Sharing the love: Motivation and reward in brand-related user-generated content creation for social media

This qualitative research explores the motivation and reward for creating unsponsored positive social media content about brands from the perspective of Content Creators and Social Media Managers. As the social media platforms’ algorithms increasingly suppress brand-created content to force paid-for business models, organic user-generated content (UGC) is becoming more and more valuable in the social media ecosystem. Building on previous work which studied characteristics of brand-reshared UGC and the decision-making process of Social Media Managers when deciding whether to repost UGC, this study used a thematic analysis of depth interviews using NVivo software with Creators and Social Media Managers to explore their experiences and expectations around content creation. For the Content Creators, the main motivations to create were intrinsic enjoyment, self-presentation, pro-social behaviour and social networking. The minimum expectation was acknowledgment by the brand – and the smaller the brand, the greater the expectation of a response. The Social Media Managers largely understood the etiquette of acknowledging UGC on an informal basis but did not always do so, and reported various levels of awareness, promotion and use of UGC. The limited discussion of UGC stimulation in the practitioner literature leans heavily towards tactical rewards thereby misunderstanding the nuances of motivation. The gap between Content Creator expectation and community management practice, provides an opportunity to inform practice. A model is proposed The Virtuous Cycle of Branded UGC which describes an effective interaction between Content Creators (brand advocates/consumers), Brands (Social Media Managers) and Audiences. Supported by the findings of this study, the model is designed to illustrate how practitioners can develop a mutually beneficial relationship with content-creating members of their brand community online by considering (a) the motivation of consumers to create positive branded content on social media and (b) the effect the brand response has on their intention to create further Branded UGC (c) the scale of the organisation.