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Getting Started with UGC
Getting Started with UGC

How to inspire shoppers, fans and advocates at every touchpoint with authentic content that’s proven to perform.

Alina Marques avatar
Written by Alina Marques
Updated over a week ago

Requires: Subscription to Personalisation Core & Visual UGC

You can now combine the power of Personalization & UGC to inspire shoppers, fans, and advocates at every touchpoint by creating personalized & authentic experiences that win customers for life.

Getting started with Nosto's UGC requires seven different stages, each covered in this article:

1. Enabling UGC on your Personalization account:

Once UGC is enabled in your Personalization account click the Get Started button and configure the default label & behavior you want for the call to action button in your onsite widgets.

Once you complete the Get Started flow two main processes are triggered:

  • Product Catalog sync: UGC product tags are automatically created & updated for each product in your catalog.

    All your product tags can be found in UGC > Engage > Commerce

  • Single Sign On (SSO): All the users with access to your Personalization account can log in to Visual UGC using SSO so, you don't need to create a dedicated username & password to login to the Visual UGC Admin Portal you can simply use your Personalization credential.

    Users that access Visual UGC using SSO will automatically be treated as having one of the following Visual UGC user roles & permissions:

    • Visual UGC Owner: Users that are Owners in the Personalisation account will inherit the Visual UGC Owner role/permissions when using the Visual UGC Admin Portal.

    • Visual UGC Admin: All other users in the Personalisation account will inherit the Visual UGC Admin User role/permissions when using the Visual UGC Admin.

2. Connecting your Social Accounts:

After clicking the Get Started button you will be redirected to the Visual UGC Quick Start page where you can start connecting your social accounts.

Depending on the social network, if you want to use social content in your account you might need to connect your social accounts with Visual UGC based on the criteria below:

  • Instagram & Facebook: To discover and rights manage content from Instagram and/or Facebook you need to start by connecting your Facebook account.

  • Youtube: To discover content from Youtube you are not required to connect your Youtube account. However, you need to do so to rights manage the content using Visual UGC.

  • Twitter: To discover content from Twitter you are not required to connect your Twitter account. However, you need to do so to rights manage the content using Visual UGC.

  • Other social networks: To discover and manage the rights of content from other social networks you don't need to connect your accounts to Nosto Visual UGC.

The connection of the social accounts is configured from the Visual UGC Admin Portal. However, you can also see the social accounts connected from the Visual UGC Settings in the Personalization Admin Portal:

3. Configuring your Rights Management templates

This is an optional step but if you are planning to rights manage the content using Visual UGC you will need to setup your templates prior to requesting the rights.

There are 2 types of rights management features that provide a streamlined way of asking users for their permission to repurpose their content for your own marketing purposes:

  • Rights via Response: This is the simplest process to request rights from your users. In this process, a rights request is sent to a content creator, via the corresponding social network. The request contains an acceptance hashtag which the content creator must respond with in order to grant rights. See more details here.

  • Rights via Registration: This method is slightly more complex as it provides steps for data-collection, and explicit T&Cs approval. See more details here.

The rights management templates are configured from the Visual UGC Admin Portal. However, you can also find the links to the respective pages in the Visual UGC Settings in the Personalization Admin Portal:

4. Creating your Discovery Terms

Once you are ready it's time to start creating discovery terms, this allows you to find content based on search criteria and automatically aggregate content over time anytime there is new content that matches that criteria. There are different term types and settings you can configure to make sure only the most relevant content is aggregated in your account. See more details on how to get started with Terms here.

5. Moderating your Content

Content moderation is the process of exploring, tagging, and publishing content that represents your brand the best. It's likely a daily or weekly process where you see what your brand fans have posted, and what's new, by continuously publishing content to your widgets.

The moderation of content is done by going to the Visual UGC Admin Portal > Curate > Content.

To get started with moderating content and shoppable content read the articles below:

6. Creating & Styling your widgets

Once you have some content moderated is time to start creating your widgets. In the Nosto Personalisation Admin Portal go to Visual UGC > Widgets and click New Widget.

Then start by selecting one of the pre-defined Widget templates that match the styling you are looking at creating. See more details about the different widget types supported here.

After selecting the widget template you want to use is time to customize the style to match the looking you wish to achieve by using the different settings available or the custom code editor.

7. Publishing your Widgets

The final step in the process is to publish your widgets. There are 2 main methods available:

  • Nosto Deployment: Using the Nosto deployment process allows you to deploy your widgets leveraging power tools like Segments, Placements, and Scheduling to create personalized & authentic experiences by targeting different audiences with the most impactful UGC.

    The Nosto Deployment settings for a widget are managed from the Personalization Admin Portal. You can access that by:

    • In the Visual UGC Admin Portal click the Deployment button on the Widget configuration page:

    • In the Personalisation Admin Portal go to Visual UGC > Widgets list and click edit on the Widget you want to deploy:

  • Embed Code: If you are looking at publishing widgets outside your eCommerce store e.g. Blogs, Intranet, etc. you can use the embed code of the widget and manually add that to your websites. Find more details on how to get started embedding your widgets here.

The same widget can be deployed multiple times on different pages using both methods above if you are looking at using the same widget style and content across multiple touchpoints.

Read also

Visual UGC campaigns can be subjected to an A/B test. Learn how to configure tests here.

Visual UGC has widget-specific analytics. Learn how to interpret analytics under the general attribution and definition article here.

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