User Generated Content (or UGC if you're in the know) is a fantastic way to generate real life action shots of your products. When we started In The Box, I set up my little light box and snapped away at boxes until the cows came home. But man, the photos were boring. Lets be real, a box is a box. And yes, we could try to dress it up in the studio with a ribbon or some tissue paper, but the images still fell flat.
In time, we then started growing our social media pages and a wonderful thing happened. Our customers started tagging us in their images of their products in OUR boxes! Problem solved. The UGC was far more beautiful and believable than what I could create with my little light box. Think cosmetics, cupcakes, apparel, photos of our products at market stalls and the list goes on. Inadvertently, what happened was that it started giving our other customers inspiration on different ways to use our packaging (think cookies in chocolate boxes, socks in coffee boxes) and our following and community grew.
So, whether you're a fashion brand, an events company or a candle maker - get into the habit of culminating a community on social media, where your followers WANT to share photos of your products. Hype them up in the comments, repost to your feed and tell them you appreciate the content. It makes your brand more believable, builds trust in your business and in a time of micro-influencers; customers love to see their images shared.
We owe a large portion of our social media growth to our customers and their beautiful content they share with us on the daily. We appreciate you!
Alright, let me get off my box.
Jess
