Cultivating a community for user-generated content

iStockphoto pays nearly $1.2 million in weekly contributor royalties and, according to PR director Kara Udzielaa, the company expects to see $200 million in revenue this year. With all this money riding on user-generated content (UGC), how does iStockphoto encourage submissions and engagement from its community of users?

iStockphoto did not set out to peddle UGC. In 2000, founder and former CEO Bruce Livingstone happened to have both a hosting company and some CDs filled with thousands of unsold stock images. Livingstone put up a website to offer the images for free, which drew a community of designers and artists interested in starting a swapping system where images were submitted in exchange for credits that could, in turn, be redeemed for other images.

A year later, the community agreed to pay 25 cents for each image swapped in order to keep up with the bandwidth expenses, with 5 cents going to the creator of the image. This low-priced, user-generated inventory was dubbed “microstock”.

From a stock image trading site, to a robust user-generated stock photo, illustration and video seller, iStockphoto followed its own advice of remaining flexible (see the six tips below) and in March added audio files to its inventory, morphing into a full-fledged one-stop shop for online media production—completely dependent on UGC. So how does it keep the ecommerce going?

Building trust

The key is actively moderating and listening to forums, says Udziela. This ensures that the users’ voices will be heard and builds trust in the brand. Last month, iStockphoto announced that it now guarantees that all of its inventory is free of IP infringement issues for up to $10,000 in damages (users can purchase additional coverage up to a total of $250,000 in damages and fees for around $150). It’s a savvy move as the company seeks to become a trusted source in the saturated market of audio file sales.

In addition to creating an atmosphere of trust, iStockphoto COO Kelly Thompson and Livingstone offered six tips and tactics for cultivating user-generated content  at the UGC Conference & Expo in February:

1. Cultivate user passion. Robust online participation from executives and interactive face-to-face "iStockalypse" events are two ways that iStockphoto creates user passion and engagement.
2. Ongoing innovation is key. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but to stay ahead in the competitive UGC space, innovation is more important. This means not only investing in innovation, but listening to what your audience wants.
3. Maintain robust communication. Giving your community advanced notice of changes to the service you offer will help them prepare and give them with an opportunity to provide feedback. 
4. Outsource to the crowd. Empower your community of users to help with spotting IP infringement. iStockphoto enlists its 5 million member community - including 80,000 contributing artists with a vested interest in prohibiting IP infringement - to voluntarily act as a watchdog group for the platform.
5. Have an IT agenda. Plan for your online architecture to live up to your best-case scenario, but don't break the bank with bandwidth. Have several plans to scale.
6. Remain flexible. UGC is largely organic and fluid, so your business structure needs to be as well. If your community of users is more interested in ease of use than fancy accoutrements, you may need to make changes.