Picture yourself scrolling through LinkedIn, TikTok, or Instagram.
How long until you come across a behind-the-scenes clip of a team
celebrating a milestone, a recording of an employee sharing their daily
work experiences, or someone channeling their inner Michael Scott in a
workplace skit?
If your answer is “very little”, it’s likely due to one of the hottest
social media trends of 2024: Employee-generated content.
These glimpses into the workplace are part of a trend that heavily
influences how companies connect with their audiences.
And today, we’re going to share all you must know about this topic,
including:
- An encompassing definition of employee-generated content.
- The brief and not-at-all boring history of EGC.
- Types of employee-generated content.
- Examples of employee-generated content.
- Current trends fueling the rise of EGC.
- How to measure the success of EGC.
And for the last part of our article, answers to pressing questions that
people who are getting started with employee-generated content have:
- Should you compensate employees for creating content?
- Do you need to start adding “content creation” to every job
description you post?
What is employee-generated content?
Employee-generated content (EGC) refers to any form of content created
and shared by employees of a company, showcasing their experiences,
insights, and perspectives.
This content can range from social media posts and blog articles to
videos, photos, and comments.
EGC is characterized by its authenticity and relatability. However, it’s
important not to confuse these traits with organicity.
While employee-generated content can be organic (i.e. spontaneously
created by any employee), in reality, it’s often scripted, acted, and
edited to yield that authentic feel.
Goals-wise, EGC is leveraged by companies for many purposes, such as
building trust with their audience, humanizing their brand image, and
nurturing a motivated workforce.
In short, EGC amplifies marketing efforts and is a powerful tool for
branding and communications, transforming employees into brand
ambassadors and helping create a more trustworthy online presence.
This is great because such an approach aligns with modern marketing’s
emphasis on transparency and personal connection.
A brief history of employee-generated content
EGC is not a new concept, but its role and significance have evolved
considerably over the past couple of decades.
The roots can be traced back to the early days of the internet in
corporate culture, where employee newsletters and internal communication
platforms served as mediums for employees to share their stories and
achievements.
For instance, here’s an early sample of employee-generated content – a
video showing a day in the life of Microsoft employees during the 1990s:
These forms of EGC were primarily internal, and aimed at fostering a
sense of community and engagement within the organization.
It wasn’t until the rise of social media in the mid to late-2000s that
EGC gained more relevancy. Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn provided
employees with spaces to share their professional experiences and
company-related content.
As a result, companies began to recognize the potential of social media for amplifying their brand message through their employees’ networks, although full investment in EGC was still not quite a thing.
This changed in the years that followed, as companies widely adopted
blogs, videos, and other digital formats to reach their audiences.
We’re reaching the mid-2010s, and a common example of EGC by now is a
guest blog written by a company member, or a corporate video featuring
employee testimonials.
Yes, back then it was a lot cringier than today. Check this Amazon clip
from 2014 – this is what EGC looked like back then:
By the end of the 2010s, consumers became more skeptical of traditional
advertising, and the value of authentic, relatable content grew. At this
point, influencer culture helped turn EGC more relaxed, further
propelling it.
Currently, EGC is an integral part of many companies’ marketing
strategies.
Employees are now seen as potential micro-influencers who can build
trust and credibility for the brand, and companies are formally creating
programs and guidelines to encourage and support employee content
creation.
With a solid understanding of its evolution, let’s explore the various
forms EGC can take today.
Types of employee-generated content
EGC comes in various forms, each with its unique benefits and
applications. As history shows, the relevance and popularity of each
type shifts over time – what’s popular today, might not be tomorrow.
