How is Employee Generated Content Changing Social Media Marketing?
Social media content has changed the way that businesses connect with their customers. Polished adverts aren’t an effective way to drive engagement on social media, these are more suited to traditional television or radio where people have less choice on what they can see and hear. Instead, people prefer to see and engage with content that is far more authentic as people have greater control over what they are seeing on social media than they would on television. Employee generated content focuses on authentic content that showcases your team’s creativity and personality and can help to bring your brand to life.
What is Employee Generated Content?
Employee generated content is user generated content with a twist. Unlike user generated content, which relies on customers or influencers, employees create content that promotes your brand. It’s less about echoing corporate messaging and more about letting employees create real and relatable content.
A prominent example of a brand using employee generated content is UK supermarket chain, Waitrose. Many of Waitrose’s shops have their own TikTok pages, including Waitrose Cirencester, where employees utilise TikTok trends to showcase products in a fun and authentic way. This type of content feels more like regular social media content that friends produce rather than an advert, but it still showcases products.
@waitrose_cirencester COME AND GET YOURS NOW! 🐥🐣🥚💛 #easter #waitroseandpartners #waitrose #minieggs #trending #cotswolds #cirencester ♬ original sound - 𝙵𝚛𝚎𝚢 ♡
Why does Employee Generated Content work on Social Media?
Employee generated content performs well on social media because i’s natural and engaging. Instead of your team reading a script or pushing a sales pitch, they’re sharing their experience and having fun with trends. TikTok trends can include many things including soundbites from popular culture or other TikToks. When employees participate in these trends, they insert your brand into the cultural conversation. Thanks to TikTok’s algorithm, this employee generated content is more likely to be seen by a wider audience as the algorithm tends to show users multiple videos of the same trend - that’s what makes trends work.
How to use Employee Generated Content in your Marketing Plan
Getting started with employee generated content does not ned to be complicated. Here’s a few quick tips on how to make it work for your business:
- Involve your team: at the risk of stating the obvious, you need to involve your employees in creating employee generated content. With that being said, don’t force people to participate as this won’t come across well on camera. There have been a few times where a company has forced employees to be involved in videos and it ends up looking like they are being held hostage - you definitely want to avoide this
- Tap into trends: keep an eye on what is popular on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts and try to identify how your brand can join the conversation. Make sure to keep your finger on the pulse and interact with these trends quickly - no one likes a post that follows a trend three months too late.
- Loosen the reins: as the name suggests, employee generated content is created by employees. Let them come up with ideas and create content themselves instead of dictating what they need to do. Your employees will have different interests and will see different content on TikTok as a result.
- Stay true to your brand: it can be difficult to let go of control, but give your employees some loose guidelines about your content so it aligns with your values: what will you/won’t you accept on your platforms? Make sure to avoid micromanaging as it is the human touch that makes employee generated content work.
- Don’t overthink it: unlike other areas, effort does not always dictate results. Sometimes the most low effort videos will perform really well whilst high effort videos perform poorly, so don’t spend too much time trying to perfect your content. Taking too long to produce content might mean that trends have moved on by the time you have posted (refer back to point 2 above)
- Give it a go: the hardest part about any marketing effort is giving it a go. You might be surprised at the creative ideas your team comes up with and how it goes down with your audience.
Employee generated content is becoming increasingly more important for businesses as it is a way to build connections and brand recognition with your audience. If you need help with implementing employee generated content into your marketing strategies, or are interested in finding out about getting started on TikTok and other social media platforms, get in touch or organise a free consultation with me.
Written by Harry Janssen
Founder & Director
E: harry@harryjanssen.co.uk
With over eight years of experience in marketing and running a business, I'm passionate about helping individuals embarking on new business ventures, elevating business profiles, and guiding those ready to take the next leap in their entrepreneurial journey.