The impact of user generated content on buying homes. How can brands counter?

A decade ago, consumers had few resources for researching experience goods. Aside from asking personal acquaintances, consumers were mostly limited to reading or watching critics' reviews in newspapers or on television

With the rise of the Internet, consumers increasingly have access to opinions from other consumers outside their immediate circle in real life. Several studies have documented the fact that online users are motivated to write reviews for a number of reasons; in online communities, users often write reviews to increase their influence and status or to provide useful input to other members of the community. There is also evidence that online community members are more likely to adopt opinions and decisions similar to other members, thereby increasing the impact of user-generated content. Some studies have gone further and shown that consumers often prefer recommendations from other consumers over professional reviews by critics especially in the case of “hedonic goods” such as movies, music, and books.

What happens when it comes to buying a life time value, are they really influenced with user generated contents. Every day consumers  and audience are exposed to more than thousands of messages out of them a common human being can remember  only a few which connects with their decisions. When a consumer is opted to buy a home he gets influenced by many psychological entities, economic state; beyond that he is exposed to lot of messages on internet which is termed as user generated content or UGC. The maximum impact of UGC is on pre purchase stage that to investments like house.

How can Brands counter them?

It was a serious concern for the brands to stop that negatively published user generated content but now it has become so simple with the rise of digital marketing platforms. What you need to do?

Monitor digital platforms:

Monitor all the digital platforms like FB, twitter, LinkedIn and video sites weather any content which is going viral against the brand. Check all the possible blogs which relates your brand portfolio. Keep a close eye on who is watching it, what is the chance of reaching these texts and videos to your target segment and customers.  

Respond them:

Instead of countering them or producing articles against them try to see the links and check the content and the links corresponding to that. Minimise the impact to go viral by good customer support. A good brand always does this and makes the same user to produce content for the brand. Normally many brands try to vanish the links which generally deepens the problems.

 Use PR strategies:

Use different PR strategies as quick as possible to monitor their attacks

Have UGC’S for your own brand:

Take a chance of creating content which is of high quality to impress your buyers or to create awareness.