Common types of employee-generated content include:
- Social media posts: The most extended and impactful
type of EGC due to reach and immediacy. - Blog posts and articles: Long-form stories with
insights and experiences, published on the company’s website, and in
some cases, on other platforms supporting articles, such as LinkedIn,
Substack, and Medium. - Videos: Ranging from behind-the-scenes glimpses to
the more formal recruitment and instructional, videos are among the
best types of EGC you can strive for. - Reviews and testimonials: Professional communities
like Glassdoor and Blind are
a treasure trove of employee-generated content, adopting the form of
honest (and sometimes brutal) testimonials and reviews covering
companies and their culture. - Photos: Taken by employees at work events and during
everyday tasks, pics are highly-rewarded content, particularly on
social media. - Internal newsletters: Employees contribute stories,
updates, and highlights to internal newsletters. Usually good to keep
everyone informed and engaged. - Podcasts: Employees sharing their perspectives in
podcasts these days are not a rare sight (or listen), discussing
industry topics and their experience in a certain field or type of
work. The resulting content can be repurposed into short clips for
social media too! - Memes: Competing for the #1 spot of the most common
employee-generated content, memes are often shared internally, but can (and will) make their way into
social media when they’re good enough. - Employee takeovers: In the past couple of years,
there’s been an observable trend where employees take over the
company’s social media accounts to share their daily work life,
experiences, and insights. This can be done for a day or a specific
event. - DIY and how-to guides: These are most commonly
spotted in B2B companies, particularly in those who offer SaaS
products. These guides are often produced in video format, and
uploaded to YouTube, providing practical advice related to the
company’s products or industry. - Community content: Either by creating posts or
commenting on existing ones, community content created by employees is incredibly valuable, as it addresses topics that range from customer support to what it is like to work in the company.
Examples of employee-generated content
Now that we have gone through the types, let’s bring the concept to life
with some real-world, 2024 examples of employee-generated content.
And since we like to drink our champagne, we’ll start with a homegrown
example: Our Instagram account.
You’ll find several examples of employee-generated content in it.
Our remote-first work policy allows for great content made by people
worldwide, including testimonials, interviews, industry insights, and
oh-so-many-jokes.
For our next example, let’s look at a brand we know well: HubSpot.
LinkedIn is fertile land for employee-generated content (as it should
be), and a few brands are taking full advantage of the platform.
Among them, ClickUp is worth the mention. Their brand of employee-generated content is often humorous, taking cringe to unsuspected levels that make people interact (and laugh) like crazy.
To conclude, an example of a common type of video, but done extremely
well: A day in the life of a software engineer at TikTok.
What makes this example good? In our view, two aspects:
- Authenticity: The employee clarifies that this is his
own doing, not his employer’s. Many of these vids, when produced by
employers, feel too stiff. - Production value: Timestamps, sections, descriptions,
and even some effects like a time-lapse turn the video into an easy
watch.
The audience agrees as the video has garnered over a million views on
YouTube since being published in 2023.
Current trends fueling employee-generated content
Employee-generated content is rising because of a clear need and the
right context.
Nowadays, audiences won’t settle for the canned, tired legacy formulas
inherited from the mass media era. Instead, we’re always looking for
content that looks and feels new, spontaneous, original, authentic,
real.
Even if there’s a huge amount of production behind the content, it must
feel like we’re facing reality.
Then there’s the context, which favors the creation of this type of
content.
First, because production technology is widely available and affordable
(phones, cameras, lights, editing software, distribution platforms), and
second because younger people are more camera-friendly than the
preceding generations, and this results in more EGC being produced.
Because of these two factors, many companies are developing structured
employee advocacy programs to encourage and guide EGC.
These programs provide employees with the resources and incentives
needed to create content that aligns with the company’s brand.
Research shows that results have been consistently good – a survey by
Hinge Research Institute found that 86% of employees involved in a formal advocacy program say it has positively impacted their careers, further motivating participation.
Measuring employee-generated content: Metrics and KPIs
To analyze the impact of employee-generated content and the engagement
it drives you can rely on the following metrics – some of which you’re
surely familiar with:
- Engagement metrics: Likes, shares, and comments
across social media platforms. Also, don’t forget to calculate the
engagement rate (total and by channel) by dividing the total
engagement (likes, comments, shares) by the total reach or number
of followers. - Reach: The total number of unique users who have
seen the content. - Impressions: The total number of times the
content is displayed, regardless of whether it is clicked or not.
