Unlocking Authenticity: How Employee-Generated Content Builds Stronger Brands
- Jordan Friedman
- Jun 1
- 7 min read
As a marketer, your colleagues can become one of your most powerful assets. In both large and small businesses, employees can serve as brand advocates, subject matter experts, and thought leaders—all in one—and they're typically just a Slack or Microsoft Teams message away.
Over the past few years, I've come to recognize the benefits of involving colleagues at various levels of the organization in content workflows. Partnering with internal stakeholders beyond just the marketing team can help you create high-quality, insights-driven content that enhances your brand's reputation.
Employees can also benefit from opportunities to take on new challenges and build their reputation or career. These efforts may be more critical than ever as employee engagement has reached its lowest level in a decade, according to Gallup. Only 31% of employees said they felt engaged at work in 2024—a drop of 2 percentage points from 2023.

Plus, according to a Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProf survey, B2B content marketers rank a lack of resources as their No. 1 challenge today, and 54% of B2B organizations have small marketing teams (2-5 employees).
Employee-generated content is a cost-effective way to leverage internal relationships for content creation and distribution.
What Is Employee-Generated Content?
I define employee-generated content as any content asset that employees within an organization create to support your brand or business. This content can range from blog writing to social media sharing to employee testimonials.
You're likely to find many of your colleagues know your target audiences and personas—and their pain points—like the back of their hand. You may also find many of your colleagues are more than happy to advocate for their employer or help promote a company event on social media, assuming they've had a positive experience at your organization—if only you could provide them with a little direction on getting started.
Employees can offer a behind-the-scenes look at ongoing projects or initiatives, give a shout-out to your organization, or share photos with colleagues. Even small gestures can have a significant impact.
Benefits of Employee-Generated Content (for Employees)
Generating and sharing content challenges your colleagues to try something new. These unique opportunities can create a positive workplace experience and lead to professional (and personal) growth.
Enhanced Workplace Experience
Remote or hybrid employees tend to interact less often with their coworkers compared with in-office staff, which can damage their motivation and productivity.
I've seen how excited my colleagues get when they see their byline on the company blog or gain exposure by participating in a webinar. And I've witnessed how employee-generated content can boost camaraderie. Employees love showing support by sharing their coworkers' published work.
Chance to Build a Personal Brand
Employees who create content can build their personal brand by enhancing their portfolio, potentially advancing their careers. They can also generate engagement and foster new connections by showcasing their knowledge or insights on an industry-specific topic.
Stretching Their Comfort Zone
When non-marketing colleagues get to work with you, they can take on new challenges and learn the basics of content marketing. This collaboration can allow them to explore additional passions.
Benefits of Employee-Generated Content (for Your Company)
Not only do employees benefit, but the company also reaps significant rewards from employee-generated content. There are also qualitative outcomes to consider, such as impacts on organizational culture.
Improves Workplace Culture
High employee engagement can improve workplace culture—and employee-generated content is a great way to get coworkers excited about contributing. This enthusiasm can, in turn, boost employee retention and productivity and also support staff well-being.
Subject Matter Experts
Incorporating internal subject matter experts with deep industry or product knowledge into your workflows can ensure content accuracy and address specific customer challenges.
In an era of artificial intelligence, where fact-checking AI-produced copy is essential, having a human expert on board can ensure your content stands out in search results and elsewhere.
Thought Leadership
When internal experts provide a unique take on an industry-specific topic, they serve as thought leaders for your brand who offer unique perspectives about your industry. This can help you build your business’ credibility and increase the odds of driving outcomes with your content.
I cannot emphasize enough the value of company presidents and CEOs—often among a brand's leading voices—advocating for and creating employee-generated content. Today's CEOs themselves seem to recognize this value, too. A study conducted by the strategic communications firm H/Advisors Abernathy revealed 68% of them use LinkedIn, and 48% post at least once a month. One-fifth have addressed critical issues on social media, including artificial intelligence, DEI and international conflicts.
Thought leadership employee-generated content can do wonders for small business owners with limited marketing budgets. On LinkedIn, Lee Densmer, owner of Globia Content Marketing, an agency in the language services and language technology industry, regularly shares her views on content marketing—including common challenges she faces and reflections on personal experiences. A March 2025 post about social selling received more than 200 likes and over 50 comments.

