← DictionaryUser Generated Content
also called user-generated content
Content made by customers or audience rather than the brand.
Content your customers made.
What It Is
User Generated Content sits on the Content side of the work, in the Formats area. The working definition is simple: content made by customers or audience rather than the brand.
It is a label with a settled working definition, so the value is in using it the same way every time. That is the version worth keeping, because it survives contact with a real project.
How It's Used
User Generated Content comes up in editorial planning, briefs and the day-to-day work of publishing. It normally appears alongside Social Proof, Testimonial and Community Management. The practical test is whether everyone in the room means the same thing by it.
Why It Matters
Getting User Generated Content wrong is expensive in a quiet way. When it is unclear, output goes up and effect goes sideways. Clarity here removes a surprising amount of downstream argument.
Picture a word everyone in the room has agreed to use the same way. Content your customers made.
Termshift™
How the meaning shifts depending on who is using it, and where.
Professionally, User Generated Content carries the narrow meaning: content made by customers or audience rather than the brand.
Explained to someone with no marketing background, User Generated Content is content your customers made.
The Bottom Line
Treat User Generated Content as a decision, not a description. Content your customers made.