This will allow you to get a sense of how often the content is
being viewed. - Traffic metrics: Monitor the amount of traffic
directed to the company’s website from EGC. - Brand mentions: The number of times the brand is
mentioned in connection with EGC across social media and other
platforms. Tools like Brandwatch can help track these mentions. - Sentiment analysis: The tone and sentiment of the
comments and feedback on EGC. Positive sentiment indicates that
the content is enhancing the brand’s reputation. Negative
sentiment indicates the opposite (an example in the comments of this video). - Employee participation and satisfaction: Measure
the percentage of employees actively contributing to EGC
initiatives, and collect feedback from employees about their
experience creating and sharing content. Surveys and informal
check-ins can provide insights into the program’s effectiveness
and areas for improvement.
You can also track other metrics (like conversions from EGC), but these
represent the core of what needs to be reviewed.
How to compensate employees for employee-generated content?
Compensating employees for their content is a nuanced issue.
On one hand, recognizing and rewarding employees for their efforts can
motivate them and enhance their sense of value within the company. O
On the other hand, some companies view EGC as part of an employee’s
natural engagement and commitment to the brand.
If a company decides to compensate employees for their content, there
are several methods to consider, categorized into financial and
non-financial rewards.
Financial compensations include cash bonuses, gift cards, and
profit-sharing schemes.
Non-financial compensation, which is also a possibility, includes public
recognition of the employee, career advancement opportunities, and
benefits like extra vacation days or PTO.
Do you need to add “content creation” to job descriptions?
It’s natural to ask yourself this question if you’re an employer hiring
in the era of employee-generated content.
Our take is simple: You can add “content creation” to a job description
if you want, but the more abstract “extra duties as assigned” is perhaps
more adequate, as you can’t tell whether any given hire will be creating
content or not.
Some will make it part of their jobs, and some will stay away from it,
so we don’t believe there’s a real need to clarify unless you
effectively plan to assign such duties to a new employee.
Conclusion: Embracing Employees as Creators
As traditional corporate culture dies out, employees have emerged as
creators and brand ambassadors.
As such, employee-generated content not only amplifies a company’s reach
but also provides authenticity to increase brand awareness and brand recall.
It’s important to explore different ways to approach EGC. Sure, you can
let it happen organically, but providing a framework and guidelines can
enhance its benefits while reducing risks.
It’s also vital to note that having as many employees as possible
creating content isn’t necessarily the goal.
Instead, the focus should be on quality and alignment with the company’s
values and messaging.
A smaller group of passionate and skilled content creators can often be
more effective than a larger, less enthusiastic one.
The key is to nurture and support those who are genuinely interested
in contributing, ensuring they have the tools and guidance needed to
produce high-quality content.</strong >
This is where employee advocacy and executive social media strategy programs come into play – and of course, something we can help with.
What is your initial reaction when you see ‘AI’ in an ad?
Across 60+ answers, a few key themes emerged: Fatigue, skepticism, and boredom.
This highlights the disconnect between how companies position AI and how consumers perceive it.
Armed with this knowledge and our social media expertise, we’ll share the findings in this article, and also some advice for companies trying to decode social media marketing for AI products.
How do people feel about ads featuring AI products?
The top respondents (whose responses received the most votes) employed terms like “buzzword”, “nothingburger”, and “ChatGPT wrapper” to describe their feelings about ads mentioning AI.
Even people who self-identified as (paid) users of leading AI products expressed negative feelings about ads with the acronym “AI” on them.
In summary, most respondents said they felt skeptical, bored, or jaded by the overuse of AI as a selling point, and only a handful expressed feelings that weren’t completely negative.
This gap between what companies think works and how audiences react is where the problem is: AI companies seem to be misreading social media marketing, and missing cues about communicating their value.
Marketing AI on social media: Signs of alarm + best practices
Some ads slap “AI-powered” on like it’s a cheat code to win over customers. It’s not.
Worse enough, it’ll soon become another overused term at this pace, just like it happened to “sustainable” or “crypto”.
To help steer things back on track, we’ve outlined signs of alarm and best practices to promote AI products.
