In recent years, UGC has become increasingly important in marketing. If you are wondering what UGC is and how it differs from CGM, we encourage you to gain a correct understanding of the meaning of these terms and apply it to your own marketing efforts.
What is UGC?
UGC is an acronym for User Generated Content, which is content created by users on the Web.
It refers to content created and disseminated by ordinary users and is not the kind of content that is published and provided by companies such as the existing media, or the news media, which are created by news reporting professionals and photography professionals. In broad categories, they include posts and reactions on social networking sites, posts and reactions on video sites, reviews on word-of-mouth sites, opinion posts, questions and answers on Q and A sites, the information presented on user-participatory curation sites, blog posts, and posts on online bulletin boards.
What is the difference between UGC and CGM?
CGM is an acronym for Consumer Generated Media.
These are bulletin boards, word-of-mouth sites, and other media where user participation constitutes the content. This explanation may have confused some people about the difference between UGC and CGM. As mentioned above, UGC is the “content” itself created by users, while CGM is the “media” generated by that content. Examples of media are summarized below, but I am sure that all of them are sites that you have used before.
| Type | Examples |
|---|---|
| Social Media | Twitter |
| Video Sharing Platform | YouTube Niconico |
| Word-of-mouth website | Tabe-log Kakaku.com cookpad |
| Q and A Website | Yahoo Answers OKWave |
| Curation Website | NAVER Matome |
| Blog | User Review Blog |
| Internet forum | 2channel |
Attracting customers to digital marketing is affected by bidding competition, including the placement of ads on platforms and social networking ads. It is also affected by changes in search engine rankings due to changes in platform algorithms. Under these circumstances, user-generated content is attracting attention as a new means of attracting customers. In addition to UGC, such as word-of-mouth on review sites and bulletin board posts, social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have recently emerged as a new way to reach a wider audience through their follower and spread functions. The importance of UGC in marketing activities is growing.