Social Media Week Toronto presents "Navigating User Generated Content (UGC)", a workshop designed to explore UGC and how organizations can deal with it as well as generate it.

Everyone has an opinion and some like to share this with others online. This sharing of information is referred to as user generated content (UGC) and can be found in places like blogs, social networks, micro blogs, forums, wikis etc.

The amount of UGC is increasing rapidly and is now part of the communications/marketing mix. There are many advantages to this kind of content as it

•    creates a knowledge base
•    encourages people to move from being spectators to participants
•    don't need people physically present to provide an opinion

With advantages come disadvantages

•    challenge to organize and structure
•    duplication of content
•    relevance, credibility, quality of the submission might be questionable

This workshop will explore

•    the different kinds of user generated content
•    the pros and cons
•    how to manage it

Finally the most important element will be explored-  the use of photos and videos to create UGC. 

The participants will be involved in this hands on part of the workshop where they will create their own content using photos and videos and publish this online. The results of this will be explored by the participants.

The participants will be inspired to participate online using these various mediums in a meaningful way.

This interactive workshop is hosted by Natasha D'Souza of Virtual EyeSee, a Social Media Agency