Everything You Need To Become a UGC Creator

Making money on social media is a dream – that’s slowly but surely turning into a reality.

Selling online products/services, brand partnerships, subscription-based models, affiliate programs, influencer marketing; and why you came here to learn – monetizing off of user-generated content or being a UGC creator.

Interested in learning how to become a UGC creator?

You are in the right place – here’s everything we’ll cover in this article:

What is a UGC creator?

Before explaining what UGC creator is – let’s cover some basics first that will help you understand the overall topic better.

User-generated content is content related to your brand but created by your real customers instead of an employees. And if you are wondering why user-generated content instead of content created the usual way – UGC increases conversion by 10% in an online buying process.

Now it’s only fair we move on to covering what a user-generated content creator is:

UGC creator is a content creator (as the name says it) who “specializes” in creating content that looks user-generated, personal, authentic, and unique to that person’s style – but of course, it’s sponsored (paid by a brand/company). This content is usually shared on the social media feeds of the creator, and it can be in the form of a photo or a video explaining the features of a certain product, its benefits, etc.

The difference between an influencer and UGC Content Creator

Often, these creators are confused with influencers who post on their medial social channels regarding certain products. However, the main difference here is where this content is posted.

Influencers are getting paid to promote products to their target audience/ their community and, therefore, influence their purchasing decisions to buy that certain product. Additionally, brands are paying these influencers for their products to reach a broader audience (the one the influencer has).

UGC creators could create similar content even for that same brand, but the content will be posted on the brand’s channels. In this case, brands are not looking into raising awareness and higher reach of their products/services, instead – they are in it for the authentic feel of the content.

For example, we can take this reel posted on Sephora’s Instagram profile, where a fashion influencer explains her hair routine with versatile products and hair styling tools.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sephora (@sephora)

Why do brands love UGC creators?

As we’ve already mentioned – user-generated content increases conversions, and on top of this:

• 75% of marketers claim that UGC makes the brand more authentic
• 31% of consumers say that ads containing authentic UGC content are more memorable than branded content ads; and that
• Consumers spend 5,4 hours a day with user-generated content.
  Source: https://embedsocial.com/blog/ugc-statistics/
• And finally, marketers don’t need to have a big marketing budget for UGC creation.

As you can tell, brands love user-generated content because it hugely impacts their marketing strategy – but why is that?

User-generated content is so impactful simply because it provides people with social proof. Social proof, on the other hand, works because people trust people and not brands directly. It’s as simple as when you get a certain recommendation from a friend about a certain product, and you’re instantly hooked and ready to try it out.

Content created by UG creators is more engaging, trustworthy, and with higher credibility.

Other than this, content created by UG creators will help you:

• save valuable time and money (content creation can frequently be expensive and time-consuming to create)
• showcase your brand is open to communicating with your audience (this type of content will help you create a stronger bond with your audience)
• personality-based original videos/content with real people are preferred by social media algorithms meaning this content will get a higher reach (get through to more social media accounts and profiles)

Now that we’ve answered the “what” and the “why,” – it’s only fair we move on to the “how” – how to become a UGC creator.

How to become a UGC creator (in 3 simple steps)

Becoming a UGC Creator is fairly simple – a huge follower count is not required, nor high engagement levels.

Why? Simply because you’re not influencing people your audience but the audience of the brand you’re creating for (because the content will be published on their profile). Even more, you won’t need special equipment to create this content.

So, what exactly do you need? Here are the exact steps if you’re just starting on:

1. (Optional step) Create your UGC-specific account
2. Consider the industry you want to work for
3. Start creating good content
4. Create your portfolio
5. (Optional step) Do brand outreach

1. Create your UGC-specific account

This first step is optional, but we recommend it if you are just starting out as a creator.

Creating a different account will allow you to separate your personal from your “brand” account for privacy reasons. Additionally, creating an account with UGC usage in the description and/or name will help you get discovered faster and easier by brands.

Once you create your account, you can start following some other creators that share tips, knowledge, and experience about the creator economy, how to make contacts, and how to get your first earnings as a creator.

Don’t be scared to reach out to other creators, and engage with the UGC creator community – you never know with who you might start collaborating.

Skills you need to become a creator:

• Video and photo creation and editing skills
• Copywriting for writing cool captions and scripts for creating UGC videos
• Live communication
• Research Skills are always a plus
• Basic marketing knowledge (understanding how sales funnels work + e-mail marketing + how social media channels and algorithms work)

2. Consider the industry you want to work for

Now that you have your account, it’s time to start thinking about what industry you want to work in.

Surely, you’re starting something new, and it might be scary – but no need to; when we’re talking “industry,” we actually refer to your interests (other than your nine-to-five job). You might be interested in skincare, tech, fashion, wellness, food, sports, books, productivity and planning, and so much more! The options are truly endless!

