User Generated Content vs. Social Media

2011-03-03

If you would like to have user generated content and social media joint with your web site, here is proposition for a right and wrong order to do it.

On and Off Site

Let's clear the difference between the two:

On Site: User Generated Content is generated and displayed on your site. It' comments, or ratings, or any kind of interaction that you prepared interaction patterns for.
Note: UGC could be also anywhere else, not only on site. I use the expression "UGC" here in a way our customers do it in the briefings

Social Media

senden, filtern, aufnehmen von nachrichten mit den mitteln des social web. ein gegenentwurf zu klassischen massenmedien. filtern und gewichten von news geschieht kollaborativ.

Off Site: Social Media content is off your site. It's on facebook or twitter or anywhere else.

What The F*ck - the wrong order

In the past web site owners tried to drag users to their websites in order to interact there. As a second step web site owners tried to go to social media and promote their sites over at Social Media platforms. So the order has been:

FIRST: Website = User Generated Content on Site
THEN: Facebook + Twitter = Social Media
--> FAIL

Most of the time the problem has been: people don't have an intrinsic motivation to do what you want them to do on your website. Because you set the goals. Because you set the rules. Because you have a (hidden) agenda. Because they want to connect to each other with more freedom than you allow them. Or may be because you just don't have enough interesting things to "interact about" on a regular basis.

So my guess is: this order does not really work out. It's even easy to remember, if you look at the order of the first letters:

Web → Twitter + Facebook
= W T F
= What The Fuck

For The Win - the right order

People talk. They have conversations, about you and about your products. But they like to go where their friends, mates and colleagues are. Go to places these places where people are. You might be able to take the content from there. Then try to connect to this content on your web site. And you might get some people to use your site, too, if you have something of value to offer.

I'll take facebook and twitter as examples of social media, and your web site as

So the right order would be:

FIRST: Facebook + Twitter = Social Media
THEN: Website = User Generated Content on Site

Easy to remember:

Facebook + Twitter → Website
= F T W
= For The Win

~~User Generated Content~~ performed by Yves Klein. UPDATE: As the ladies were carefully chosen models by the artist and did exactly what they were told, this would be more a bought review than real UGC.

Comments:

Michael Nordmeyer am 2011-03-05

Nice wrap up.

You may want to change the acronym at the end of the article to FTW as in For The Win. Copy & paste error?

Konstantin am 2011-03-07

Hey Michael, thanks a lot, I''ve corrected the typo.

Tobias am 2011-03-09

I dont agree with your definition of UGC and Social Media. UGC is user • generated • content. Nothing said about where. It may be on my side, it may be on Twitter. In fact twitter is full of ugc about twitter and about my site and about whatever - its still ugc. Social Media may use or be UGC but apart from that it has nothing to with eachother. Just because I create a profile for my company on facebook and post stuff there (= doing social media) doents mean that users generate content for me. You could, however, talk about engagement with users and a user-dialogue... UGC is not bound to my website. When I have a book-website and a user writes a review about my book on amazon thats UGC for me but not on my website. That hat nothing to do with social media. When I start motivating my reader to write those reviews on facebook and share them with their friends, thats UGC that I use for social media...

Tobias am 2011-03-09

... and those images have nothing to do with UGC as well. This is his wife or girlfriend or some actress. But I am shure its not a user - which would be a art-collector that stood up from her chair, took her close of and let this guy paint on her to be dragged around -- thats not the story I remember about this images ;)

Konstantin am 2011-03-09

@Tobias: Thanks for the detailed definition. I use the terms here in the way our clients describe them in their requirement papers. I have problems to call a companies push-content on Facebook "doing Social Media", as there is little social about it. But besides from that I agree with you. Following your definition my formular surely would not work.

Concerning Yves Klein: Well I guess these ladies have been viewers of the painter's work and thus have been users. But according Wikipedia UGC has to fulfill three criteria:

Publication requirement
Creative effort
Creation outside of professional routines and practices

So you're right, there is little UGC about it in the strict sence. But on the other hand: people are contributing to the artwork willingly and following the rules of the artist: that's something that you do when commenting on Amazon as well. The output somewhat random: Amazon does not know whether the comment on a book will be positive or negative or irrelevant. But it follows the rules of amazon and adds to their goal to have reviews on books and thus bigger relevance for book buyers.

Tobias am 2011-03-09

According to they are Modells: "Nach ersten Experimenten fand im November 1959 eine erste halböffentliche Aktion bei Freunden statt. Yves Klein bestrich bei dieser „Sitzung“ nackte Frauen mit Farbemulsion und (...) Die zentralen Körperpartien der, wie auch bei späteren Sitzungen, eher üppigen Modelle wurden dabei in höchst unterschiedlicher Weise abgedruckt. (...) im März 1960 (folgte) die erste ofzielle Sitzung vor Publikum (...)" I dont think he left it to chance to find the right kind of women, willing to work with him, in his audience. But maybe this is something like a bought review -- this would make him a real visionary ;-).

Konstantin am 2011-03-09

Thanks so much for your decent research, Tobias. Indeed, in this case one can only call the models as tools of the painter. I'll update the caption of the pictures.

Comment form here

konnexus