UGC Content Creator: Role, Skills, and How to Get Started

User-generated content (UGC) has emerged as a significant player in marketing today, offering brands a way to connect with audiences more authentically than with traditional advertising alone. Compared to ads, UGC feels more organic and relatable, effectively driving higher engagement and building greater trust. 

As a result, brands have turned to UGC creators. These individuals craft relatable, high-quality photos, videos, and reviews that subtly align with the brand’s messaging. Whether you’re a creative looking to break into content creation or you’re seeking a more flexible career in digital marketing, learn more about the skills required for a UGC creator and how to get started.

What is a UGC content creator?

A UGC creator focuses on producing authentic, relatable content for brands to use in their marketing campaigns. Unlike a social media influencer, who promotes products to their own followers, UGC creators craft content for brands to share.

The goal is to mimic the style and tone of everyday users, helping to make the content more relatable to audiences. This makes UGC a powerful tool for building trust and increasing engagement. As a UGC creator, your job is about crafting content that feels genuine and resonates with the target audience instead of creating a massive following.

Key responsibilities of a UGC creator

UGC creators typically juggle several different tasks, such as creating relatable content, sharing product experiences, aligning brand messaging, experimenting with styles, and providing high-quality visuals, to meet the brand’s expectations and produce useful content.

• Creating relatable content: From Instagram photos to TikTok videos, UGC creators produce natural and approachable content. This relatability is a hallmark of user-generated content.

• Sharing product experiences: Demonstrating real-life use of the product or service helps audiences connect with the content creator (and, in turn, the brand). Whether an unboxing video or a step-by-step tutorial, UGC aims to showcase a product’s features effectively.

• Aligning with brand messaging: User-generated content creators work closely with brands to ensure their content reflects the company’s voice, values, and image. This allows the UGC to fit into the brand’s ads or promotions.

• Experimenting with styles: UGC typically requires testing to see what resonates best with audiences. Whether humorous skits, heartfelt testimonials, or trend-driven reels, UGC creators may need to experiment to ensure the content performs well with the target audience.

• Delivering high-quality visuals: Authenticity and quality are important. UGC must meet the brand’s quality standards for images, videos, and other elements of the overall presentation.

Essential skills for UGC creators

Successful UGC creators bring a mix of creativity, technical expertise, and social media savvy to the table:

Creativity and storytelling

Engaging audiences with UGC often means sharing compelling narratives. Whether a heartfelt story or a humorous take, storytelling adds depth to your content and helps brands stand out.

Photography and video editing

While you don’t need to be a professional filmmaker, having basic photography and video-editing skills is crucial for a UGC creator. Editing tools like Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro or user-friendly apps like CapCut can help you create polished content.

Social media expertise:

Understanding the nuances of different platforms—such as TikTok’s trending challenges or Instagram’s aesthetic-focused posts—ensures your user-generated content aligns with your content style.

Authenticity and relatability

As a UGC creator, determine how to best connect with audiences through honest, relatable content. This means showcasing real-life experiences rather than inauthentically staged or scripted productions, which run the risk of turning away potential leads. 

How to get started as a UGC creator

When starting, consider guidelines such as building a personal brand, specializing, making connections, and leveraging creator marketplaces to help you manage the launch of your career as a user-generated content creator. 

1. Build a personal brand and portfolio

Begin establishing your brand by creating content for products you already love. These samples can act as your portfolio, showing off your creative style and abilities as well as your interests.

2. Choose platforms to focus on

Next, choose a social media platform to specialize in and stick with it. Build it out in a way that best aligns with your strengths and your target audience. (For example, consider Instagram if you prefer taking photos over writing marketing blogs.)

3. Connect with brands

After that, start contacting possible brands you’d like to work with. Reach out directly through social media or email and offer to create content in exchange for a flat fee, per-deliverable rate, or some other form of agreed-upon compensation.

4. Use creator marketplaces

To help you get in touch with brands, Upwork and Fiverr are two of many platforms that can connect UGC creators with clientele. These marketplaces can help you land paid collaborations in exchange for a cut.

Tips for success as a UGC creator

Focusing on practices related to quality, authenticity, engagement, trends, and consistency can help you thrive as a user-generated content creator.

• Prioritize quality: Invest in equipment like lights, tripods, and external microphones to improve the quality of your UGC photos and videos.

• Stay authentic: Speak naturally, and avoid overly polished or obviously scripted content. Audiences want authenticity and realness.

• Follow trends: Be aware of popular trends and incorporate them into your content to remain relevant.

• Engage with communities: Participate in online groups, forums, or other UGC creator communities to make connections, exchange ideas, share tips, and more.

• Be consistent: Regularly update your portfolio with the latest and greatest samples. Post to your social media profiles often to forge new connections and maintain existing ones.

Grow your UGC creation skills with Coursera

Becoming a successful UGC creator requires mastering skills like storytelling, social media trends, and video editing while understanding how to craft content that resonates with audiences and aligns with brand strategy. 

To further grow your user-generated content creation skills, learn more about building, managing, and maintaining a professional social network presence with the Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate on Coursera. With Adobe’s Content Creator Professional Certificate, also offered on Coursera, you’ll learn how to create strategic marketing content using industry best practices and generative AI, and earn a credential that opens doors.