Want more content for your restaurant’s Instagram, ads, website, or even your next menu board?
User-Generated Content (UGC) is the secret weapon you need.
When food influencers create and share content for you, it builds trust, boosts reach, and saves your marketing team tons of time and effort.
But how do you actually get UGC—especially the kind you can legally reuse? Let’s break it down 👇
🤔 What Is UGC, Exactly?
UGC (User-Generated Content) is photos, videos, stories, or reviews made by real people—not your brand. In influencer marketing, it’s content a creator posts about your restaurant that you can also use on your own channels.
Examples:
- Reels of a food tasting 🍣
- TikToks showing your brunch spread 🥞
- High-quality dish photos 📸
- Honest reviews or walk-throughs
🚀 Why You Want UGC From Influencers
- Builds social proof 🙌
- Makes your content feel authentic
- Can be repurposed into ads, email, menus, and more
- Outperforms branded content—by up to 4X engagement
✅ How to Actually Get Great UGC (Without Hassle)
1. Be Clear in Your Campaign Brief
Don't assume creators know what kind of content you want.
Tell them:
- What kind of content to post (Reels, carousel, stories)
- What you’d like to reuse (photos, raw clips, captions)
- Any themes you want them to lean into (family vibes, upscale, fun & casual, etc.)
- If you want vertical video or pro-style shots
Bonus: Mustard makes this easy with templates built into the campaign setup 🧠
2. Include Usage Rights in the Deal
If you want to repost influencer content to your own Instagram, website, or ads, you must get permission.
✅ Either ask for:
- Full rights to reuse content
- Or a clear license (example: “We’ll use this in organic social for 90 days”)
📝 Put it in writing—either in an email or through Mustard’s built-in contracts.
3. Offer Content-First Collabs (UGC Packages)
Some influencers are open to doing content-only deals—not just public posts. You pay for content, and they send:
- Unposted videos
- Edited photos
- Caption suggestions
- Multiple versions for ads or reels
This is a great way to scale your content without burning out your in-house team 🔥
4. Make It Easy for Creators
Want high-quality UGC? Set creators up for success:
- Invite them to try your best dishes
- Offer great lighting or a quiet time to shoot
- Give them a shot list (optional but helpful)
- Make sure your staff knows who they are when they arrive 🙌
5. Use a Platform Like Mustard to Manage UGC
Tracking down DMs, screenshots, and video files from five different creators? Nope.
With Mustard, you can:
- Collect all influencer content in one place
- Request rights directly through the platform
- Sort by post type, creator, or campaign
- Download assets for future use (even months later!)
👉 Start a UGC-friendly influencer campaign with Mustard
💡 Bonus Tips
- Tag and reshare creators after they post—this encourages future collabs 🤝
- Credit creators even when reposting (builds good vibes)
- Ask for extras like unused footage or boomerangs—they usually have it!
- Always get permission before using in ads (separate usage rights may apply)
📸 What Kind of UGC Works Best?
The best-performing UGC formats in 2025 include:
- Vertical reels (15–30 sec)
- First-person POV “bite shots”
- Unfiltered dining reactions
- Carousel reviews with captions
- Behind-the-scenes food prep 🎬
Final Bite 🍽️
UGC is a game-changer for restaurants—it gives you authentic, high-performing content without hiring a production team.
But to get the best stuff:
✅ Set expectations
✅ Lock in usage rights
✅ Make it easy and fun
✅ Use a tool like Mustard to manage it all
The result? More content, more engagement, more customers. 🍔💥
👉 Launch your first UGC campaign on Mustard today
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