The Great Employee Content Uprising: How Your Team Became Your Best Marketing Channel

Listen, I didn't mean to fall down a 45-minute TikTok rabbit hole watching a perfume store employee say "at all" in increasingly delightful ways, but here we are.

And that's exactly the point.

If you're still thinking about employee-generated content as that cringey video of your accounting department doing a mannequin challenge in 2016, buckle up. We're about to explore how your payroll might just be your most underutilized marketing goldmine.

What Is Employee-Generated Content?

Employee-generated content (EGC) is exactly what it sounds like—content created by employees, not your marketing team. But it's far more powerful than that simple definition suggests. EGC leverages the unique perspectives, personalities, and expertise of the people who know your products and services best.

Unlike traditional marketing methods that feel polished to the point of being sterile, EGC has authenticity. It's your customer service rep sharing product hacks on TikTok, your engineer explaining complex features on LinkedIn, or your retail staff showcasing their genuine enthusiasm for what they sell.

The magic happens because these employees aren't just spreading corporate talking points—they're sharing their experiences and building credibility through their personal authenticity. This type of content helps your message resonate and cut through the noise like nothing else. Everything you need to know about employee generated content starts with understanding that it's fundamentally about building trust with your audience.

The Evolution of EGC

EGC has been quietly evolving right under our noses. It didn't start with some groundbreaking HBR article or a Silicon Valley innovation – it began with sales teams hustling to create content that would move product.

From MLM Hustle to Employee Advocacy

MLM companies (love 'em or hate 'em) were actually the OG pioneers here. Think about it: when your entire compensation depends on pushing product, you get creative fast. These early adopters were firing up Facebook Lives and Instagram stories long before it was cool, turning their personal social presence into mini-commercials for whatever they were selling.

Smart corporate execs took notice and thought, "Wait, why are we limiting this superpower to just the sales team?" Enter employee referral programs with their sweet, sweet kickbacks. You know the drill – get your cousin to sign up for our service, and boom, you're getting a gift card to Chipotle. It was primitive, but cost-effective.

Then came the awkward teenage years of employee advocacy. Companies tried to encourage employees to share sterile, pre-approved content on social media platforms like LinkedIn. The problem? It had all the personality of a corporate tax filing and performed about as well. It failed to foster a sense of community that makes content truly relatable.

How TikTok Revolutionized UGC and EGC

But then something happened that fundamentally rewired the entire social media game: TikTok crashed the party.

Pre-TikTok, the social media economy ran on followers. You spent years building a following, and maybe, if the algorithm gods smiled upon you, you'd eventually get big enough to monetize.

TikTok said "nah" to all that.

Leverage TikTok for Viral Reach

Suddenly, content creators could build a brand-new account today, post a video of their cat vibing to Dua Lipa, and wake up to 10 million views tomorrow. The entire center of gravity shifted from "who you are" to "what kind of content you create."

This is crucial to understand because it completely inverted the model. Instead of:

1. Get famous

2. Build audience

3. Monetize with products

We now have:

1. Create tons of content around products

2. Some of it goes viral

3. Products win, creators win

It's not about creating one superstar influencer anymore – it's about mobilizing an army of employee influencers who can take unlimited swings at the viral bat as part of their marketing strategy.

Best Practices for Employee-Generated Content

Regardless of what you think about Andrew Tate (and there's a lot to think), he accidentally created the playbook that brands are now scrambling to replicate.

While Tate wasn't on TikTok himself, he essentially created a "Content MLM" with hundreds of hungry followers making "Tate content." His genius move? "Here's a bunch of raw material – you figure out how to make it go viral, and if you do, I'll pay you per view."

The result? He became one of the most Googled people on the planet despite being banned from most platforms. That's the power of distributed content creation process.

Types of Employee-Generated Content That Work

Fast forward to today, and the same playbook is being used by everyone from Adin Ross to Fortune 500 companies. The strategy is deceptively simple:

1. Create long-form content

2. Have an army of editors chop it into snackable video content

3. Distribute widely across multiple accounts

4. Pay based on performance

What's wild is that the most successful social media posts are rarely coming from marketing departments – they're bubbling up organically from employees who understand how to create and share content on platforms better than any agency ever could.

Examples of Employee-Generated Content

Case in point: I recently fell into a scroll-hole watching The Perfume Shop's TikTok sensation. This employee brings such a genuine personality that she has single-handedly created a cult following with her sweet demeanor and signature catchphrase, "at all." ("Can I help you at all? Would you like your perfume gift-wrapped at all?")

How The Perfume Shop Uses Employee-Generated Content

The comments section is absolutely obsessed with her. Her most viral video has crushed it with 1.4 million views, 80k likes, 1k comments, 4k saves, and 1k shares. That's engagement most brands would sacrifice their CMO to the algorithm gods for.

And this isn't just a fun one-off example of EGC – it's riding a massive trend. According to Statista, the hashtag #PerfumeTok saw a mind-blowing 453% year-over-year growth. The Perfume Shop didn't create this trend, but they were smart enough to let their employee become the human face of it, boosting both the brand's visibility and their employer brand simultaneously.

