There is a healthy and growing body of research on UGC. So there are lots of studies we could talk about. I'd like to focus on two recent and very interesting studies about this topic. This first study was published by Liang Wang and colleagues in 2019 in management science. The authors of this study investigate the types of feedback that motivate individuals to provide UGC to companies. They examined the effects of three different types of feedback. First, cooperation, which is the impact of UGC on others. Second, individualistic, which is feedback about the quality of your ideas. Third, competition, which is feedback about how much better your UGC was than that provided by others. They then test these three different types of feedback in two experiments, one in China and one in the US. The results of both studies revealed that the impact of these three different types of feedback depends upon an individual's gender. Among women, cooperation was the strongest motivator, while among men, competition was the strongest motivator for providing UGC. Thus, this study suggests that firms can motivate individuals to generate UGC by giving them feedback about their contributions, and that the type of feedback should be different among men versus women. The second study was published by Shiri Melumad, Jeff Inman, and Michelle Pham in 2019 in the Journal of Marketing. Now, there are lots of studies about UGC. However, very few actually examine the ways in which users actually generate content. This study is one of the exceptions, examines how UGC differs when it's created on a smart phone versus a personal computer. These researchers examined the difference between these two forms of technology by connecting five different studies that included both actual UGC and the form of reviews from TripAdvisor and postings on Twitter, as well as a set of experiments in which they had participants generate content on either a smartphone or a PC. The results of these studies reveal that UGC created on a smartphone is shorter and less detailed than user-generated content created on a personal computer. They also found that UGC created on a smartphone is more likely to be emotional and positive in nature. Thus this research suggests that the content of UGC is affected by the type of digital tool that's used to create it. It also suggests that firms should try to encourage their customers to generate UGC on their smartphones rather than on their computers. First, ask to share. About one out of every three Internet users has made at least one type of UGC. Now, there are about 4 billion Internet users around the world. Thus if you do the math, there's about 1 billion people on our planet who've shown the willingness to contribute their time, energy, and ideas on behalf of a brand. The trick is to direct their efforts towards your brand rather than your competitors. Prior research indicates that customers are more likely to provide favorable contributions to firms that are active in social media and that encourage their participation. Surprisingly, although most large firms have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, few of them actually encourage their customers to contribute their ideas. For many firms, social media is more of a one-way communication flow than a two-way conversation. Ideally, promotional activities should encourage these conversations between both firms and customers. A good way to get this conversation started is to simply ask customers to share their ideas. Second, be responsive. After a firm ask its customers to submit their contributions, and if they're lucky enough to receive some, they need to close the loop by being responsive. For example, Dell computer has teams of individuals solely devoted to monitoring its discussion boards and responding to consumer postings. Some firms choose to be responsive through financial incentives. For example, Taco Bell sends gift cards to active social media users who make positive contributions to their brand. By being responsive to user contributions, firms are more likely to obtain higher levels of UGC in the future. Third, remember the Pareto Principle? If you had an economics class, you may remember this principle. It comes from the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who found way back in 1896 that 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by only 20 percent of the population. Since this time, this principle has become known as the 80/20 rule and it's been found to apply to a large number of different types of phenomenon. For example, 80 percent of the world's income is controlled by about 20 percent of its population. This principle is also seen in UGC where about 90 percent of the content is created by only 10 percent of his contributors. For example, we all use Wikipedia, but few of us contribute to it. So not all contributors are equal, some are more influential than others. Firms should keep this principle in mind and seek to identify these influential contributors and reward them for their efforts. Fourth and finally, integrate UGC with traditional promotion. So far, we have discussed UGC as an alternative to traditional promotion activities like advertising on television. Indeed, these two forms of promotion are quite different and often conducted as separate activities, sometimes by separate individuals. However, firms should consider trying to link these two forms of promotion together. For example, Target highlighted it's educational initiatives by creating a television ad campaign that featured videos of some of its customers that captured the moment in which their sons and daughters open up their college admission letters. This advertising campaign was voted as one of the best ads of the year and resulted in substantial attention and goodwill for Target's brand.
