dealing with an influencer with a significant reach, that's confident in how their following will respond to a promotion or a discounted product on black Friday or whatever, whatever it is.[00:21:00]
You're dealing with a real one. If someone's asking for a flat rate, I'm telling you the chances of it actually panning out. They're very unlikely.
Kirsten: Yeah.
Scott: However, I'm not going to say that's always the case. But for the most part, it's not going to be even close to as powerful as someone that is willing to put their neck on the line or to take on a commission structure.
So that's what I would suggest.
Kirsten: Yeah. Well, and launching an affiliate model is so accessible nowadays too, right? Like you can have. Right. Influencers of all sizes, there's, for me, as being on both ends of the coin, more likely to be the influencer, it's discouraging when there's such a big wall around the affiliate program.
Like, Oh, we only take people with a certain da da da. It's like, you're missing a huge opportunity. To start that conversation, right? I'm willing to genuinely share, even if I only make 50, I will never forget the first affiliate commission I made. And I was like, holy cow, this is like printing money. I just talked about something I love.
And I got a return for that. Guess how much more I'm going to go talk about that [00:22:00] versus.
Scott: Amen.
Kirsten: I have to wait till I have a million followers and then I'm worth, you know, sharing about this. And now it's one of my favorite things to do, not even just for money, but I love connecting people with brands. So you're right.
It is, it's built in, I think, to our nature to want to be the first to share or just another person to share the things that we're excited about.
Scott: Believe in your product enough to take that approach. That's the way to do it. And it works.
Kirsten: Well, I was going to ask too, how can we, if you are a smaller business, a lot of our listeners are beginning stages of starting a business.
How do we compete with these bigger brands? And I think you just answered that in a way that it doesn't have to be an expensive endeavor. It just needs to be intentional.
Scott: That's right. Then first of all props to those that are strong enough and have the courage to start a company. I'm learning more and more every day.
How there are so few people willing to do that and congrats to you. But I'm also here to tell you that we as human beings love the underdog. We do. If there is a product that you're putting out there, that actually [00:23:00] a competitor that's massive. Is out there providing find ways to offer a better solution, a slightly better product, and believe you can compete, believe you can compete with the Goliaths out there, because if you can, and you get the right people behind you, you will win.
That's just how it is. The underdog story is powerful. And none of these monster companies out there can't be dethroned by an up and comer and that mentality and with the drive and desire and motivation to keep fighting, you're going to win. Eventually you can't stop or beat someone that never quits.
Kirsten: Yeah.
Scott: And I've had to tell myself that on numerous occasions. So yeah, just, yeah, I did speak to what you do to go after it and just stay committed and keep learning, keep failing over, fail over and over and over and over and over and over again and over again. And eventually you'll win.
Kirsten: Have you ever recommended to the companies that you're working with user generated content?
I want to talk about this from the perspective of creating it. Oh, it's a [00:24:00] really, really cool thing that you can do, but have you personally had brands that have utilized this? To pay people to create the content.
Scott: That was our primary focus for about six years of our business. And it still is a primary focus.
User generated content is the new age of marketing. If you're not approaching or focused on user generated content, you are falling behind the eight ball and it's only a matter of time. Like I mentioned, user generated content is the most powerful marketing tool on the planet. There's nothing that comes close in anyone that wants to tell me that there are better ways than user generated content to drive your business.
I will verbally spar with you and you will lose. I say that confidently, as you can imagine, endless success around user generated content. And it must be a primary focus of you as a marketer at this day and age. It has to be. And there's not a business that can't benefit from user generated content. I don't care if you're a dry cleaner, a dentist, a lawyer, how can a lawyer benefit from user generated content?
You better believe that they [00:25:00] can. And we've seen it. You know, we've seen it firsthand. So there's literally not a business out there that. Couldn't benefit from user generated content. It must be a primary focus of any marketer at this day and age.
Kirsten: So that's how you feel about it. I guess we're not talking about something light.
I love it. I love the passion for it. So I brought that term up. I'm not sure our listeners even fully understand what user generated content is. It's funny. Cause I was basically doing that for companies and I was also getting an affiliate and not even recognizing. That's what I loved as a creator was just creating the content and then they were doing the work to push that content out.
So can you break down what UGC or user generated content is first of all and then give us a little bit of understanding how we can legally do this, what it needs to look like structurally, what the different options are.
Scott: Yeah, you bet. Let's start with this. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm an aromatherapist.
This thing makes your room that smells like hell, smell like heaven. I love this sucker. This thing has just been a blessing to [00:26:00] my life. Everyone should have it. Send on Facebook. So I just generated a piece of gold for aromatherapy. And that piece of content should become your marketing material. And that's actually one of the different tool sets that we provide in our feature set at gig is we have a tool that if anyone mentions your brand and social media, we aggregate it into what we call the social inbox.
And then we tee it up for you to use as marketing material and also to display it on the homepage of your business. That's how you tell your story. Stop doing the, Oh, I love this product by John G or this is a really cool. This is really cool. Sally Sue, who the heck is Sally Sue or John Q or what? Like use real content.
It's been being shared about your brand on social media. And so what do you do with that content? When you find it, you put it to work for you because guess what? Gone are the days where professionally done [00:27:00] videos actually have a huge impact as opposed, I mean they can still be good, but real content being put out by people talking about your product is substantially more valuable than just some professionally edited video.
