What is employee-generated content?

Employee-generated content (EGC) refers to images, videos, blogs, or other content created by an organization’s employees. This content can be shared on the employee’s own social media or the organization’s website, newsletters and social media to give an insight into the company, its employees, and the work culture.

Employee-generated content or EGC is a part of employee advocacy, where they speak about the organization and promote the products and services with the company’s best interest in mind. People trust people more than brands, so employee advocacy is more credible and authentic than advertising or promotions.

With Covid-19, people have been working from home and as corporates struggled to give employees a sense of belonging, online contests, challenges, virtual events, and EGC have become popular. Businesses have had to innovate and reach out to customers, staff, and stakeholders at home.

As the divide between personal and professional blurs, people want to see more of the human side of organizations. It required organizations to get more personal and the company’s treatment of employees became an important topic of conversation. Businesses have been relying on video participation and contributions of employees outside of daily tasks to build a company culture.

EGC and employee advocacy adds authenticity to any brand’s communications strategy. With the pandemic, it’s difficult to source photos of employees engaging in an activity or celebrating in office space at the moment. Video has been increasingly collaborative, whether it’s meetings, live-streamed events, or virtual birthday parties. With tools like Vloggi, you can source authentic, cost-effective and engaging employee-generated content with branding and company logo.

Here are some use cases and benefits of EGC to consider:

Increasing employee engagement

During working from home, internal communication teams found it a challenge to engage and connect with the workforce. If employees are disengaged, it lowers productivity by 18% and profitability by 15% according to Forbes.

As employees are invested in the company they work for, they will be happy to participate in virtual contests, challenges, video messages and other EGC videos. This is a great way to engage them. Brands can establish bottom-up communications with video think tanks and share video messages to motivate and boost morale.

Celebrating milestone achievements, birthdays and farewells

To build a positive culture and show that you truly appreciate employees and their contribution to your organization, it is important to celebrate achievements like work anniversaries, birthdays & farewells. Due to remote working, these celebrations have been difficult to execute or have become uneventful. With tools like Vloggi, it becomes easy to collect and compile video messages from leadership, colleagues, stakeholders and customers. These videos can then be compiled and shared on social media, websites, company newsletters, and groups.

Highlighting talent and empowering employees

Leveraging and providing a platform to share your employees’ knowledge, expertise and insights can help your brand gain thought leadership. They can also promote this content on their personal social media like LinkedIn to share with their larger network. It is mutually beneficial as individuals are keen on building their personal brands and it gives the company exposure through an authentic and reliable source.

Building trust amongst employees

Employees are representatives of their brand and help form a perspective about the work culture and organization. They are considered a credible source for learning about a company or organization by 40% of consumers, just behind CEOs who were trusted by 44%, indicating that internal voices help build external trust. In other words, employee experience can influence customers’ views. As representatives of your brand, they can give customers and stakeholders a transparent idea of what your organization is all about.

Sharing diverse perspectives

EGC is a great way to capture diverse perspectives from different teams, branches and levels. By bringing together people across the organization, including multi-location and international teams, brands can build a unique voice and a global or inclusive appeal.

Attracting new talent

People want to work for businesses that have a great work culture, care about employees and their professional growth. When your employees share positive messages about your company and you celebrate their achievements and highlight their contributions, it creates a good impression on others. This may lead to others wanting to work with you in the future and will help attract new talent who are eager to apply when job opportunities open up.

How to collect employee-generated content

• Find highly engaged employees and give them a chance to show off their talents, skills and expertise with a larger audience. This will, in turn, encourage others to step up and contribute
• Give them any training, tips or guidelines necessary
• Send out a company-wide e-mail encouraging and inviting employees to send in video contributions around a topic of their choice or in response to a prompt, contest or other guidelines set by you
• Compile and feature these branded videos in your socials, newsletters and website and give the employee a shout-out!

Conclusion

Employee engagement and advocacy are very important in creating a positive brand image and internal company culture. It boosts productivity and feelings of loyalty while encouraging them to grow professionally and share their knowledge with a wider audience. As people lose trust in faceless corporations, employee-generated content will be much more important in the coming years.

Read more on how to launch your new employee-generated content campaign.