- Employee video posts drive higher reach, engagement
- SMEs and thought leaders more trusted than brands
- CreatorSuite makes it simple to run an employee video program
Employee advocacy is a powerful top-funnel communications and marketing strategy, and we’ve seen staggering results with our own employee advocacy program.
The participants in our employee advocacy program have more than doubled the performance of our brand’s LinkedIn posts. Meaning, each individual saw their post outperform the single post from our Socialive LinkedIn account.
Why? LinkedIn posts from employees earn 8x more engagement and 24x more shares than posts from faceless corporate brands. And each person has their own unique network, which further amplifies overall reach with each employee who participates.
This is where CreatorSuite has been a game-changer for us. It provides ease of use for our employees — our content contributors — and streamlined everything for me as the program admin. We’re now able to make tons of content, fast, and stay on-brand every time.
People engage with other people, not brands, so using your people to deliver content and feature as an authentic connection point just makes sense. This logic follows for social media, outbound email, website content, you name it.
Here’s how we built this engagement-driving video program at Socialive.
The instant impact of employee advocacy
It didn’t take long to see results (I’ve got the spreadsheet to prove it). The first few posts from each of our employees performed about 5x higher than the same content on the Socialive page.
The funny thing is, these weren’t really folks who were active on social media. In fact, those who hadn’t posted in over a year saw the highest engagement of the cohort. So, “I don’t usually post” is a strength, not a weakness when picking participants.
Why employee content beats out brand content on LinkedIn
It’s truly a personal experience when actual people are involved.
When scrolling through the posts from our employees, you see tons of comments that have nothing to do with the actual content. But keep in mind that every “great to see you” or “we should get coffee next time you’re in town” further exposes the post — and our content — to a larger audience.
For every quick comment, invite to catch up, or well-wish, your brand’s reach is scaled exponentially. Your people are your strongest distribution network.
Step 1: Map content to key moments
OK, so that’s why we did this, now for the how.
We set up a content calendar that mapped to the overarching content roadmap. At Socialive, our content calendar syncs up with major product releases, targets a key buyer persona, and also highlights one of our target industries.
As a video creation technology vendor, of course, we create a number of videos to address those different audiences. We primarily use a short demo, a walkthrough video, or thought leadership that ties everything together.
Step 2: Work with leadership and teammates
Once we established what we would cover, it came time to build out the employee advocacy program. The behind-the-scenes work was necessary to keep everything simple for both the talent (all of my coworkers) and the creator (me).
The members of our employee advocacy group simply record a 10–15 second intro for a short video that touches on our product or thought leadership content. The resulting video is a 1–2 minute clip they will share from their LinkedIn.
Picking the right people for a video pilot program
Our leadership team has been involved from the beginning. They understand the power of short-form video and see value of organic social content. Leaders from our customer success, sales, and product teams picked out a few employees whom they determined:
- Have a strong network
- Can commit about 1 hour every two weeks
- Can confidently speak on camera (and follow a script)
- Were OK with being “voluntold” to participate
The key here was setting expectations early. I would do the heavy lifting; participants would just need to follow the prompts I sent through Socialive.
Once we identified our team, we had the makings of a pilot program.
Step 3: Make it effortless to record
The CreatorSuite made it simple for our participants to contribute their recordings. Each week, I set up a new template with branding, load the core content, draft and get approval on a script, and assign the project to a program member. The invite includes the recording link and script.
Just in case, I also set up a Slack channel where I post a Google Doc with the instructions and script for that week.
All my talent needs to do is click the recording link, do a quick rehearsal, and then they record on their own time. They are given the flexibility to adjust the script and social copy to fit their voice.
Step 4: Keep production a light lift for everyone
One of the biggest benefits of doing this process end-to-end in Socialive is that I can bifurcate the experience. I don’t want my speakers overwhelmed by all the production choices that I can make as the creator.
The ask is that they view the script, make it their own, and then record. I then make quick edits (if even needed).
Again, my contributors only need to nail a quick 10–15 seconds on screen. I’ve already loaded the core content into the project, so there isn’t much work left for me to do if they nailed the take.
At that point, I usually give the green light for them to post the final video with the social copy I provided. Below is an example of the resulting post, using the above CreatorSuite announcement video as the core content.
How others can replicate this employee advocacy video program
We mostly use employee advocacy at Socialive to promote our enterprise video creation platform. We’re constantly rolling out new features, so it’s always easy to plan innovation stories. But we’ve used this same process for a few other internal and external-facing use cases:
- Town hall testimonials
- Job postings and recruiting videos
- Webinar promotions
- Event recaps
- Customer communication rollouts
- New hire celebrations
CreatorSuite makes it easy to tell stories at scale and make sure it feels more personable. It’s partially about our people being the distribution for our messaging, but it’s also about making them the focus of the content itself.
We’ve noticed that this approach has incredible potential for a couple of industries in particular.
How wealth management firms and RIAs can scale advisor reach
A few of our customers in the financial space have already started experimenting with similar programs. It’s fast, easy, and most important of all, a chance to flood the market with a unified message — personalized and localized for each target audience.
Here’s how one of the global wealth management firms we work with uses CreatorSuite to run an advisor video program:
- Their chief economist records a 2-minute market update
- The global marketing team builds a global template with approved script
- Each region creates a project with localized branding and disclosures
- The regional project is shared with advisors as an approved template
- Advisors record a quick intro to provide context on the market update
- The field enablement team makes quick edits (if necessary)
- The compliance team reads the auto-generated transcripts for quick reviews
- The video is approved to post on LinkedIn and to include in outbound emails
It’s quite often a conveyor belt of content for wealth management marketing teams. One core asset at the global level fuels the content engine for every advisor under their umbrella. Regardless of whether they operate as a DBA and need separate branding and disclosures or if it’s all in-house, everything comes together quickly.
How law firms can position partners and senior associates
We’ve heard from law firms that “video is too risky” or “too new” to take on. A few of our innovative clients have developed a successful routine by repurposing some of their long-form content into an entire campaign that is then distributed through the attorneys.
- The in-house video team records a podcast with the managing partner
- The marketing team creates a blog post and guide from the auto-generated transcripts
- The video team clips snackable snippets from the podcast episode
- Snippets are loaded into new projects
- Marketing drafts a script and social copy for the project
- Partners and associates are invited to record a quick intro
- Marketing and designated paralegals check to ensure compliance
- Approved videos are distributed in client alerts and posted to LinkedIn
Each short-form asset is created to drive traffic back to the firm’s website. It’s a quick and straightforward way to engage clients and prospects, while also ensuring the firm comes up in searches related to the primary practice areas.
The key to making employee advocacy work: CreatorSuite
CreatorSuite is built to make snackable video creation faster and easier than ever — particularly for the enterprise.
So while I outlined for the video program and got my teammates on board, CreatorSuite made it possible to keep things on-brand and provide a simple experience for them.
Book a demo to see how you can scale thought leadership and drive more engagement with less lift.