Three brands rise high above the rest when it comes to leveraging the power of UGC. Southwest Airlines, Dove and Doritos have all taken consumer dialogue to an entirely different level. Each of them invited customers to create their own ads. And each has shown these ads in broadcast spots.

It's quite impressive how many Southwest videos are on YouTube. However, I’m not talking about Southwest commercials. I’m talking about videos made by customers and news clips about Southwest employees.

If there is one axiom about leveraging the power of UGC, it’s the one that Jason Calacanis stressed in his iMedia Summit keynote on Feb. 6 in Bonita Springs, Florida: If you’re going to invite this level of dialogue with your consumers, then know your brand. Southwest’s brand is among the highest rated in the world in terms of customer satisfaction, and it maintains that at every contact point with the consumer, as I’ve written in this space previously. They know how to play in this frontier that is UGC. As Calacanis stressed in his Summit remarks, not every company in every vertical can do what a Southwest Airlines can do. Cable companies won’t feel that kind of love from their consumers, nor will cellphone service providers. 

Here’s a rule of thumb: If you’re a brand manager for a major brand, don’t even think about playing in UGC if there is a site with the URL www.yourbrandsucks.com. If that site gets as much as 10 percent of the traffic that your actual site gets, consider entering the world of UGC by starting a blog that features your CEO candidly answering consumers’ questions and addressing their concerns.

The notion behind "know your brand" is simple: If you think there may be bad outcomes from exposing your brand to the UGC world, then rest assured, there will be.