GLOSSARY

Material created and shared by customers, community members, or other users rather than produced solely by the organisation publishing or featuring it.

Authentic contributions can provide social proof, community participation, product insight, and reusable content, but only when governance preserves trust and legal compliance.

A software company invites customers to submit workflow videos, records usage permission, discloses incentives, adds captions, moderates claims, and preserves the creator’s attribution.

UGC can be false, biased, unsafe, infringing, inaccessible, or manipulated. Featuring content may create advertising obligations, and suppressing or editing reviews can misrepresent consumer opinion.

UGC includes reviews, posts, images, videos, forum contributions, testimonials, and submissions. Organisations need workflows for consent or licensing, moderation, provenance, disclosure of incentives or material connections, accessibility, privacy, rights management, and retention.