Using UGC in my Fashion Based Facebook Group
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User generated content or UGC is content like text, videos, images or reviews created by people, rather than brands. UGC can be used by a brand in a variety of ways, but when used properly it can create a massive beneficial impact.
For my community specifically, I aim to create a safe and close-knit community of women who are midsize and looking for fashion advice, to share fashion inspiration and to uplift one another.
One of my first post in the group had a goal of welcoming members, sharing more about myself/why I started the group, and presenting an opportunity for my members to create UGC.
One of the most valuable things you can do to be a successful community manager is to be authentic. I wanted this post and all moving forward to better encourage others to be themselves. In this post I included a snippet about myself along with sharing a few photos. I mentioned that the first photo I shared was the first time I was publicly posting it due to being self-conscious of my stomach area. But, I wanted to take a courageous step in showing more love to my body and hopefully inspire others to do the same.
This post was met with 72 comments by women all around the world sharing about themselves, photos of their favorite outfits, or photos they feel confident in (I will not be sharing comments or posts to respect privacy). Among those comments and the other posts community members created sharing about this same topic, the UGC creation exploded.
From this introduction post, members felt confident and comfrotable sharing photos of their outfit inspiration. The group is now flooded with UGC all about midsize fashion finds, advice, and hacks.
By creating this post, and sharing others like the one pictured to the left, I hope it stirs a desire in the community to share and be involved in conversation. It is my goal to make sure that everyone feels welcomed and wanted in this online community.
Beyond creating my own content to inspire UGC, one way I can include other social media platforms is by utilizing Pinterest. One example I have in mind is to choose a “Pinterest outfit” to share in the feed and ask community members to recreate the look. ~ Pinterest Fashion, but make it midsize ~
I believe that this post would spark an increase in UGC and have the potential to open it up to different variation of content, including video or an original TikTok.
This would serve as another source of positive inspiration to the group. When you go to Pinterest and type in, let’s say “Fall Fashion,” you are met with thousands of images of women in the latest outfit trends and clothing styles. But, 95% of these images are from “smaller” or slimmer content creators (nothing wrong with that, we love and appreciate all body sizes here). Although, being a women who doesn’t look like the women in the pictures, it can often be difficult to image what that outfit might look like on me or someone with a similar body type to me. While I am a firm believer that everyone should wear what they feel comfortable in, sometimes you just need a little extra source of encouragement.
Along with wanting to create a safe and encouraging space for my community members, I want them to feel bold and self-reliant within the group.
