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Harnessing the Workplace for Employee Generated Content
One overlooked and valuable resource for content marketing is a business's own employees. Here's how to harness employee generated content (EGC).
Scott, Sonar Group
January 9, 2018
With people spending more and more time on the Internet and consuming content in all its rich and varying forms, the message is clear – content marketing is here to stay.
While many brands look to their agencies or external parties to help develop this content, one overlooked resource for content marketing are the employees sitting within your company’s four walls. Employees are extremely valuable in publishing and distributing content on behalf of a brand because they understand the needs of your customers, they are experts at what they do and they already understand the company’s goals and challenges. Their human touch can provide a more authentic voice than the official word of the company, or the word even, of the chief executive officer (CEO).
Nielsen and Edelman reinforce this perspective with research showing people will trust a brand’s employees more than the organisation itself.
A large or even medium-sized organisation needs a social media policy for its employees, yet, many large organisations have done the opposite, by creating policies that are quite heavy-handed prohibiting or discouraging their employees from engaging in social media, let alone representing the company. If large organisations are discouraging this, or turning a blind eye, this suggests that there is an opportunity for other brands to focus on it as a point of difference and leverage off it. But, how does a company harness the value of its employees as content publishers? Here are a few tips: