On Influence and Employee Generated Content.

Posted on January 22, 2018

Around this time last year, a couple of ‘Influencer Agencies’ were launched. Now, a new study commissioned by Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA) and conducted by YouGov, suggests that print media is more trusted than blogs or social media.

In a time when ‘fake news’ is rampant, it is always important to mention who the research is for and what they are trying to accomplish from it. Old-School PR agencies are in the business of selling column inches in print publications with little or no true accountability or measurement. It helps such an an agency to walk into a pitch to a brand and say – you should continue to spend a large proportion of your budget on PR in print media.

There are large differences between age-groups and nationalities. 52% of Emerati nationals are influenced by online influencers, only 21% of Western Expats trust blogs or people with large followings on social media. (See infographic at the bottom of this post)

The study also found that TV and Radio was also more trusted than blogs or social media, however… buried at the bottom of the flashy infographic is another statistic – 53% of people surveys trust a brand’s own website, which is more than both print and all other forms of ‘advertising’.

Employee Generated Content

So in fact, the best ‘influencers’ are still the people who understand a brand, it’s goals, it’s audience and probably work for the brand itself, creating content that is relevant and meaningful. This underlying trust for company websites could explain the rise in the use of ‘Employee Generated Content’ (EGC).

If 84% of people trust face to face recommendations, and 53% trust a company website, then why not make more of your people? Your employees are probably some of the most knowledgeable subject matter experts when it comes to what you are selling. Most of them have a Facebook account. Many of them will have an Instagram account. Add them all up and they probably have more followers than the so-called influencers.

In addition to the ‘cheap’ creation of relevant content, motivating your people to promote your company creates a more positive culture. If your people don’t want to create content, then you might have much deeper problems.

In B2B industries, it is common for employees to have Twitter accounts or use their Linked-In profiles to promote their work. Take Matt Cutts, one of Google’s most recognised employees, whose YouTube videos occasionally get over 3 million views because he has a great way of simplifying SEO.

It’s also not uncommon for the CEO to have a Twitter account, but Employee Generated Content, offers more.

Social Media aggregator tools like TINT allow companies to solve issues of moderation and rights management when it comes to leveraging Employee Generated Content. While a CEO might not have time to do more than occasionally write ~~140~~ 280 characters, employees’ content can scale across multiple types and platforms. This means that EGC is more on-brand, more relevant and more reliable than content that may or may not be created by customers.

Adding EGC to your company website, through moderated aggregation tools, or curated by a new type of agency solves a lot of content and marketing headaches for brands.