SPRING 2024
Distributor's Link Magazine Spring 2024 / Vol 47 No 2
Distributor's Link Magazine Spring 2024 / Vol 47 No 2
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46<br />
THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK<br />
Joe Dysart<br />
Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Thousand Oaks,<br />
California. A journalist for 20 years, his articles have appeared in more than 40<br />
publications, including The New York Times and The Financial Times of London.<br />
During the past decade, his work has focused exclusively on ecommerce.<br />
Telephone: 631-256-6602; web: www.joedysart.com; email: joe@dysartnewsfeatures.com<br />
FINDING & RE-SHARING POSITIVE SOCIAL MEDIA<br />
ABOUT YOUR FASTENER DISTRIBUTION BRAND<br />
Fastener distributors looking for a way to discover,<br />
curate -- and re-share -- all the positive comments that<br />
are surfacing on social media about their brand now<br />
have a solution.<br />
Dubbed ‘User Generated Content Platforms,’ these<br />
services are designed to discover brand-affirming content<br />
on social media about you distributorship, curate it -- and<br />
then re-share it as authentic endorsement from the<br />
people who actually use your products and services.<br />
Says Tressa Robbins, content and social media<br />
manager, Burrelles, a media monitoring company: “UGC<br />
is one of the best ways to cultivate and engage with your<br />
community — and foster brand loyalty.”<br />
Agrees Kyle Wong, chief strategy officer, Emplifi, a<br />
digital marketing firm: “Using social media as a vehicle<br />
to source user-generated content from customers is a<br />
scalable and powerful solution for brands.”<br />
For many fastener distributor marketers, re-sharing<br />
authentic customer endorsements that crop-up on social<br />
media seems like a no-brainer.<br />
But there are also some powerful numbers that<br />
affirm the practice.<br />
A 2023 study from EnTribe, for example, found<br />
that 86% of consumers are more likely to trust a brand<br />
that uses content from actual customers -- rather than<br />
paid influencers (https://www.entribe.com/resource/<br />
the-state-of-ugc-2023).<br />
And the same study found that 83% of consumers<br />
are more likely to buy from a brand that uses UGC<br />
content -- rather than traditional advertising.<br />
CONTRIBUTOR ARTICLE<br />
NEW SERVICES ENABLE YOU TO DISCOVER -- AND RE-SHARE --<br />
POSITIVE SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT ABOUT YOUR BRAND.<br />
Meanwhile, a study from Harris Poll found that 58%<br />
of consumers place a high value on product pictures or<br />
videos from customers who have already purchased the<br />
product or service.<br />
Equally eye-opening: That same 58% said<br />
endorsements from those existing customers were more<br />
important to them than product price, shipping costs or<br />
company return policies.<br />
While some fastener distributors are already<br />
leveraging UGC to some extent by inviting, closely helping<br />
develop -- and then publishing -- video testimonials, UGC<br />
platforms focus more on seeking-out and re-purposing<br />
brand-affirming videos that pop-up on social media<br />
unsolicited.<br />
Many of us have already seen these videos on<br />
YouTube and similar services. Some are impromptu<br />
video reviews by customers that offer the pros and cons<br />
of a product or service. Others are ‘unboxing’ videos that<br />
give the basic facts about what to expect when you buy<br />
a particular product.<br />
CONTINUED ON PAGE 114
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