Just when you thought we had enough content acronyms, a new trend, FGC (founder-generated content), has hit social media – and it’s seeing small businesses connect with their customers in a new way.
Social media users have grown to “tune out” business accounts and sales-focused content over the last two to five years. The faceless brands that do have high engagement, such as Nutter Butter, who have recently gone viral on TikTok for their quirky (somewhat confusing) content, have been successful due to the strong brand equity they’ve built over time.
The modern consumer, being millennials, Gen Z and the successive Gen Alpha, connects with brands that have a founder or brand leader who shows up for their community and promotes shared values.
Types of FGC
So, what type of content should you be creating as a founder to boost your sales?
- Tell your story (Not the pretty version): Today’s consumers want to feel a sense of connection with the brands they buy from. Showcasing your vulnerabilities – like struggles, mistakes and self-doubts – makes you more relatable to the everyday person. And when people can relate to you, they tend to feel more comfortable investing in you and your brand.
- Show behind the scenes: Gen Z places high importance on brand ethics and corporate responsibility, even more so than Millennials. Sharing daily operations, product development and decision making processes builds transparency and showcases your vision and mission a lot more clearly to your audience.
- Founder-first testimonials: Nothing is more important to your community than a founder who strongly believes in their product or services. Do you use your product every day? A personal endorsement and/or journey using the product or service can hold a lot of weight for your brand.
- Be the expert: Educational content is still the most powerful content pillar. Can you share tips and insights that correlate to not just your product or service, but your niche? Educational content positions you as a thought leader and attracts people who want to learn from you. I personally have had great success with this and have found that sharing my expertise is the quickest way to build trust. A founder that has trust can sell anything.
Keep in mind that it’s not just your organic social strategy that can benefit from FGC. As an agency, we’ve been using founder stories, education and demonstrations across our paid channels and have seen a significant decrease in customer acquisition costs in doing so. On average, across our ecommerce accounts, we’ve reported a 40% decrease in new customer acquisition costs.
We’ve also seen a significant trend in the overall performance of an account based on whether the founder is present across their marketing. I think you can guess which brands perform better…
Founder-generated content isn’t just a “nice to have” content strategy – it’s the future. As consumers increasingly seek strong communities and personal stories they can connect with, brands with a front-facing founder will be the ones left standing.
