Sometimes the biggest influencers are already working for you. Learn how your employees can spread the word with employee-generated video content.
Engaged employees are motivated, show initiative, and are team players. So why don't businesses focus on their employees more?
All those content and social media marketing tips for businesses rarely acknowledge the literal workhorses of a business: employees. You can try to reach customers and target audiences all day, but without your employees, nothing will get done.
There's a new term in town: employee-generated video content, or EGC. This form of user-generated video content is highly targeted and is especially important for branding, marketing, and employee engagement.
EGC is your chance to share real stories from real employees, which can be incredibly powerful in today's digital world, where 80% of people actively want brands to tell human stories.
So what does employee-generated video content actually mean? Is this a trend? How does it work? Why should your company adopt it in your strategy? Read on for the answers.
Employee-generated video content is video content created and distributed by your company's internal staff, also known as your employees. The video content can allude to the mission, values, and overall benefits of the company's product or services.
You've probably heard of user-generated video content, but that tends to come more from the customer side.
But here's the thing: employees are just as, if not more, influential in the brand and online marketing space than customers. Don’t let the cubicles fool you…
While we'll go into employee-generated video content's benefits in more detail below, two key stats really justify it:
You get several benefits from adopting employee-generated video content in your business strategy.
Your company's employees have the best information about the organization, specific departments, and beyond. People trust their opinions and ideas more than C-Suite, advertisements, or other generic forms of marketing.
Your marketing department is great, but other departments can bring different perspectives and ideas to content. It also shows that your business is open to innovation and offers a culture that enables ideation.
Employee-generated video content gives your staff their voice. When they witness other employees being encouraged to engage, they will feel more valued, motivated, and engaged themselves when it comes to sharing content.
Who doesn't like saving money? Instead of spending on paid ads to see the content, you have your workforce to help. Reach more organically from people your target audiences and customers are more likely to trust = reduced ad spend.
When employees write and share about topics, their business, etc., more people see and trust the brand. Of course, you also need a great product or service, but employees who speak uniquely about their business make a great impression.
Employees sharing about their company means they love their work. People notice this and want to work for the kind of companies where they value and trust their employees. The pool of talent increases when you show off your unique work culture.
Communication between employees and departments is the key to a good business flow. Employee-generated video content helps make this easier because more employees are aware of what their colleagues are posting. This helps them get involved in other aspects of the business.
Even if only 10% of your company creates EGC and you have 1,000 employees, that's another 100 more people posting and sharing on behalf of the company on their networks. This means that different social connections can see your business message and exponentially help brand visibility increase.
Employees also benefit from their involvement. In addition to feeling connected to their business, they help build their own brand and gain other opportunities like guest blogging, speaking engagements, establishing thought leadership within the business and online, and new career opportunities.
Employees feel valued when allowed to contribute to the company's content creation. It makes them care more about their work, and they become more invested in the business. And hearing directly from your employees can stimulate healthy discussions for your business strategy.
Here's why you should prioritize employee engagement for your business:
Now that you know it's worth pursuing EGC, how do you do it in the best way?
Allowing your employees to tell their stories is critical to creating an engaged and unified team. In addition, the employee-generated video content can act as an organic recruitment tool to attract new hires.
Like any strategy, your business can easily benefit and mitigate major problems early on by making a plan, rolling out the concept over time, and adopting the right technologies.
Employee-generated content can play a huge role in many aspects of your business, but you need to be prepared. It's a huge task, so where do you start?
No company will approach their employee-generated video content strategy the same way, and your company shouldn't blindly copy another company's approach. You should decide on the goals you want to accomplish with EGC, your needs, and your mission to engage employees. Build the strategy from this before releasing any video content from your staff.
When launching your employee-generated video content strategy, start with a small group of employees. Find people who may already be brand advocates, very active on social media, and have expertise in the field. They will be the most interested and will be able to set the tone for others.
Company leaders must be clear before reaching out to their employees. There should be a clear mission, an understanding of brand values , and company policies regarding social media to make sure employees don't post something that's regrettable.
While it is desirable to make employees active, not every employee will want to participate. Plus, forcing EGC on employees feels like a chore. Instead, your company should convey its enthusiasm for employees to be more involved and to have a voice online. The adoption will be better when it's not mandatory.
There may also be many employees who are interested but need advice. If that's the case, have a training session where you discuss best practices and processes. It would also be good to keep this on a certain regular cadence, like monthly or quarterly. A lot of it will depend on the size of your business and the number of employees who show interest.
The concept of employee-generated content may seem like a trend, but it is becoming increasingly clear how it can positively impact your organization internally and externally.
There is no limitation to the use of employee-generated video content. You can use it to celebrate company milestones or just wish someone a happy birthday. Or, like AORN did, you could personally thank people.
It's also not a process that you want to rush. You won't instantly succeed, and that's okay. Be strategic in your approach. Exploring your choices methodically will dramatically improve adoption and results.
Many well-known brands are exploring EGC or are already very active there. Why don't you join them?
When you're ready to harness the power of EGC, Capsule is here and ready to help you.
Try Capsule free for 14 days and make your EGC campaigns fast and easy.
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system. added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
This
This
that
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
