“You have everything you need to build something far bigger than yourself.” – Seth Godin
So you already know why marketing at your company needs to transcend your marketing department and why you need to see every employee as a marketer. Your employees regularly tweet about company events and even know how they should react to company crises. But do these momentary roles as brand ambassadors suffice as far as employee generated content is concerned?The aforementioned activities are just the tip of the EGC iceberg. Digital marketing gives you the superpower to brand your company and even generate leads out of something your employees learn everyday. The question is: Are you putting all of that content online?
“Wow! More users for my #UGC campaign.” #Employee #UserGeneratedContent #Content #WordyWednesday pic.twitter.com/UHKn4ujRI2
— Niswey (@Niswey) June 24, 2015
A company blog should not belong to a specific set of people (the content marketers) any more, especially when your workforce can redefine how their friends and family perceive your company as a brand. This is the power of EGC: your very own corporate version of user generated content. So how do you start with generating authentic and purposeful EGC?
Start with Sharing What You Learn Everyday
Writing down what you’ve learned at your workplace. How difficult could it be? The first attempt would take you longer than usual, but that’s valid for almost anything we do, right?
At Niswey, we regularly update our blog calendar with ideas for the next month. Here are some cases in which we were unexpectedly gifted more blog ideas:
- Client Projects: Anubhav came up with the idea of compiling a quick checklist for rebranding popular social media profiles after our rebranding stint with a non-profit.
- Knowledge Resources: This mega list of resources for becoming a digital marketing pro was previously shared by Abhinav to every new team member at Niswey.
- Client Events: Award nomination forms, presentations at events, or even office conversations, Suma is never short of amazing yet simple sources for B2B marketing content!
- Weekend Getaways: Yes, we don’t spare even vacations! We made our first photoblog on our summer trip to Lansdowne this year. If a photo is worth a thousand words, then what would be the worth of a photoblog!
Go Beyond the Company Blog: Nibbles for Social Media
Not everyone skimming through your Twitter or LinkedIn would have the time to read your blog. Crisp takeaways and design templates to the rescue! Along with our Monday Maxims and Wordy Wednesday, we recently started publishing our takeaways on marketing, content, design and technology. Initially called Thursday Takeaways (yes, some of us really have a thing for alliterations!), we went ahead with Niswey Nibbles. Besides contributing to our personal branding, these nibbles bring out the marketing guru in each of us. A sneak peek: https://twitter.com/hashtag/NisweyNibbles.
“The difference between selling and helping is just two letters.” – Jay Baer #Marketing #Youtility #NisweyNibbles pic.twitter.com/aKfL3Fs3uQ — Niswey (@Niswey) July 30, 2015
Motivate Your Employees for EGC
Besides leading by example, inducing competition would motivate many employees. You could pick one person from every team whom you feel has great potential for content writing. Genuinely appreciate their efforts in front of everyone after they have written their first blog post. This should get the conversations going and the motivation flowing within the respective teams. Though EGC is easier to start with in startups and SMBs, big organizations could go a step further in inducing competition by dividing each team into smaller content marketing armies.
Jay Baer, in his book Youtility, mentions that customers today trust company experts and employees more than the CEO. In chapter 10, Insource Youtility, Jay highlights the power of EGC in large corporates with the example of SAP, the German enterprise software giant.
Here’s a Q&A with Michael Brenner, former VP of Content Marketing at SAP, highlighting the growing mindset of “brand as a publisher” in recent years.
So how are your #employees helping your company with #EmployeeGeneratedContent? #DigitalMarketing #UGC #MondayMaxims pic.twitter.com/MTPEYQEahp
— Niswey (@Niswey) July 27, 2015
Leverage EGC for Lead Generation
Sharing what your employees learn everyday would be a great boost to the hiring and branding goals at your company. What if you could use EGC to drive more sales? Some research would always be needed on the type of content your customer persona craves. At the end of the day it’s all about adding value to your prospects even before you’ve struck a deal with them. Once things get smooth, you would want to start calculating the ROI for your EGC process and justify its significance beyond a short-lived project.
In the age of the social media groundswell, generating authentic and purposeful employee generated content is the least you can do take charge of your brand’s perception. Your brand is in your hands (and your employees’ too).
