Meta thinks users need stepping stones to the metaverse: Its Crayta announcement suggests many consumers need to be pushed along the “immersion continuum.”

Branded Mission: A tool that allows advertisers to crowdsource creator content and UGC, then amplify that content as ads.

Creator and UGC videos are some of the best-performing ad creative on TikTok. This is a challenge for many advertisers who are accustomed to producing their own polished video creative that’s more akin to a TV spot.

Before brands embark on short-video marketing, one of their key considerations should be the pros and cons of user-generated content (UGC). Marketers have had to learn to be comfortable with showing their brand messages in the midst of UGC on social media—and that’s been harder than ever, thanks to the recent rise in negativity and misinformation on some platforms. But to excel in the short-video format, especially on TikTok, marketers must also be willing to tap ordinary users for inspiration, participation, and viral distribution.

Content creation and management, which starts with sourcing the content, whether it be from photoshoots, a catalog of product imagery, previous campaigns, or even user-generated content (UGC) on social media. Related management tasks include versioning, organizing, and maintaining one source of truth for all users who work with the content.

YouTube is already a popular destination for UGC, which bodes well for its users’ interest in watching the kind of short, UGC videos that are popular on TikTok. According to Limelight Networks, 49.8% of US digital video viewers said YouTube was where they spent the most time watching UGC videos. Just 8.0% selected TikTok, and even lower percentages chose Instagram and Snapchat.

From there, learn about the pros and cons of user-generated content (UGC) and take time to understand the differences between the short-video venues. (Spoiler alert: They’re not all the same.). What steps come next?

But since memes also tap into several of the trends that the pandemic has accelerated—from the growth in user-generated content (UGC) and influencer marketing, to “making social media fun again” through social entertainment—it’s likely that memes will continue to flood many social feeds in 2021 and beyond.

Not surprisingly, user-generated content (UGC) is strongly influencing purchases via social media, particularly on Facebook. The same Bazaarvoice/Savanta survey found that 26.4% of respondents said Facebook was a popular destination for them to make purchases based on UGC, while slightly fewer (25.3%) said UGC on the platform influences their buying decisions.

And this won’t be in just social media; we’re expecting to see more UGC in all sorts of media this year, from TV commercials to digital video to print ads. Some forward-thinking brands have already started.

Social media memes have been around for over a decade, but the last twelve months have solidified their position as a staple of digital communication. While the topics themselves are no laughing matter, lighthearted humor about shared struggles has become a coping mechanism—or simply a much-needed distraction—for many.

The eMarketer team deliberated extensively to select the 10 key digital trends to watch in 2021 from a list of 43. Which trends narrowly missed the cut? Here’s our first in a series of additional transformative developments that ought to be on your radar in the year ahead.

Article: What short-video marketers should know about UGC.

The fact that social media is largely made up of user-generated content (UGC), which can be unpredictable, only further breeds this lack of trust. For example, 87% of study respondents agree with the statement, “there is too much fake news on social media,” while 82% say that “ads on social media are very manipulative.”.