Employee-Generated Content (EGC)

Employees have 10x more followers than a branded channel. Here’s everything you need to know about employee-generated content (EGC) and how to use it.


Table of Contents:
              1. What is Employee Generated Content
              2. Why is EGC Important
              3. Top 15 UGC & EGC Statistics
              4. The Pros and Cons
              5. Top Benefits of Employee Generated Content
              6. Best Practices for Employee Content Creation
              7. Employee-Generated Content Example
              8. Getting Started with EGC

             

What is Employee Generated Content

Building authenticity has been a major focal point for marketing recently. Customer expectations are constantly growing and they want to engage with people versus a brand. Savvy marketers are recognizing this so they’re leveraging user-generated content (UGC) as a key part of their marketing strategy.

However, “users” aren’t the only group of influential content creators. Employees also have the potential to be a brand’s best advocates. A spin-off of this is employee-generated content (EGC), which is content that has been created by employees. What is ECG? It’s essential any content that is created by employees in the form of videos, photos, and social media posts. The content is entirely created by employees and not by brands. Businesses are consistently leveraging employee-generated content because it produces far more engagement than content created by the company.

With the rise of social media, employee-generated content and social sharing have become more accessible than ever, but why should companies stand up and take notice?

Why is EGC Important?

Your organization’s recruitment team works hard to hire the best and brightest. There’s a lot of knowledge and talent sitting all around you – each with a unique perspective. Whether it’s expert knowledge about your product, service, industry or customers, each employee has valuable insights to share.

Leveraging an employee’s unique insight can give your company’s thought leadership and brand perception – time and time again. Studies show people trust people a lot more than they trust a “faceless” brand. Employee generated content lends a trusted face to a brand.

employee creating content

Here are 15 UGC and EGC stats you should know:

    1. In total, employees have 10x (on average) more followers than a brand’s account.
    2. Content shared by employees gets 8X more engagement than content shared through branded channels.
    3. Employee posts get reshared up to 24x more than a branded post.
    4. 92% of consumers turn to people they know for referrals above any other source.
    5. 93% of consumers find UGC to be helpful when making a purchasing decision.
    6. The use of UGC results in 29% higher web conversions than campaigns without it.
    7. Customer reviews are trusted up to 12 times more than marketing content.
    8. Consumers find UGC 9x more impactful than influencer content.
    9. 86% of Millennials trust that UGC accurately reflects a product’s or brand’s quality.
    10. They also think UGC is 35% more memorable than other types of content.
    11. And 84 percent of millennials stated UGC had an influence on their decision to purchase.
    12. 90% of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding which brands to support.
    13. 70% of consumers place peer recommendations above professionally written copy.

 

  1. Businesses make $6.50 for every dollar invested in influencer marketing.
  2. 87% of brand’s use UGC for authentic (and free) content.

The Pros and Cons of ECG

Pros:

  • Cost Savings: getting employees to help will save marketing budget on content creation and generate higher earned media value than sponsored content.
  • Time Savings: harnessing the collective efforts of your employees can save your marketing team a lot of time in the content creation process.
    Employee Engagement: encourage and promote an employee’s content to show that they are valued and in return, create more loyal and engaged employees.
  • Goodwill: customers respond well to ECG. Authentically created content can build brand trust and goodwill with your audience.

Cons:

    • Not Free: while there are cost savings for marketing, there is still the cost of employee time which needs to be considered depending on their role and seniority level.

 

  • Lack of Control: without proper oversight and compliance, allowing employees to share online can create risk as they are not all trained on social media use.
  • Inconsistent Brand Narrative: similar to the lack of control, without a program and proper training, employee-generated content and sharing could deviate from the brand’s purpose and create an unclear narrative.

Top Benefits of Employee Generated Content

Fresh Perspective: Marketing manages a company’s public-facing content but they may be missing out on projects, events and a different perspective that other departments can provide. Allowing employees throughout the company to be at the forefront of the brand can provide a unique and engaging voice.

Employee Engagement: When employees feel the company is invested in them, they are more likely to participate and remain loyal to the company. When employees are disengaged, companies experience 37% higher absenteeism, 18% lower productivity and 15% lower profitability according to Forbes.

Creates Credibility & Trust: Customers (and those researching your brand) trust their peers more than a company. The thoughts and insights shared by an employee creates more trust than advertisements or a message directly from the brand. Employee generated content gives viewers a transparent look into what goes behind the scenes of the organization.

Extended Potential Reach: On average, an employee has roughly 350 LinkedIn connections or Twitter followers. That means, your brand has an opportunity to get in front of those connections through your employees. The collective reach of your employees will often surpass that of your brand.

Talent Attraction: People want to work for businesses where they will be treated well and produce meaningful work. If they see others in their network sharing how much they love your organization, its value, and culture then they will be more enticed to apply for open job opportunities.

Employee Improvement: Last, but certainly not least is employee self-improvement. Top talent is always looking to grow. By producing EGC and getting their thought leadership out there, they are growing their own personal brand and network which can lead to great opportunities like events, speaking engagement, and guest blogging.

Best Practices

Social Media Training/Policies

Guiding and encouraging employees is a much better approach than letting employees run wild or worse shutting down EGC all together. By creating policies, your organization shows that this is an important initiative and by running training sessions it helps to guide employees and remove the ambiguity that can cause fear (both for employers and employees). It is also wise to hold these training sessions on a somewhat regular basis to help keep the program, and its rules, top of mind.

Find the Right Employees

When you launch your employee-generated content strategy finding the right employees to start off the program is one key way to ensure launch success. Look for those employees who already act as brand advocates, have a lot of subject expertise, or are very active on social media as they are more likely to be interested. This infographic also covers the key features to look for.

Leverage Technology

For EGC to be truly successful, programs need to be championed by leadership, simple to participate in, and easy to track. Employee advocacy software and mobile apps allow employees to upload and access EGC content as well as admins to effectively track their content and performance.

Reward and Showcase Wins

A lot of executives will need to see tangible results before fully buying in and encouraging their employees. Showcasing early wins helps to convert nay-sayers and rewarding those early adopters helps to entice more employees to join in and start producing and sharing their content.

Employee-Generated Content Example

Starbucks fully embraces the role of employee-generated content as part of the company’s brand narrative. In fact, Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, said in his book Onward, “[employees] are the true ambassadors of our brand, the real merchants of romance and theater, and as such the primary catalysts for delighting customers.”

They even go as far as labeling their employees as “Partners” and actively encouraging them to create content. One great example is their online Partners Hub. This is one central location where employees are encouraged to log in and share their experience as well as stay up to date on happenings in the company. They also have their own dedicated Twitter feed to help employees share their experiences.

Starbucks EGC Partner Twitter

Starbucks strongly believes in ensuring its EGC aligns with their brand narrative. They provide employees with detailed guidelines on what they can and cannot say or share. They also organize continuous Leadership Lab training. Not only does this help their maintain their brand narrative, but it also fosters a tremendous sense of belonging amongst employees. This has led to a turnover rate that is just 20% of the industry average.

Get Started with Employee Generated Content

With the rise of sharing on social media, it was only a matter of time before employees started sharing their work lives as well as their personal lives. Shutting down employee-generated content for your brand is a miss as it creates so many opportunities. The key is to create a company-wide program to help guide employees on EGC best practices to help get the most out of the content they produce.

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