Brand Advocacy
Employee-generated content is one way your employees can publicly champion your organization's mission and values. When employees speak passionately about their employer, they can help attract high-quality job applicants and even new customers.
In practice, brand advocacy goes beyond employees merely serving as loudspeakers for your brand. It means encouraging employees to build their personal brands first—an approach that will ultimately strengthen perceptions of the organization.
Employer Branding
Employee-generated content can help businesses improve their reputations as employers. In addition to owned media (like employee testimonials on your website), existing staff, job interviewees and the broader community may post reviews on earned media channels like Glassdoor and Indeed.
Fellow employees may take the initiative to share their experience at their place of work on LinkedIn, which can positively impact perceptions of your organization.
Increased Visibility
When employees create and/or share content on external-facing channels, they can help boost your brand's visibility. These efforts may, for example, lead to new web traffic or higher social media engagement. Employees with industry connections can also get your content in front of key target personas.
Improves Brand Authenticity
One study defines brand authenticity as “the degree to which consumers perceive a brand to be genuine, faithful and supportive,” and found a positive correlation between authentic brands and customers' intent to purchase. It also linked brand authenticity to increased brand forgiveness—in crisis communications, for example.
When employees have an outlet to express their thoughts and share insights, you spotlight a more authentic side to your brand.
Employee-Generated Content Examples
Below are some ideas and examples to get you started with employee-generated content. But ultimately, your approach will depend largely on your goals and marketing needs.
1. Guest blogging
Asking colleagues to write for the company blog is a great way to involve them in marketing efforts. Who better to speak to industry challenges and provide company updates than the subject matter experts you’ve worked with before?
A product developer might create a blog post about a forthcoming product launch, while your organization's CEO (example below) could write an article on industry challenges for your website. It all hinges on your priorities. Including an author bio at the conclusion of the blog or article can also enhance your brand's credibility.
I've found it helpful to set up a marketing request form where employees can submit ideas or pitches—luckily, many project management tools make this easy. Or you can assign content to colleagues when building out your monthly calendar. After publication, you can circulate the post internally to generate visibility and boost employee morale. Plus, you can encourage the writer to share the blog on social media.
2. Participating in webinars or podcasts
To take their involvement a step further, you may feature employees as guests on a company podcast or webinar to showcase their industry knowledge or ways customers can overcome common pain points. Ideally, they will support their claims with specific examples tied to your products or services to support brand awareness.
3. Sharing industry hot takes
Employees can help improve your brand's authority by offering their wisdom and reacting to industry news—usually on social media.
On LinkedIn, Lee Welch, a U.K.-based Azure Solutions Director at Microsoft, shares relevant news articles on the future of AI, along with information about upcoming product launches and his personal experiences at Microsoft. His posts often generate dozens of likes and spark conversations in the comments.

4. Posting and sharing company-related content
Your colleagues can help spread the word about upcoming events and webinars, rally behind a company cause or share job openings. They can also post photos from volunteer events or staff meet-ups, or showcase a positive interaction with a colleague.
5. Brainstorming and editing content
Your coworkers who know the ins and outs of your industry can review content for accuracy before it's published. Or they can work directly with writers to brainstorm ideas tied to industry trends. Involving a subject matter expert adds a layer of authority to your content.
6. Publishing employee testimonials
When employees love working at your organization, you can spotlight their positive experiences in employee testimonials. Then, you can distribute those testimonials across channels—as part of talent acquisition campaigns or on corporate website landing pages.
Employee-Generated Content Tips
Be mindful of employees' time and bandwidth.
Remember, your employees may have limited time or capacity to commit to marketing projects. That's why you should specify the required time commitment upfront and be flexible, if possible, on deadlines. You can also find ways to simplify the process of creating content for employees, as we'll discuss in the next tip.
Equip employees with the right tools.
For events or webinars, I typically create an employee "toolkit"—which includes pre-written social media and email copy that employees can adapt for their personal channels—to simplify content sharing.
You can also distribute links to newly released content through your company's messaging platforms, such as Slack or Teams, or share them via email at the end of each week.
Set guidelines.
It's helpful to set guidelines when asking employees to create or help distribute content. You may, for example, provide them with boilerplate product messaging language for an upcoming launch to ensure brand consistency and alignment across your workforce, or even ask them to avoid commenting on a sensitive topic in crisis communications situations.
Consider incentives for employee-generated content.
This can entail sharing your coworker's latest blog post on a companywide Slack channel, or offering rewards (like gift cards) to employees who get the most engagement on their content.
Ultimately, your employees' involvement in distributing content will depend on your content strategy and goals. But don't underestimate the power of employee-generated content in supporting your thought leadership or employer branding initiatives, driving traffic to your website, or boosting social media engagement.
When you look beyond the marketing team for support, you open yourself up to new perspectives so you can create content that drives results.
Looking to build an employee-generated content strategy for your business, or need a consultant to help you get started? Directional Content Services can help. Contact Jordan Friedman today for an initial meeting.
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