We’ve been hearing over and over from industry professionals that “User-generated content is over.” Josh Fesler of Crackle, Sony’s video venture, said those exact words in OMMA magazine. Mania TV is no longer including any user-generated content (UGC) with its professional productions. As of it’s relaunch last month, it wiped out the 3,000 user videos. At the OMMA conference in September, Eileen Naughton, Director of Media Platforms at Google, said that while “a lot of the content out there is very amusing,” Google see “premium” content providers as much more valuable.
To make such statements is to miss the core value of user-generated content: the user. Anywhere there is UGC, there is an engaged, passionate community around it. Abolishing UGC like Mania TV did is just going to abolish this community. It makes them feel uninvolved, and they lose their investment in the site. Youth have grownup watching themselves on screen–from ballet recitals to graduation. They will continue to make videos, which will only improve in quality. The key is to combine both UGC and professional content because each add value. It’s the 80/20 rule. So even though Mania TV found that 80 percent of its viewers had been gravitating to the professional-based content, that 20 percent of passionate users who upload video are essential to the site.
Quarterlife is a professionally-produced show on MySpace and other social networks that is using social tools to get audience invested. The show’s characters have Myspace profiles and the quarterlife site itself is social network with character pages, behind-the-scenes videos, and expanded content channels. FunnyorDie posts videos from Will Ferrell while also soliciting users to upload their own. Style.com and Flip.com, both Conde Net sites, give users tools to produce their own content alongside editorial content. Next New Networks incorporates UGC into their programming model. Bebo, which features web shows like Kate Modern, Sofia’s Diary and The Gap Year, just announced a partnership with the likes of MTV, CBS and ESPN. These media companies can put their content on the social network for free and get the ad revenue. This type of media inclusion is the next logical step for SNS as they evolve into operating systems. Youth are going on them not just to contribute, but to consume. The best models use one to leverage the other.
Those who say that UGC is dead also fail to distinguish between the different types of UGC out there. It’s not all teen karaoke sessions. They should check out the high quality “user-generated” content on networks like blip.tv and College Humor. The content on these sites are like the public access shows of the web and are gaining audiences and advertisers. UGC—yes, but very much alive.
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