Once you write down your interests – go a step further, and think about brands you would like to collaborate with. Who are they – do write them down too. Now that you have your potential brand list – it’s time for some research.

Go into these brands’ social accounts and see what type of content they are posting, whether they include UGCs, what’s their most common content format, who their audience is, and how you can improve their content strategy.

Here is a list of niches you can consider:

Cooking / Recipes – do you have a cooking talent? Thank you can consider creating your profile around a specific cooking niche, like vegan, food for kids, etc. The key here is to choose a very narrow topic that you are good at but is not very competitive.

Fitness / Wellness – of course, this is a very broad industry, but what about fitness for mums, fitness in the morning, and 10-minute fitness, try to research and see if any of the fitness alternatives are worth considering.

Skincare – is another super popular and demanded sector, and it might be perfect for you if you are on a certain skincare path, have a certain skincare issue, and you’re learning to cope with it with the right products/treatments/lifestyle, and even if you don’t have a skin issue – the industry is so large there’s space for every skincare enthusiast.

Fashion – passionate about dressing up? Do showcase your daily combinations, what you would wear on certain occasions, your favorite shopping hauls, seasonal wear, and must-haves for every season, and share comments on famous people’s combinations – simply experiment with content and find that thing that works for you and land those collaborations and paid content creations!

Books – regardless of how strange it might look – if that’s your interest, yes! There’s even space for such niche communities about people reading certain types of books, writing and sharing reviews, and sharing that unique book aesthetics (with underlined pages, side notes, and drawings on pages).

Productivity / Work Motivation – maybe you’re good at explaining to others how to excel in their career, how to be more productive, how to structure their day, how to prioritize their tasks, etc. Maybe this is something you’ve been working on yourself for years – and now it’s the absolute best time to literally make a living out of it (out of everything you’ve learned in your spare time).

Do stick with us – we will cover some helpful examples too 🙂

3. Start creating content

Now that you have your main interests written down – you need to think about the type of content you want to focus on.

Are you more interested in creating photos, personal short-form videos, or short-form reels for both Instagram and TikTok? Think about this, take some courses to educate yourself if needed, and start creating.

Although it might be scary, starting to create authentic content and simply “being out there” is essential to becoming a creator. Creating content will help you with the next step, building your UGC portfolio.

4. Create your portfolio

Creating your portfolio is the second to last step – so it means you’re almost done with the boring stuff.

Creating a portfolio will help you showcase who you are, what you do – your previous work, and how you could help brands with content.

Here’s how to create your portfolio in Canva, what to put in your UGC portfolio, an example of a portfolio, and some common mistakes to avoid.

If you want to find more tips about your portfolio, make sure you follow the hashtag #ugcporfolio.

5. Do brand outreach

You have your preferred industry (and brands you want to work with), and your amazing portfolio – now you’re done with the last step – doing outreach.

This is a completely optional one, but we do highly recommend it. If you place UGC in your description and user name, brands will eventually reach out to you for collaborations, but surely that won’t happen at the beginning since the competition is so high. Therefore, it’s why doing outreach is needed.

If you’re scared, here’s how to start wit. brand outreach with these useful TikToks:

• Write an e-mail outreach
• how to avoid your e-mails landing in the spam
• some additional tips.

Examples of UGC creators on Instagram

We will cover and showcase some “official” user-generated content creators on Instagram, but before doing so – we would like to show you how to do a creator’s research on your own.

In the search bar on Instagram, you can simply type in the hashtag UGC (#UGC) and go into the “Accounts” tab. Here, you will find different accounts/people who placed UGC in their profile description, meaning they offer such services.

Now, let’s dive into some of these profiles and see some details.

1. Lauren – The CovetCo

As Lauren’s description says – she’s a self-proclaimed UGC creator who can create content around beauty, wellness, and skincare. Additionally, she shares her location, e-mail address, and link to a website.

Another important thing, in her highlights, we can spotlight a “previous clients” highlight, which serves as her portfolio and showcases brands she previously worked with. Lastly, if you want to take your research next level, you can go into the “tagged” part of her profile, where you can see some published projects (UGC content) for versatile brands.

2. Esra – EsraBrekelmans

The main difference between the first and second Instagram profiles is their niche/industry, Lauren was a skincare creator, and Esra is a fashion creator.

Besides this, both of them have a similar bio, description, and information (e-mail address and a link to relevant website).

3. Kim – Kim_bulan4

And lastly – a food/travel vlogger and creator with similar information to the previous accounts. A statement of what he does, promoting his other TikTok profile, and sharing that he’s open for collaborations, and a link to his latest vlog.

How do Brands utilize UG Content?

Moving on from Content Creator’s profile to versatile brand’s examples of how they utilized UGC in their content strategy.

If you want to see even more content examples – here are some user-generated content campaigns created by brands.