Sign of alarm #1: AI fatigue is real and growing
People are bombarded with AI-related ads to the point where its mention elicits eye rolls.
Best practice: Sell outcomes, not technology.
Rather than promoting “AI” as the product, focus on what it accomplishes for the user.
You know, a bit of the good old benefits over features. AI should be the engine under the hood rather than the headline.
When the hype dies out, consumer interest naturally gravitates to tangible results, so ask yourself:
- How does the product improve the customer’s life?
- What does that life look like after being impacted by the benefit?
This best practice has been around for a while, but remains evergreen, as this print ad from the early 1990s shows:
Sign of alarm #2: Overcomplicating the message
Terms like “machine learning models” or “neural networks” surely belong to a whitepaper or a blog post but can be hard to digest when used on a quick video, or single-image ad.
The problem with throwing too much jargon in an ad is that it can alienate the audience instead of building the much-coveted trust that drives outcomes.
Best practice: Keep it simple, keep it human.
Social media marketing thrives on clarity and relatability.
Do you know what else thrives on the same qualities? Advertising.
Instead of technical explanations, simplify the message: How does AI solve a problem the audience cares about?
Tell a story that connects on a human level, and use plain language that makes the concept accessible to everyone.
Remember, your audience doesn’t need to understand the mechanics—they need to understand the value.
Sign of alarm #3: Lack of authenticity
Companies that push AI as a magic solution without addressing real concerns risk coming across as insincere.
The gap between lofty claims and actual results fuels distrust. And it’s not just us saying this:
Best practice: Be transparent about the product and its use cases.
Acknowledge that AI is a tool, not a silver bullet.
Honest messaging that outlines both the strengths and the limits of AI goes a long way toward building trust. Transparency builds credibility and sets realistic expectations, making your brand trustworthy.
Sign of alarm #4: Poor targeting and retargeting strategies
Aside from messaging, targeting and retargeting strategies are also to blame.
Usually, it’s more than just a single targeting issue, such as lack of precision, poor retargeting strategies, lack of campaign/messaging adjustments, and problems with attribution models, among others.
This results in ads for people who either don’t care about AI or have already tuned it out.
Best practice: Identify the issues and experiment
Ad rotation and changes in audience segmentation are your friends here.
Use data-driven targeting to reach the right people at the right time.
Refine your audience based on behaviors, interests, and needs, and avoid bombarding users with the same ad over and over again.
Closing thoughts: How to start conversations around AI
Tiredness, skepticism, and fatigue aren’t new to marketers or brands.
So, what’s the antidote to these when it comes to social media marketing? Engagement.
The brands that stand out don’t just broadcast but invite real dialogue.
AI companies often fall into the trap of pushing products and features without realizing that social media thrives on interaction, not monologues.
In other words, it’s not about your product; it’s about what some people of certain characteristics can achieve with it, and how they’ll feel while and after doing it.
So, to connect with your audience, sparking conversations is a good place to start.
Here’s how to make that happen.
Start conversations, join conversations
People want to be heard. Thus, ask questions that matter to them.
What problems are they facing? What do they think about current AI trends?
Give yourself some space to ignite conversations that result in valuable insights, and show you’re interested in feedback.
And if you don’t feel like starting conversations, join existing ones.
Whether this means participating in LinkedIn discussions or engaging in niche Reddit communities, add your voice to ongoing discussions.
At one point or another, you’ll be able to contribute and add value without forcing the message into people’s attention.
Make education your priority
AI is not just feeding prompts into LLMs.
There’s a lot more out there, from image generators and speech-to-text apps to recommendation systems and summarization tools…and I’m shy of hundreds, if not thousands of products and use cases.
Companies that take the time to demystify their AI tools through engaging content—like explainer videos, infographics, or live Q&As—position themselves as educators, not just sellers.
Educational social media content gives your audience a reason to stick around and learn more.
To wrap it up: The challenge is moving beyond product promotion and into the realm of relationship-building.
As we get overwhelmed with AI promises, be the brand that listens, educates, and connects. That’s how you stand out – and if you need a helping hand, drop us a line and let us know your thoughts.
