User contribution

Navigation Bar:
Introduction 
User contribution 
Ratings and reviews 
Tagging 
Editorial control 
User-generated content 
Social networking 
Implications 

Increasingly, when we visit websites, we see the footprints of the users who have come before us. Browsing the web is no longer a lonely affair because the voices of others are all around us, from book reviews on Amazon, to tags on Flickr photos, to every word written on Wikipedia. Websites are empowering users to become active contributors of site content and thus active promoters of brands. What was once one-way messaging is now becoming a genuine dialogue with customers, introducing new challenges to online marketing.

How are users contributing, and how do you decide where to have this dialogue with your customers? Let’s run through the opportunities of user-generated content.

Next: Ratings and reviews