How User-Generated Content Drives Buzz and Builds Community

About the Episode

Everyone wants event buzz. Few know how to create it.

User-generated content (UGC) is pure gold for events. It builds trust, drives engagement, and gets people talking. But let’s be real, getting attendees to actually create and share that content? That’s where most event pros struggle.

In this episode of Epic Events Podcast, Muhammad Younas sits down with Michael Kamleitner, CEO of Walls.io (a top social media aggregator), to crack the code on how to get more UGC—and make it work for you. Get ready for some insights on how to get attendees posting before your event starts, and how you can turn a social wall into a conversion machine!

Key Takeaways

• Create a unique hashtag for your event that people can remember easily.
• Don’t just use the hashtag on event day – promote it early and often throughout the event marketing cycle.
• Embed the hashtag in multiple touchpoints, including your event marketing website, registration forms, social media posts and announcements, email communications, on-site digital screens, banners, and printed materials.
• Offer incentives or social recognition to attendees who share posts using the event hashtag.
• Instagram and Twitter (X) generate the highest UGC volume, while LinkedIn is rapidly growing in engagement for business events.
• AI-based moderation can help event planners control what appears on the UGC display without manual intervention.
• Career pages and recruitment marketing benefit from UGC by showcasing employee experiences authentically. UGC isn’t just for event engagement—it enhances employer branding as well.