User-Generated Content: 5 Tips for Winning Gen Z Customers

It might be surprising to learn that generation z (born 1997-2013) makes up approximately 30% of the world’s population (2.4 billion people), with an estimated U.S. $853 billion in global spending power. How can marketers ensure they reach this influential market segment, interact with them, and lead them through purchasing decisions, while driving brand loyalty and business growth?

Gen Z and Social Media: Usage and Behaviour

As the first fully digital generation, gen z has an active online presence, particularly on social media:

• 71% of Gen Z report spending 3+ hours daily on social media.
• On average, gen z uses five different social media platforms each day.

Given their high social media activity, brands must create content that is engaging and relevant, as the average gen z attention span is only 8 seconds. However, despite being digital natives, 73% of Gen Z still prefer to shop in-store, valuing the tangible experience brick-and-mortar shops offer. Interestingly, 97% use social media as a discovery tool for reviews and price comparisons, with 40% turning to TikTok over Google for search. Additionally, 83% of gen z shop on social media, with 60% discovering new brands and 32% making a purchase as a result.

To capitalise on these behaviours, marketers should integrate social media into a broader marketing strategy, ensuring alignment with SEO and SEM efforts.

The Importance of User-Generated Content (UGC) for Gen Z

Brands that succeed in engaging gen z focus heavily on User-Generated Content (UGC) - authentic, unpaid content created by fans, customers, or users. UGC plays a significant role in purchasing decisions, with 70% of gen z citing it as an influential factor. The content most likely to drive purchases includes reviews, hauls, and 'Get Ready With Me' (GRWM) videos.

Five Tips for Generating and Managing UGC

How can brands ensure a successful UGC strategy that resonates with gen z? Below are five invaluable tips for successfully engaging Gen Z on social media:

1. Foster Community Management

Cultivate a diverse and inclusive community that reflects your audience, particularly gen z. Representation matters - your audience is more likely to engage and create content if they see themselves in your brand’s messaging. Engage proactively with your audience, building a sense of collaboration. Genuine conversations and feedback can foster deeper connections, turning loyal followers into brand advocates. In fact, over 40% of Gen Z are motivated to advocate for the brands they love. The brands that know how to foster community with their followers and with their existing and potential users, will win audiences’ loyalty and their businesses.

2. Leverage Engagement Tactics for UGC Creation

Provide prompts like unique hashtags, contests, or employee engagement programs to inspire content creation. “Consider a unique hashtag, a contest, or even an employee engagement program,” suggests Rebecca Steckham, director of social media and strategic partnerships, and Subject Matter Expert (SME) with the Tag Social Media Centre of Excellence. Employee-generated content (EGC) has twice the engagement of branded messages, and when shared by employees themselves, it garners eight times more engagement, as companies such as Microsoft and SAP have discovered and benefited from.
It is important to track relevant hashtags and keywords to discover the right content and reward users with products or discounts to foster brand loyalty.

3. Prioritise Authenticity

Ensure your UGC aligns with your brand’s values and resonates with your audience. Gen z easily detects inauthenticity and is quick to turn away from brands that lack transparency. In fact, 45% have boycotted brands they find misleading. Demonstrating transparency to build trust, while acting authentically, is crucial for brands looking to build loyalty and drive growth with gen z customers.

4. Adopt Time-Saving Technology

Use marketing technology (MarTech) tools to streamline UGC management. Platforms like Tag’s proprietary Digital Interact (DI) streamline entire campaign workflows, enabling a quicker time from brief to campaign delivery anywhere in the world.

5. Set Clear UGC Campaign Goals

Define measurable goals, whether increasing brand awareness, boosting engagement rates, or driving direct actions like purchases. Tailor your success metrics based on campaign objectives, and work with sales teams to track the full customer journey. Here’s a more detailed, ‘funnel’ approach to consider:

• Top of funnel: Is your campaign meant to increase brand awareness? If so, the success of your campaign might mean increased impressions relative to previous campaigns or performance periods, or a higher share of voice within specific topics compared to your competitors (as opposed to looking at impressions or reach only).
• Mid-funnel: Here, campaign success can mean higher content engagement rates overall. However, Tag Social Media Center of Excellence SMEs recommend brands instead focus on looking at performance metrics that social media platforms’ algorithms 'favour' and weigh more heavily, such as the number of comments, shares, saves, and site click-throughs.
• Lower funnel: At this stage, success should mean an actual uptick in consumer intent and direct actions. For example, ask, “How many people are entering my contest? How many are downloading my content? How many are contacting my sales team to get more information and schedule a call? How many are trialing and purchasing my product?” Also at this stage, consider broadening your knowledge and understanding beyond the immediate social media KPIs and metrics. “Working with your Sales Ops team, collect and measure other non-social aspects of the consumer journey that will give your team the whole picture,” advises Stephen Glasco, Tag Americas sr. director of social media, and Social Media Centre of Excellence SME.

Importance of Social Media and UGC for Gen Z Consumers

When considering the various characteristics of the gen z consumer audience, including their high usage of social media to gain information and make purchasing decisions, it’s logical for brands to fully utilise social media and incorporate UGC to help drive their brand messaging. In summary, we know that:

• Social media is an ideal channel to target gen z consumers.
• User-Generated Content (UGC) on social media heavily influences gen z’s buying decisions.

When using the five UGC tips included in this article, 1) Employ community management, 2) Leverage engagement tactics, 3) Focus on authenticity, 4) Adopt time-and effort-saving technology, and 5) Set goals, brands will be successful with UGC campaigns to achieve increased engagement, influence purchases, and drive improved brand loyalty and overall business growth with the growing, influential gen z audience.

Contact us to discover how Tag can help optimize and accelerate your social media content creation and campaign workflow.

The Tag Social Media Center of Excellence offers end-to-end social media marketing - everything from strategic planning and consulting to social media management, to paid and influencer marketing. Our experienced and social-savvy Subject Matter Experts enable Tag to manage what most brands have difficulty accomplishing on their own: staying up to date on social media and social media trends, and creating engaging, relevant, and informative content, utilising various platform offerings alongside the latest digital content creation technologies. Tag has created an efficient delivery model, using the right resources, with the right specialisations, at just the right time.