User Generated Content is Not Just Video
Seems obvious, doesn’t it?
Comments, stories, photos, videos—any of these things can be user-generated content. Some are just a lot more difficult to make. Comments are a snap. Stories require talent. Photos are easy. Video requires production and editing (for anything more than a simple sight gag).
So how come so many companies saddle themselves with the most difficult forms of user-generated content. Yeah, video contests are cool, but they require the most effort. You’d better be thinking of a serious prize—or serious exposure—to make it worth their while. And you shouldn’t expect a whole raft of entries. Or an audience that wants to spend hours watching them.
Photos, on the other hand, are easy. Almost everyone has a digital camera, or a cameraphone. Photos aren’t hard to transfer to your computer. They don’t need editing. And, on the viewing side, the time someone spends with a photo is up to them—they can spare a single glance, or gaze into its depths for minutes.
A user-generated content drive based on photos will get more entries and more views. It will require a much smaller prize. It can even end up being a sustainable, long-term campaign. Take the example of the new Memorex website we just launched.
Every page of the site can be personalized with photos chosen from user submissions in the previous months. The payoff for the photographer isn’t thousands of dollars, or expensive gear—it’s simply exposure to the massive traffic that visits the Memorex site.
This kind of user-generated campaign is designed to for the long term. Instead of a point program, with a big prize and an ending date, this campaign runs continuously, allowing Memorex to forge a stronger connection with their audience—without forcing them to learn all about video editing.