For real, why do you think reality shows are so popular? It's real.
Kirsten: Yeah.
Scott: It's real. And guess what? That's debatable. The same thing. Yeah. Don't get me started on some of the stuff we're seeing on TV these days. But yes, user generated content is what I just shared. Now, going back to what I mentioned earlier, what are you doing to give your audience?
Customers a reason to do that. A lot of times they'll do it just naturally because they're proud of the product. But man, if you just say, don't send another product out without a call to action in it, I don't care if it's a card stock, you know, thing saying, Hey, we want to see you in your new outfit or show us how you use our product or put it on your packaging.
Stop missing the boat on a call to action. It starts with you.
Kirsten: Yeah. So what are the [00:28:00] legalities with using UGC? If you have this database that's collecting the social inbox, what from there, do you need consent from the people who've created content? Are you also promoting paying content creators for that content?
I know that kind of blurs the line with influencer marketing, but it can be different, right?
Scott: Yeah, paid content, there's pros and cons, but great question on the legality side. One of the reasons we take a lot of pride in our platform because we've been given access and been given the rights to leverage the content that we're aggregating through these different social platforms.
There are a lot of companies out there that scrape and grab content. Inappropriately or without permission and we take pride and are one of the few Companies that have licenses to leverage that content that we're aggregating through a social inbox And so through our platform all the legal Side is taken care of and so that's one of the benefits in in leveraging the gig [00:29:00] platform The one thing that we cannot do is we cannot aggregate in content that comes from a private profile.
However, in the event that you have written consent through a DM, email, or text message, And you're aware of a piece of content that's behind a private wall. You can capture that content and use it as long as you have. That thumbs up from the creator of that content, uh, through the gig platform.
Kirsten: I love that that automation is built in.
Scott: Yeah. The automation is built in. Be careful if you do aggregate content from a social platform without permission, there are legal ramifications for that. So you want to be careful with that.
Kirsten: That's good to know. And I do want to point out, you guys, if you're listening, you're seeing UGC content all the time.
You're seeing it on Tik TOK. We see brands shifting into this every single day. It's not no longer about, you know, even just talking about the product. It's so naturally, I don't know, just woven into the thread of a, a very natural looking video. Like somebody was just creating a fun Tik TOK. And Oh, by the way, there's this product.
I half the time [00:30:00] don't even know I'm looking at ads anymore. I will sit and watch because it's just so natural. That's what we need to be thinking about.
Scott: And that's done right. Someone's a good marketer behind that.
Kirsten: Yeah.
Scott: So if you're putting out content that makes your viewers or your, the feeds look, you know, less salesy, I'm telling you, that's the way to win.
So. That person gets it.
Kirsten: Amazing. Well, you've brought so much value. There's so many, so many lanes that we can go down. And I think just the comprehensive view is understanding to make it personal and to be really intentional and strategic with your marketing and, and know why you're doing it and make sure that you're calling in your people that you're utilizing in your marketing.
Human behavior, naturally, their desire to share and everything to promote your products in such an organic way. It's something I think that feels like it's not in our control. Running an ad is more in our control. Paying an influencer is more in our control. But after this conversation, it feels like there's a lot more we could be doing just to naturally promote, like you said, missing the boat without a CTA in your packaging somewhere to bring people [00:31:00] into conversation.
Scott: Yeah, exactly. That's exactly right.
Kirsten: Awesome. Do you have any final words of advice for new business owners? I know you've really hammered this in. We understand how we can utilize some of the strategies you've shared, but any last parting words?
Scott: Yeah. My last parting words are go after your passion. And don't let anyone stop you.
And if you're tired of your same old day job, be willing to, and have the courage to start something you love or get involved something in something that you truly love and are passionate about. Passion will make things a lot easier when it comes to your profession. And most people aren't willing to go and then do that.
And that's my parting words.
Kirsten: Awesome. All right. Where can people follow along, find you what's the best to go and check more out with gigs and with you?
Scott: Yeah. So you can find us just search gig G I G G. I think it's gig on all platforms outside of the one where I had my handle stolen by some dude on the other side of the planet.
And I think it's a gig HQ now that's Instagram, [00:32:00] but gig G I G G. And then my personal social page, all my user handles are Scott Warner 18. So Scott Warner 18, that's where you can find me. Awesome.
Kirsten: Thank you so much, Scott. It's been great to talk to you. Thanks for all the insight and the knowledge you've shared.
It's been a great masterclass for our audience.
Scott: Thanks for having me, Kirsten.
Kirsten: Of course. Thank you so much to Scott. Thank you so much gig. This was a phenomenal episode. So much value packed in here for every business owner at every stage. Like I said, I know I was taking notes and I was learning some things and I loved his passion for user generated content and how we really do need to be.
Forward thinking and involving our audiences a lot more in promoting. I love that there are greatest fans and that they can be the very reason that we have a massive influx in sales. So thinking outside the box, looking for different ways that you can use what you already have to your benefit, to expand your brand, expand your business, super, super powerful.
We will link everything in the show notes so that you can check out gig and Scott. Thanks for tuning in. You guys, [00:33:00] class is officially dismissed.
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