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The recent rise of Employee-Generated content has piqued the interest in many senior management and communications teams, and more and more companies are showing a willingness to promote internally created content.
Written by Freddy Cleveley
30 May, 2019 – 6 min read
The recent rise of Employee-Generated content has piqued the interest in many senior management and communications teams, and more and more companies are showing a willingness to promote internally created content.
Despite the challenges many companies face when creating EGC at scale, savvy communications teams are constantly trying to leverage it in their strategies to deliver a more authentic and inclusive message internally and externally. Follow our guide to inspiring a sharing culture and incorporating employee-generated content into your communications strategy.
Simply, employee-generated content is a form of user-generated content specifically for corporations and their internal audience.
Employee-Generated Content can be delivered in a number of different formats. Video content including or produced by employees is a popular way of including a workforce in your content strategy. Other forms can include picture content from selfies or even guest posts on blog sections from team members normally not involved in content production. Statistically, video and image content generate higher engagement rates with users, especially given the evolution of social platforms such as Instagram.
People trust people. In many cases a user will hold more trust in the voice of an individual or individuals, than they will in a corporate brand. Corporate brands which engage in user and employee generated content as part of their content strategy can see benefits in customer confidence and brand trust. Evidence shows around 90% of customers say authenticity is important when deciding on the brands they will support.
Attracting the best talent into your team can be difficult. Younger generations in particular, desire an open culture where they feel they will be valued and their work will be meaningful. By allowing a window into your organisation, it is possible to see like-minded individuals sharing their love for your vision and culture, which could put you above other companies in the eyes of job-seekers.
By giving employees the chance to create their own content, or have a say in what content is being created, it will empower them and make them feel like their opinion is valued and listened to. It also creates a more inclusive company culture, which leads to better employee retention and higher morale. Your employees will also on the whole be more engaged and involved!
As a rule, your workforce’s social following will be far larger than your corporate profiles. By engaging your employees in your content strategy they are more likely to add it to their own social channels. Not only will this drastically increase the potential reach of your brand messages, but it can also increase the trust viewers will place upon it.
Viewers retain 95% of messages they see in video. Incorporating employee-generated content can not only increase your reach, it can help to deliver a more memorable message that your audience retain, boosting brand recognition and future trust.
While people have become increasingly comfortable with sharing intimate details of their lives through photos and videos on social media - otherwise known as “User Generated Content” - the same cannot be said for the workplace.
Many employees are often nervous about being in corporate messages and going above and beyond. They can be especially cautious of self-filming, feeling they lack the technical skills needed to present this fully. This perceived skills gap needs to be overcome to help employees take the step to becoming content generators.
Many employees in the lower levels of your organisation can struggle to see the overall benefit they can provide the business by helping in content creation. Their lack of understanding and connection to the communications strategy could limit employee engagement and advocacy of the strategy.
To start with, you may need to approach your EGC strategy with caution and forward planning.
It is natural that not all your employees will be early adopters of creating content. We advise starting out with a group of confident individuals who feel comfortable taking part. As time goes by, other members of your team will become interested and empowered to show the creative confidence to take part in the project.
If your initial group of team members are successful in creating strong user-generated content it is likely to be seen by their colleagues. From this point, we often see a ripple effect of others wanting to become involved. These people are often cautious of being the first to attempt something new, but will give their all in something they can see working.
Providing training and setting some goals can help brands to clarify the purpose of EGC and how employees can benefit the company by doing it.
Offering training sessions to staff on how they can generate content can help to remove some of the fear they have while retaining a sense of ownership.
Your training can also include tips on how to look good on camera by delivering a professional format even when filming from a smartphone. Our Seenit Academy gives handy video tutorials on getting the most from user generated content.
What better way to show your company values and mission than through your employees? Company culture isn’t something that you can just say that you have, it’s something which grows and which is demonstrated through the actions of your employees. By empowering your employees to have a voice and to produce content which allows their personality to shine through, it also allows others to see your company culture!
Employee generated content can also help develop your company culture! By showing your staff that you care about their opinions and contributions, it really builds a sense of community.
There are many ways to get started with employee generated content. Our new Stellar package allows marketing and communications teams to turn any employee with a smartphone into a film crew in multiple locations and for multiple messages to display truly authentic content.
Our Seenit Academy also has a range of video tutorials you can use to train and teach your workforce the benefits of EGC to them and the company, helping to reach your goal of providing authentic, trustworthy content that will resonate with your intended viewer.
