A Creative Angle on UCG

User Generated Content, or UGC, is a great tool to increase brand awareness and sales. So how can someone use it when their goal is to prevent traditional selling behavior but increase interaction — that helps lead to sales — in a private Facebook group? This is a question I find myself asking, as I created a group to connect friends (and friends of friends) to be able to support each other’s small businesses and side hustles through learning “Who Sells That?”

Let me provide a little context about the group. It’s a place to ask who sells something you may be looking to buy, so that you can buy it from a friend. It’s a place to tell your friends that you are selling a specific product or service without anyone feeling like you are giving them an unsolicited sales pitch. It is not a place for someone to constantly push their wares. It is not a place for someone to feel like they are being pressured into a purchase or get tired of hearing someone drone on about their efforts.

So with that in mind, the question remains: how to use UCG in the group?

And I think I may have found a few solutions.

One of my plans for the future of the group is to make sure it remains a positive place to connect folks as the holidays come up later in the year. You know, Small Business Saturday, Black Friday, and gift giving galore make great times to naturally purchase from a friend when it’s a good fit.

With that in mind, I can strive to start our own viral amongst friends posts regarding the group! Encouraging members of the group who are sellers of some kind, to tag the group in a post regarding supporting friends’ small businesses (we have all seen the threads on Facebook at the holidays when someone invites friends to comment with what they sell to help support each other). Additionally, this gives me the chance to grab that UCG and put it back in the group, to remind others that members are out there supporting them and to do the same on their posts.

And since the whole point of the group is to share your wares within it, that asks for UCG right there in the group! When they join, everyone is invited to make an individual post plus comment on a thread to provide easy-to-find details about what they offer. Additionally, those looking to buy are invited post and ask who sells something, if they do not already see it. I will add in the ask for members to thank another when they do purchase and love their product! A simple shoutout but also UCG.

The goals and reasons for existence of my Facebook Group do not lend themselves to a traditional UCG model but with a little thought and creativity, it can be a viable tool nonetheless.

How would you recommend gaining and/or using UCG for a group of this nature?