UGC FOR YOU AND ME.

Jupiter Research reports nearly half (49%) of on-line users have engaged with user generated content in the past 30days by either creating or simply reading material posted by other users. In a study titled “User-Generated Content: Strategies for Media Sites”, JupiterResearch reports that UGC is now a mainstream activity for millions of consumers.

According to Jupiter, users under 25 are especially active in the space. 3/4's of users polled 18 to 25 are participating in UGC, and few of them are passive participants.

“The relative youth of UGC users provides an opportunity for publishers to address consumers they have been unable to reach off-line,“ Barry Parr, Analyst at JupiterResearch. “UGC is an important means of attracting younger users to the online sites of traditional media properties with whom they have no existing relationship.”
While young hipsters and kids are clearly the prime consumers of UGC, it would be an error to think of UGC as limited to hipsters and kids. According to the study, (34 percent) of people over the age 55 of are also participating.

Additionally, active users of UGC haven’t abandoned off-line media for online, but they are learning to mash the two.

The bottom line is while adrants, and boing boing may not mob your site over some videos of your users discussing or using your products or service.

UGC will help in the buying cycle, and improves customer satisfaction and loyalty. If you are like me and cannot at this time add UGC content to my clients web site, as a marketer you should at least be very aware of what User Generated Content is saying about your brand, company or service.