Welcome to Future of Marketing.
Each week, we send you the most relevant trends, resources, and strategies in social and user-generated content (UGC) from leading marketers and brands around the globe.
Today, we’re discussing…
- How to humanize your brand
- Benefits of employee influencers
- #BrandCrush: AT&T 💘
PS. Register to learn about the power of authentic visual content from experts at TINT, followed by an open discussion with Dianne Semark, Creative Director at Hootsuite.
How to humanize your brand
In 2021, one in four people quit their jobs.
“People are finding jobs that give them the right pay, benefits, and work arrangements in the longer term,” shared Anthony Klotz, the professor who coined the term Great Resignation. “There’s now a greater ability for people to fit work into their lives, instead of having lives that squeeze into their work.”
Employees stay when they are engaged, heard, appreciated, promoted – but there’s a lot more to it than checking off these boxes. How else can you develop a culture people want to be part of?
Here are some ideas:
- Address burnout
- Encourage rest and recharging
- Listen to (and seek out) your team’s opinions
- Encourage your team to share their experiences using employee-generated content (EGC)
For example, the #ShowUsYourLeave hashtag has been circulating on LinkedIn, where brands are highlighting their leave policies and employees are sharing their personal experiences with these policies.
“[EGC] is the perfect way to humanize your brand across all business units through external marketing channels,” shared Brayden Cohen, Social Marketing and Employee Advocacy Lead, Hootsuite. It also helps you peek into the minds of your team – How do they feel? How has our company contributed to their growth? What can we do better?
Benefits of employee influencers
Employee profiles see 10X more followers and 8X the engagement than brand accounts.
Earlier this week, we ran an experiment to see how employee-generated content would perform. Instead of posting from the brand account, we used a personal Twitter account to ask who we should interview on the Future of Marketing podcast.
Hundreds of suggestions poured in – and now we have a repository of potential guests to invite on the podcast.
Moral of the story? People trust people more than logos.
Not to mention, EGC is a form of influencer marketing that not only shows who’s behind the company but can also help:
- Develop your team’s personal brands
- Showcase your company culture
- Recruit new talent (and customers)
- Build trust and credibility
- Drive new traffic to your company
Take action: Encourage your team to post on social media. Ask them to share their favorite work memory, request feedback from their audience, re-share key insights from your latest blogs, take over your Instagram stories for a day – or provide branded templates to encourage new hires to announce their new role at your company.
But don’t stop there…
Reshare EGC on your company’s social media, career pages, and recruitment materials to show potential employees your work culture.
What we’re learning
- What Can Solve the Biggest Challenges Faced by Marketers Today?
- Brand Positioning with Employee-Generated Content
- Employee Advocacy on Social Media: What is it and How to Do it Right
- A Kickstart Guide to Culture Hashtags
- Twitter Tests New ‘Articles’ Option, Potentially Enabling Long-Form Posts in the App
#BrandCrush: AT&T
Each week in #BrandCrush, we highlight exceptional brands that are channeling their customers' voices to connect more authentically with their audience.
If you’re looking for creative ways to repurpose employee-generated content, look no further than AT&T.
AT&T created a page called #LifeAtATT – which is dedicated to highlighting employee stories and all things EGC. “From office contests to volunteering events, find out how our people are making an impact (and having fun doing it!),” the brand shares.
The #LifeAtATT blog also features career hacks, on-the-job experiences, tips for new graduates, and highlights how their efforts towards diversity and inclusivity are inspiring human progress. AT&T even linked a careers page in the navigation menu – where job seekers can readily apply for open roles. Genius!
The lesson: By highlighting employee stories across their marketing channels, AT&T can paint a picture of their company culture – all by amplifying the voice of their team. The best part is that re-sharing EGC builds trust within the company, strengthens engagement (and retention), helps recruit new talent – and it’s something all brands can do… with a little help from your team.