By Karam Sethi

User-Generated Content, the ability to craft compelling narratives online and share them with your communities, isn’t just a social media fad - it’s a media phenomenon that is fundamentally changing the way we consume information. Unlike news media, UGC hooks us by being inherently raw and emotional, and stories imbued with passion are powerful tools of influence.


In the book of Genesis, Cain and Abel (the two oldest sons of Adam and Eve) both made sacrifices to God, but Abel was favored. In a jealous rage, Cain killed his brother only to regret his actions immediately thereafter. The story conveys numerous lessons about lying, jealousy, and confession.

The story of Cain and Abel warns against jealousy by showing instead of telling – demonstrating just how devastating jealousy can be. Being told not to be jealous is far less compelling than seeing a story that cuts through logic and taps straight into your emotions.


Producers of reality television know this all too well. Consider the Bravo reality TV series The Real Housewives. The media franchise has gone from a small docuseries to a guilty pleasure with worldwide ratings. At first glance, the reality pitch seems like an unlikely juggernaut. Who would want to watch the lives of privileged upper-class women from affluent suburbs shop in Gucci and Louis Vuitton stores and throw wine on each other? 


Well, apparently, us.





User-Generated Content is a media phenomenon that is fundamentally changing the way we consume ... [+] information.


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The media franchise has amassed millions of followers and has spun off countless series for Bravo. It is amongst the highest-rated reality shows of all time. 


The power of storytelling has been well known and employed by religions, entertainers, and businesses for centuries. But something new is happening in the world of story. Not only do we have access to one another’s stories at the tip of our fingers, we have the tools to tell our own stories in a more polished, compelling, and narrative-driven way.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok have led to a rise in personal narrative storytelling. While the stories we encounter on our feeds are far from new, the ubiquitous access to tell our own stories and share them more frequently with our networks is. Today, we are all authors, editors, producers, photographers, visual designers, writers, and publishers.

A common term in the marketing industry to describe this storytelling phenomenon is User-Generated Content (UGC). 

In tech marketing we often use the term UGC to describe tactics for generating awareness around new products or services. But the term is also intrinsically linked to personal narrative style storytelling. UGC is any form of content (copy, photography, videos) posted by an individual to their own online platform. In its simplest form, UGC is posted by people, not brands. 


Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok have led to a rise in personal narrative storytelling.


This category of content can be an Instagram story about how you got to work or a Medium post about how you got divorced. It often cultivates an emotional response like that of the stories in religious texts or even The Real Housewives of Orange County. 

It’s a critical new phenomenon that bears heavy weight across corporations and startups alike. 

Most consumers would rather scroll through their feed than watch a splashy 60-minute ad spot. UGC can help sell a new piece of software, create communities of brand ambassadors, or even invite consumers to turn against your brand. User-generated content is one of the most unique opportunities for marketers in the twenty-first century. And it is increasingly important as the world of content gets noisier. UGC is becoming essential as businesses seek to demonstrate their authenticity, cut through the clutter, and reach their audience on digital platforms. 

Consumers and creators are simultaneously being empowered with better storytelling tools. 


Most consumers would rather scroll through their feed than watch a splashy 60-minute ad spot. 


Creative software companies like Squarespace, Figma, and Canva are democratizing creativity by transforming the average Joe into a “Creator,” a now ubiquitous term to describe professionals who create high-quality, narrative-driven digital content. 





As businesses seek to demonstrate their authenticity and cut through the clutter, consumers and ... [+] creators are simultaneously being empowered with better storytelling tools.


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Instead of posting raw, unedited content, these companies enable anyone to tell compelling stories through GIFs, static images, photographs, and infographics. A media format that’s been largely ignored until recently, however, is live-action video.

Video has largely been overlooked in the creative software space due to how cumbersome templatizing video can be and how overwhelming MP4 file sizes are. 

But if content is king, story is the castle. And the castle takes time, expertise, and budgets to build. Terra, a platform making video storytelling more accessible, is on a mission to democratize the world of video. 

The startup's software and tools automate video storyboards (think explainers and how-tos) to provide a customizable starting point that shows users how to structure the beginning, middle, and end of compelling narrative-driven videos. Instead of posting raw, low-quality content, Terra allows its users to up the quality of the content that lives on their phones. The company aims to empower those with a story to tell by giving them better tools with which to tell and structure their individual narratives.

By creating a platform for those who want to share their story, but don’t necessarily have the large budgets to hire an agency or video editor, Terra is answering the market’s call for realistic and attainable video creation techniques. 

The proliferation of storytelling has created an opportunity that entrepreneurs can’t miss. We have the power to tell purposeful stories, and the way we tell these stories to the world will define how brands engage with customers in the future.





Karam Sethi ('21)



Karam Sethi (’21) is the author of "Digital Storytelling: The Rise of User-Generated Content" (New Degrees Press 2021) and the Co-Founder and CEO of video software startup, Terra Digital.

Source: Forbes

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