User generated content can be an elusive piece in the social media mix. Where do you find it? How do you leverage it? This is one of my favorite parts of my job.

As a Community Manager I'm doing the following things concurrently:

1. Listening - My email brings in the Google alerts that I have set up. They provide me with the doorway to the outside world where our customers are talking about our products. People blog about our software & I comment on those posts. And because people use tags & social bookmarking I see examples of images created with ACDSee software. Radian6 does a great job of automatically monitoring what I do manually.

2. Once the UGC (user generated content) is identified it's easy to engage with the creator. I tend to try to gain some background information by viewing the person's profile. A blog link provides a huge amount of information about the person. This is where the people skills come in. Contacting the person has to be done tactfully because most people go into shock & disbelief when a company rep for a product they obviously love contacts them. I still remember my response when ACDSee contacted me, so I can relate. Some pointers: identify yourself, be specific, & allude to your plan (ie: have a plan)

3. The plan is key - what can you do with the UGC? Be creative! think outside of the box. How can you highlight the person's expression of their appreciation for your product?

• a blog is a great place to highlight it
• community forums can link to the blog
• a newsletter - it makes great content for that too as well as another way to introduce newsletter readers to your blog.

Think about all the ways people are moving around your site & connect them.

It's one thing to read how to do it, but I always like to have examples. So here are some examples of things I've done with UGC.

• My present project is highlighting abstract images created in our software. (I found them being hosted on Flickr. There is also an ACDSee users group there & I have ideas for highlighting people's photos from there which in turn will encourage people to post more.)

Here is the user's response to my request to feature her work:

I have to say, I am very flattered and just a bit overwhelmed by this. Thank you!!!

And the response to my first post in the series:

Oh my goodness, Connie, I am so excited I am trembling!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I'm going to need a little time to soak this all in

Other examples are:

• Blog series by a professional photographer highlighting his trip to Antartica
  • This was well received & the photographer answered questions
• Tutorials & videos by users placed in the Media Room on website

So what are your users creating around your product/brand?

• How can you highlight their work?
• How can you get them involved with other customers?
  • I'm having the person who created the content answer the questions
• How can you use it to introduce your customers to other parts of your site?
• How can you encourage other users to post their work? (increasing WOM)

I'd love to hear how you are using your community's user generated content.

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