This blog post is guest-written by Anna Skaya, Bazaarvoice Community Manager.

If you are a sport enthusiast, a bike nut, or an off-road junkie in the UK, you know about Wiggle. A bike emporium that sells top riding gear and quality bikes, Wiggle has been an innovator in the world of cycling, and an equally original UGC pioneer. From rich media video reviews by the dozen, to the review-specific blog, the most avid English cyclists come to connect on Wiggle. Not to mention that the community is built by the customers themselves – they contribute content, give product improvement recommendations and continue to ask for more Wiggle. Here are just a few ways that Wiggle optimizes UGC:

Video Reviews

Wiggle’s video reviews allow users to submit videos of products in action, illustrating what they like, dislike, and would change about the product. The result is a fresh way to review that engages both the reviewer and those shoppers who watch. Wiggle’s active use of new media results in interesting and entertaining review content, with reviews like the one below getting hundreds of views.

Bloggle

The Wiggle blog, dubbed “Bloggle,” has a category devoted entirely to customer reviews. Wiggle uses the voices of their customers to build a community around the brand and its use of UGC – check it out for yourself! Posts showcasing particularly helpful or funny reviews encourages Bloggle readers to become contributors.

Each month hosts a review contest to find the best review submissions, “Good, bad or indifferent.” Different suppliers co-sponsor the contests, offering reviewers the chance to win prizes ranging from £250 vouchers to a Focus mountain bike worth £749. The contest and prizes are displayed in banners all over the site, building awareness for both Wiggle reviews and the sponsoring brand – another way that Wiggle is building a community around its own image.

Winners’ stories give a face to the devoted Wiggle shopper. “I’m really happy about winning one of the three prizes Wiggle put up for their August customer review competition!” writes the most recent winner. “And the £250 is just what I need for my autumn run gear shopping @ Wiggle.” Real voices, real stories – a growing tribe of connections and innovations is brewing on wiggle.co.uk.

Product Improvements

Wiggle recently launched a brand of cycling gear, dhb. In a press release announcing the 2010 line, they cited how reviews have helped them make their products even better. “Feedback from wearers of the 2009 Merston Bibs suggested changes were needed to the ankle zipper, so the latest version now features an even sturdier lockdown ankle zipper.” This reactive attitude not only agrees with customers, but helps build superior quality in dhb products which furthers the Wiggle brand as a leader in the cycling space. Consider how UGC is changing your business – Bazaarvoice offers a multitude of advanced reporting tools to help you understand, at the product level, the quality and satisfaction your customers feel.

Email

As Community Managers, we drive home the need for a review-generating email that encourages customers to go back on the site and review the products. We have a myriad of best practices and examples of these emails, as well as showcase the clients that have seen it be successful. Wiggle has employed the best practice of using post-purchase emails to solicit review content from the very beginning, to excellent results.

• Open rate for review emails is 47%.
• Click-through rate to write a review is 24%, and the response rate stays fairly consistent around 10% reviews received to emails sent.
• Some reviewers even cite these emails in-review as their reason for reviewing.

Practices like these are helping Wiggle drive great customer loyalty among a very passionate customer base. UGC connects this passion to the Wiggle brand, creating brand loyalists who influence others on Wiggle’s site. Wiggle-on!