Currys: When Gen Z Creates Content For Your Brand

Or take Currys, the UK electronics retailer that's crushing it with their "Gen Z writes the marketing script" series. They've brilliantly paired a Gen Z employee writing scripts filled with phrases like "brat summer," "no cap," and "slay queen" with an older team member reading them, creating this perfect generational comedy that actually sells product.

The comments don't lie: "THIS is marketing" is the ultimate validation of their approach. It's authentic, it's funny, and it moves merchandise – the holy trinity of content marketing. By encouraging employees to share their ideas and personalities, Currys has found a way to make their content reach a wider audience in a way their traditional marketing never could.

SheerLuxe: Behind-the-Scenes Content

Then there's SheerLuxe, which has transformed their TikTok feed into an employee content playground. Their marketing team shares everything from outfit checks to career advice, offering those coveted behind-the-scenes content that followers eat up.

Their Marketing Director, Mia Luckie, has even become a legitimate content creator in her own right, with one of her 'office OOTD' videos hitting 5.6M views. That's not just good personal branding – it's smart business that builds the company's following while allowing employees to develop their own audiences. This approach also helps them improve employee retention by attracting top talent who want to work somewhere that values their unique voice.

Benefits of Employee Generated Content

The rise of employee-generated content is no longer experimental – it's essential. From restaurant cashiers dancing on Instagram to IT teams lip-syncing through product updates on LinkedIn, these authentic moments are relatable content that's human and, most importantly, shareable.

As brands prioritize owned content in 2025 – newsletters, podcasts, livestreams – employees will be central to their success. This doesn't mean firing your agency (sorry, agency friends). Few employees have the right mix of talent, resources, and time to match the pressure of creating professional content consistently.

Why EGC Is a Great Alternative to Traditional Marketing

There will still be critical demand for insight-based strategy, creative oversight, talent management, and distribution to help companies leverage their employee-created content effectively. But whether you're B2B or B2C, incorporating employee voices into your content strategy isn't just smart thinking – it's your most underrated competitive advantage in terms of content that actually converts.

The best part? You're already paying for it. Now you just need to unlock it.

Not boring.

Employee-Generated Content FAQ

What is the difference between UGC and EGC?

While both user-generated content and employee-generated content refer to authentic content created by people outside your marketing department, the key difference is who creates it. UGC marketing comes from your customers and fans, while EGC is content created by employees who have insider knowledge and can showcase your company culture from within. Both types of content are valuable for building trust, but EGC offers unique benefits since employees have deeper product knowledge and can provide authentic perspectives on your brand's values and operations.

How can I encourage employee-generated content?

To effectively encourage employees to create content, start by developing clear guidelines that give employees freedom while protecting your brand. Implement an employee advocacy software platform like LinkedIn's employee advocacy tools to make sharing easy. Create incentives that reward participation, and showcase high-quality content across company channels. Most importantly, foster company culture where content creation is celebrated, not just tolerated. Remember that the most engaging content comes when employees feel genuine enthusiasm about what they're sharing.

What content types work best for employee-generated content?

Employee-generated content is most effective when it aligns with both the platform and your employees' authentic voices. Behind-the-scenes content showcases company culture naturally. Educational content where employees share their expertise builds credibility. "Day in the life" videos humanize your brand. Product demonstrations from actual users (your team) offer more relatable perspectives than traditional marketing. The best content types are those where the employee brings their unique personality while delivering value to your audience.

How do I measure the success of our EGC strategy?

Measuring EGC success goes beyond basic engagement metrics. Track content performance across platforms looking at reach, engagement rate, and conversion attribution. Monitor employee participation rates and content quality improvements over time. Measure the impact on recruiting metrics like application rates and candidate quality. Survey employees about how creating content affects their job satisfaction and brand perception. The most sophisticated companies also track how EGC impacts customer trust metrics and overall brand health scores in consumer research.

Can EGC work for B2B companies or just B2C?

EGC is incredibly effective for B2B companies, often more so than for B2C brands. On a platform like LinkedIn, employee content typically gets 2-3x more engagement than company page content. B2B EGC works because business decisions are fundamentally human decisions, and seeing the actual experts behind your products fosters a sense of community and trust. Technical team members sharing their knowledge, sales professionals offering industry insights, and leadership discussing market trends all help position your company as a thought leader while making your brand more approachable.

How is employee-generated content changing social media marketing?

Employee-generated content is transforming social media marketing by decentralizing brand voices. Instead of one polished corporate account, brands now have dozens or hundreds of authentic touchpoints with audiences. This shift means content creation process is becoming more agile, with companies embracing imperfection in exchange for authenticity and volume. Algorithms increasingly favor personal accounts over brand pages, making employee channels more valuable. The most forward-thinking companies are now structuring their social media marketing around employee voices rather than treating EGC as a supplemental strategy.