Influencers vs. UGC: A Social Media Showdown

"In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity." - Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu blesses us with that wisdom in The Art of War. Few would think of social media marketing as a battleground, but imagine a glorified WWE Royal Rumble where brands vie for attention, engagement, and sales. There’s arguably less spandex, but all the theatrics. In this gladiator arena of hashtags and filters, we’ll take a look at the question:

Is it better to employ a curated group of influencers or take a User Generated Content (UGC), affiliate approach in mass?

This isn’t just some question we designed on a Zoom call to create a good blog. Recently, we’ve been approached by a few companies looking to monetize their social media channels. Are you looking to monetize your social profiles? 

If so, let’s get ready to rumble.

Curated Influencers: The Power Players

In one corner, we have the influencers – the social media darlings who hold the opinions of and influence (duh) their diehard fans. These carefully curated individuals bring all the style and authenticity, with a flair of expertise to the arena. According to Linqia, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from others, even from those they don’t personally know, over branded content. Who needs an ad campaign when you have a bonafide social media pro pushing your brand?

With curated influencers, you get targeted reach on the bill. You don’t have to aim blindly and hope your message sticks. By aligning your key audiences with influencers whose followers fit your demographics, psychographics, and any other graphics you can think of, you’re reducing wasted resources and uncovering how to reach consumers more likely to convert. 

Like most good things in life, there's a catch – the price tag. Without a strategic and measured plan, collaborating with influencers can drain your budget faster than you can say "engagement rate." In 2021 alone, the influencer marketing industry ballooned to a whopping $13.8 billion. Relying heavily on influencers can come with a negative blowback. 

With one wild left-hook of a misguided tweet, your marketing strategy could come tumbling down. Enter the underdog, UGC.

UGC: The People’s Champion

In the opposite corner, we have the people – the everyday users, the hometown heroes with smaller followings, but a lot of heart and sense of community. They’re entering the ring with User Generated Content. The good news is encouraging consumers to generate content for you can be cost-effective.

Let’s retouch on the community-building aspect. They're not just customers; they're loyal brand evangelists. UGC fosters a sense of belonging and allegiance to your brand. It makes brands more authentic through the voice of the people who use your product daily. 

But there’s some downsides. Quality control can be tough to maintain. Managing the sheer volume of user-generated content and ensuring it meets your standards can feel like you got your hands tied behind your back. And let's not forget the risk of harmful content. A user-generated PR disaster would be a knockout to your credibility. Read this thread about how a YouTuber is credited with being a catalyst for the EV automotive company Fisker.

There is, however, an option that can tag-team with a UGC approach. Your strategy could get a boost from an Affiliate Network Plan layered in. 

Performance Enhancers: Affiliate Programs

Among the ranks is an option that somewhat blends the world of UGC and Influencers. Available to your overall social media strategy is the ability to incentivize your brand champions with a percentage of the revenue generated through unique links provided to influencers and creators who sign up through your Affiliate Program. We suggest reading up on how to develop an Affiliate Program, this article from Shopify is a good starting point. 

Those unique links track sales attributed to the link provided, in which you determine the commission rate based on what’s reasonable to your margin. It not only incentivizes pushing your brand to your audience, it incentives good content creation to produce posts that convert. Better engagement equals more sales for the creator, simple enough.

While this doesn’t completely solve your credibility concerns, it reduces the prevalence. Many of the affiliate management platforms allow you to provide the assets an affiliate can use. Keep in mind, when working with social media creators it’s important to encourage their individuality and creativity. However, coupling this with an established and clear approval process for content safeguards against a PR nightmare.

With a solid pre-post audit strategy in place, you can tackle this challenge seamlessly and emerge successful. 

Now let’s look at the Main Event, TikTok.

TikTok: The Main Card

TikTok, the no-holds bar, anything-goes match of trends, #fyp’s, and, thankfully, less dance trends, has seen explosive growth since the height of the pandemic. With its insatiable appetite for viral content, TikTok is a proven challenger. Both curated influencers and UGC thrive in this ecosystem, where average engagement rates are 5.3%, leaving Instagram and Facebook feeling like the Minor Leagues.

And with users spending an average of 52 minutes per day scrolling through TikTok's endless content stream, there's no denying its marketability. In 2023, TikTok was the most downloaded app globally, racking up over 850 million downloads. It's the Main Card for marketers looking to make their brand look like a champion.

Looking back to our discussion on Affiliate Networks, TikTok saw an opportunity to bring a new tactic to the card. In their back pocket, they have the Creators program which houses the TikTok Shop Creator. Brand and creators communicate directly through TikTok’s native platform to partner and analytically track links that convert on their TikTok Shop. Talk about a heavyweight contender. 

With TikTok being a “must-have” platform, the question of approach remains: Should I focus on specially curated influencers or use UGC at scale?

And the Winner Is…

The strategy that works best for your brand. 

Sorry to be so anticlimactic, but the truth is each brand has a unique balance to strike with its marketing approach. Ultimately, it comes down to your goals, budget, and target audience. Are you willing to splurge on curated influencers for authenticity? Or, are you more inclined to prioritize a numbers game where top-performing content is driven by statistics?

Perhaps the winning formula lies in a strategy that combines the best of both worlds. Things to consider while creating the right marketing mix:

1. Your Margin:

Get this down to a cost per product with your influencer cost and/or Affiliate commission cost.

Other costs to consider:

• Cost of shipping samples
• Advertising budget to promote content
• A dedicated content manager and content management system

2. Your Audience:

• What platform is your target market using the most? 

There are considerations when it comes to age, demographics, HHI, and more. 

• What is your target market using social media for? 

It’s hard to pull someone away from funny cat videos to talk about life insurance.

3. Your Product:

• Is your product easily purchased with little thought? Or, does it take more time to research and review? 

Think luxury, cars, appliances, and other high-priced products.

All of these should be critically reviewed when coming up with the best game plan. Having a product that has slim margins, is promoted on a less favorable platform, or isn’t suited for quick purchases may have a negative impact on your ROI.

In the sport of social media, adaptability is key. So, choose wisely, and make sure your brand is always in fighting shape. 

If you need a marketing firm in your corner that knows the ropes, reach out to us at sales@identifimarketing.com. Our team will audit your current strategy, your goals, and find a winning strategy that produces results.