The Rise of Employee Generated Content (EGC)
This is not just another buzzword, we promise. Employee-generated content (EGC) is a great way to advocate for your brand authentically - across all social media platforms. Companies are now urging employees to share updates and highlights on their personal LinkedIn, TikTok and/ or Instagrams, and you’ve probably seen more employees/ staff members being featured in company TikToks over the past few years…
The Power of Employee-Generated Content
Employee-generated content (EGC) has emerged as a powerful tool for businesses to connect to their audience and showcase their brand authentically. This allows viewers feel like they can trust the brand more, as the employees are REAL people. More specifically, EGC refers to any content created by a company's employees that showcases their experiences, and perspectives, as well as advocates for the brand in a way that feels more relatable.
Joe and The Juice are killing in on their socials - and often feature their employees in entertaining content. This video, making a joke about eavesdropping on customers conversations, has over 1.5 million likes alone.
A big part of Sheer Luxe’s TikTok strategy is featuring their staff and employees in a fun and lighthearted way- like showing their outfits of the day! Most of their staff also have their own personal brands online, which continues to drive traffic to Sheer Luxe.
A hilarious example of using EGC to appeal to your audience- fast food chain Choppaluna sharing a relatable meme about closing early (created by us).
Chick-fil-A and MiriTheSiren
Introducing MiriTheSiren, a Chick-fil-A employee who gained a massive TikTok following by sharing her daily free employee meals and promos. Her engaging, lighthearted videos quickly went viral, amassing over 15 million views and captivating their passionate fanbase - yup, there’s a huge market on TikTok for fast food lovers. Miri's content not only showcased Chick-fil-A's menu offerings but also gave viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the employee experience.
Miri’s content was great because it was:
Great organic exposure for the brand
Featured an authentic employee, building trust with their consumers
Showcased Behind-The-Scenes, it gave Chick-fil-A lovers a real peek behind the curtain with a different menu that was available to the staff
Highlighted new product launches - In one of her most viewed videos, she did a trial of their new '“Cherry Berry” drinks, amassing over 3.5 million views alone on that video.
It’s everything a Social Media Manager would advise a brand to do, and it was working so well. But, unfortunately Miri’s story at Chick-fil-A was cut short….
MiriTheSiren currently has over 117k follower and 15 million likes on her content, which was amassed by her posting her free employee meals.
The Outcome
Two weeks ago, Mimi reviewed their new drink launch and garners over 3.5M views, which led Chick-Fil-A’s corporate team getting in touch with her and telling her to STOP… (????!!!) Honestly, feels like a sin in the organic marketing world! Their reasoning? In their current employee handbook it states employees can’t create content at work.
Despite the fact that she’d garnered a following of 117K and over 15 million likes - they asked her to shut her account down because the company policy didn’t allow employees to promote their brand on social. Our thoughts? They had a golden opportunity, but they absolutely blew it.
Miri explains to her followers that she will no longer be posting her videos at Chick-fil-A, drumming up thousands of comments in support of her
Our Biggest Takeaways
Authenticity always wins - Users want genuine content, and they value hearing it from the team on the ground.
Embrace employee content - It's 2024 and your audience wants to hear from employees. Research shows that consumers make decisions on where they spend their money based on ethics and employee satisfaction.
Update. old. policies - Let’s leave behind outdated company policies on employees and content. Chick fil-A missed out on a huge opportunity by not allowing her to continue promoting their products. When Mimi posted to tell her community what happened there were hundreds of comments drumming up support from her- showing that their audience really valued her content. So much so, a few days after posting her explanation video, Shake Shake (one of their key competitors) saw an opportunity and collaborated with Miri. Brands should not be scared of EGC, but embrace it!
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