By Eric Tress, Contributor

Sports fans love going to sports bars for exciting nights out, socializing, and that infectious energy.

But keeping the buzz and customers flowing between major events can be challenging.

This is where the magic of user-generated content (UGC) comes in. In today’s social media-driven world, consumers are kingmakers, and UGC is the winning strategy.

This post will show you how to leverage UGC to transform your sports bar into a marketing champion. But before we get started, remember – legality is key. Always get permission before using customer content. If in doubt, get legal help.

Now, let’s get that crowd roaring with UGC!

What is User-Generated Content?

User-generated content is textual or visual content created by regular folks, not publishers, brands, or professional creators. It’s both unpaid and organic.

The visual content includes videos, photos, vlogs, images, and graphics, while textual content includes comments, reviews, testimonials, and posts created by visitors to your establishment.

At its simplest, UGC is all those things you see from your followers, those you follow, family or friends.

For example, your sports bar photo can be posted on Instagram, and your customer reviews can be posted on Google.

Types of User-Generated Content

UGC comes in various forms, and each presents an opportunity for your brand to be shared, mentioned, and recommended online, thus building trust or awareness among your target audience.

The most common user-generated content includes:

Video content: The users record themselves visiting your sports bar, showing that it is visited by real people who then post the video on social media.

Branded selfies: Selfies taken by customers at your sports bar help to enhance your brand on social media. For example: selfies at your business interiors, enjoying a game event, etc.

Testimonials and reviews: User-generated reviews on various platforms like Google, Yelp, and your websites help provide authentic feedback from your customers to potential ones.

Podcast conversations: Sometimes, you may have podcast guests and hosts discussing their experience enjoying their game event in your sports bar.

Articles: Employees and users may write blog posts or articles about their experiences in your sports bar. Some may publish the articles on their blogs as recommendation lists or reviews or on community journals and forums.

Contests: Contests encourage users to create and submit content like videos or photos, giving them a chance to win free drinks or food. They also serve as promotional purposes, fostering creativity and engagement with your audiences.

Why Embrace UGC at Your Sports Bar?

User-generated content has a lot of benefits for sports bars. Here are the big ones:

• Social Proof: User-generated content, such as comments, posts, or tweets, serves as social proof. It helps to convince other prospective customers of the worthiness of visiting your sports bar and the fun it brings.

In fact, 84% of customers trust the recommendations of other customers much more than the ads when making their purchase decisions.

As expected with any other marketing and branding effort, a business talks highly of its brand, but user-generated content adds social validation to your claims, thus cementing your sports bar’s worthiness.

• Cuts on content marketing costs: If you have customers who generate high-quality visual and textual content, you don’t need to hire photographers and video editors. Use the videos and photos generated and published by your guests (with permission), and it’s free.
• It humanizes your marketing. The sports bar business is not about sporting events only and fancy interior design with big screens. It’s about the people who visit your sports bar and those behind the brand.

As such, when you leverage user-generated content in the correct manner, you will satisfy their curiosity, thus adding a human touch and satisfaction to your brand.

• It builds loyal community and boosts engagement: User-generated content engages your audience in a closer and more candid manner than other types of content marketing, enabling you to boost your content while gaining more loyal followers.

How to Use User-Generated Content at Your Sports Bar

1. Establish Measurable & Clear Objectives

Have clear cut goals and objectives to guide your marketing strategy and help you measure the outcomes. For example, have a strategy for the kind of content you want to encourage, be it visual or textual.

Example of your UGC goals should include:

• Building a highly-engaged community
• Increasing your brand awareness
• Driving more traffic
• Boosting follower engagement

If your main goal is boosting followers’ engagement, you can collect 15 submitted stories that feature your sports bar and share them for discussion on your social media channels. Afterward, track the likes, clicks, and comments to gauge effectiveness.

Keep your user-generated content marketing objective goals broader and ensure your chosen tactic contributes to your social media and content strategies.

2. Allow Guests and Followers to be Creative

Don’t impose on the user-generated content you need on your social media. Allow your guests to feel free to create and submit their content as they see fit. Otherwise, restrictions will limit engagement and exclude users.

Remember, the more freedom you give your followers, the more enthusiasm and authentic content from different backgrounds and perspectives you will get.

For example, encourage your followers and guests to share happy moments as they celebrate their team winnings from your sports bar.

3. Build a Community

Establish a dedicated space on your social media for your guests to engage and contribute with their user-generated content.

Build a platform where they can comfortably share their action-packed videos and photos taken from your sports bar.

This will encourage folks’ continuous participation and build a sense of community togetherness and belonging.

4. Prioritize the Relevant Content Channels

Identify the ideal platform where most of your customers are active and then encourage them to share UGC.

Prioritizing on platforms ensures the shared content sparks valuable engagement, and don’t forget to consider industry-specific blogs, forums, and review sites.

For example, most sports fans share their moments on Instagram and Tiktok.

5. Leverage Branded Campaigns and Hashtags

Encourage your followers to use hashtags when sharing your sports bar content. It could help track and collect user-generated content.

For example, create contest hashtags that prompt users to share a certain drink or game event coming up during a certain period, like the Euro Cup or the Super Bowl, to create a viral campaign.

6. Solicit Users Feedback

Actively and directly seek feedback from your regular customers through direct requests, reviews, or even surveys on social media. Learn to actively engage your users in conversations to create opportunities and gather valuable insights.

Final Thoughts on UGC for Sports Bar Marketing

User-generated content is the secret recipe needed to add to your sports bar marketing. It’s not just a one-off strategy but a steady conversation that can turn your sports bar story into an integrated community of influencers and loyal customers.

Make user-integrated content your social strategy cornerstone. Keep asking for content, and don’t forget to credit the creators. As such, you will resonate with your target audience and your customers and showcase real content through your customers’ eyes.