Examples of UGC creators on TikTok

Now that we’ve covered Instagram, we’re moving on to showing you some TikTok examples.

If you’re wondering why Tiktok? To put things in perspective – we’re placing some screenshots with much-needed data.

1. UGCang

With almost half a million likes, this Tiktok profile is available for UGC brand partnerships and here to raise awareness about this type of content and educate other fellow creators.

In her description, she’s transparent about collaborations and sharing a single link to her offers, such as UGC Creator Course, an Inquiry submission for brands, and personalized consultation.

2. Diaryofaugccreator

Our second example is a UGC creator from Germany who has more than a million likes and almost 200k followers.

Besides her location, she also has a short list of her interests (lifestyle, digital diary, and cats), an e-mail address for contact, and a link to her page.

3. Sociallydani

Our third and last Tiktok example is SociallyDani, both content creator and coach. With almost 30k followers and 250k likes – here’s what her profile description looks like.

In her description – she has her unique selling proposition, a mail you can reach out to, and a link to a gree UGC guide.

Tool to generate user-generated content

EmbedSocial is a complete user-generated platform that helps creators and brands aggregate UGC across all major social media networks, like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Youtube, Twitter, Vimeo, and Google Business profiles.

The content that can be generated includes reviews from Facebook and Google, Instagram stories, Instagram feed from mentions, hashtags, or accounts, Twitter feeds from mentions and accounts, YouTube video channels and playlist feeds, and similar.

UGC creators can use UGC platforms like EmbedSocial to help brands aggregate all the content that mentions their brand on social media or post by using a specific hashtag that can be relevant to the brand’s sector.

To summarize, here is what UGC creators, together with brands, can do with a platform like EmbedSocial.

• Discover similar content that other creators do for the brand – at scale. Just add a hashtag the brand uses and see what type of content can be generated.
• Provide the brand with a UGC widget for their website with the content you and other people create for their specific hashtag or if you get permission to their account, you will be able also to fetch the Instagram and Twitter mentions and help them create widgets with the content posted by the people.
• You can also help the brand create a competition where people will post photos with a specific hashtag to win prizes. This is a great way to increase engagement and get more content for the brand.
• Last but not least, you can use EmbedSocial’s platform to monitor the performance of the content on the brands’ websites by also adding an additional layer of purchase by tagging the UGC content with shippable links.

What to consider when working with a brand as a UGC creator?

There are a few things that you should consider when working with specific brands as a UGC creator in order to build long-term partnerships:

1. Make sure that the brand is a good fit for you. You want to ensure that the brand’s values align with your personal values. If they don’t, it will be difficult to create content that feels authentic.
2. Be clear about what you are willing to do for the brand. Don’t overcommit yourself and then find that you can’t deliver on what you promised. Set realistic expectations from the beginning.
3. Help the brand towards business success, like increasing traffic to their websites or helping them get more sales. In return, you can ask for things like free products, discounts, or compensation for your time and effort.
4. Maintain creative control over your content. You don’t want to create something you’re not proud of because it doesn’t fit with your personal brand. Make sure you clearly understand what the brand is looking for before you start creating content.
5. Be prepared to put in the work. Creating high-quality content takes time and effort. If you’re not willing to invest the time and effort, then it’s probably not worth pursuing a partnership with that brand.
6. The usage rights of the content you will create need to be clearly defined, as sometimes the brands require them in their own right for further usage in different marketing activities.
7. Make an investment in creator tools in order to improve your content capture and editing or position as unique with link in bio tools. To try a link in bio tool like Feedlink, signup below:

If you keep these tips in mind, you’ll be on your way to creating content that both you and the brand will be proud of!

Ideas to start creating authentic user-generated content

There are a few ideas you can get to start creating UGC for your favorite brand.

• Find out what kind of content the brand usually posts and try to recreate it.
• Start a conversation with their marketing team or directly with the brand on social media platforms such as Twitter or Instagram.
• Engage with the brand’s target audience and get to know what they like.
• Look for opportunities to attend events related to the brand.
• Take advantage of user-generated content platforms such as EmbedSocial..
• Try to be creative and come up with your own ideas that the brand may like!
• And most importantly, you really like and actually use the brand, so you can create an organic UGC that is highly authentic.

Good luck!

FAQs by Content Creators

Key takeaways

Well, there you have it – a full guide on becoming a UGC Creator. We hope we answered all the questions you had and helped you start your very own creator carrier.

Changing carriers is never easy, especially when you’re starting something from scratch and completely new to you. However, remember to be persistent and dedicated, and you will land those collaborations.

As evident, the benefits of using UGC are huge for the brands, and you, as a creator, can help them to achieve their goals while getting paid for it.

If you want to become a UGC creator, you don’t need to have a huge following just focus on creating original content that feels authentic (not just advertising) and help brands towards business success, like increasing traffic to their websites or helping them get more sales.