A recent trend in the world of learning is to ask employees to create videos. It’s an innovative way for brands to engage with their audiences, increase social media engagement, and recruit new talent. The reason for this is simple: people trust other people more than they do corporations or brands.
What are employee-generated videos?
Employee-generated videos are videos that brands use in their learning development efforts created by their employees. Employee-generated videos are a great way to get employees engaged in the company’s marketing efforts, and they also create a sense of community among the workforce. Employees can share these videos on social media or within your own internal communication channels like Slack, Watch and Learn or Event Anywhere. You can even choose to feature employee-generated content on your corporate website.
There are various reasons to use employee-generated videos
Videos are a great way to keep your employees engaged and excited about the company. Employee-generated content can be used in various ways:
- Recruiting new talent
- Maintaining a company culture
- Telling the company’s story
The growth of online video
The first, and most obvious reason is the growth of online video. It’s growing rapidly, and it has a lot to do with how much people like watching videos. Although written content can be effective for certain kinds of information, video is still more engaging than text-based content. That means that you can build trust in your audience faster by using video to communicate with them. People are also naturally more likely to like and share your videos than they would if you just wrote out all the information as text on a blog post or website page, which makes it easier for your business to gain exposure and grow quickly if you create good employee-generated videos.
The rise of social media
The second reason is the rise of social media.
Social media has become a powerful tool for businesses and individuals to connect with each other. It’s a great place to share videos and engage with customers, build brand awareness, loyalty and even provide customer service.
People have grown skeptical of corporate messaging
Another reason why the employee-generated video approach is so effective is that people have grown skeptical of corporate messaging and advertising. According to a study from Google, one in five people are actively avoiding commercials on TV because they know what they’re going to see: an ad for some product or service. People are turning to social media for information about brands, but even then, it’s often their trusted friends who provide all the answers. They’re also more likely to trust information from a friend or family member than they are to trust a corporate message. That’s why we’ve seen brands like Dollar Shave Club and Old Spice do so well with their original content—they use real people who talk about their lives as part of the brand story instead of just selling us something like conventional advertising does.
Positive word-of-mouth is essential for a brand’s success
The fourth reason is that people no longer trust advertising, so positive word-of-mouth is essential for a brand’s success. The New York Times recently reported that “the number of consumers who said they trusted traditional advertising fell to 37 percent, down from 46 percent in 2016.”
But the good news is that employee-generated videos can help create positive word of mouth and in turn increase trust. In fact, 73% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a company after watching an employee-produced video about the company or its products according to HubSpot’s State of Inbound report.
There are many uses for employee-generated videos
Employee-generated videos are a great way to market your company, product or service. They can be used in all sorts of learning campaigns and projects. Here are some examples:
- Employee testimonials – These videos show real customers or employees displaying their feelings about the product or service you sell. They’re especially effective as part of a sales event when paired with a landing page for viewers who want to learn more about what you have to offer.
- Behind-the-scenes footage from events like trade shows or conferences, interviews with executives and employees at work locations across the country (or even around the world), how-to tips on using products—all these types of employee-generated content help build brand awareness while also showing viewers that they aren’t alone in liking what you do.
Employee-generated videos can be used on social media platforms
Employee-generated videos can be used on social media platforms.
Employee-generated videos are more likely to be shared on social media compared with other types of employee-generated content such as articles or blog posts, according to a recent study conducted by video creation platform Wideo. The survey revealed that 74% of respondents said they would share an employee-generated video if it was posted online. This is compared with 64% who said they would share an article and 48% who said they would share a blog post from their company’s website.
Videos can be used to create a community around a brand, allowing employees and customers to interact with one another in real-time via live streaming technology such as Watch and Learn or Event Anywhere. By doing so, companies have the opportunity to engage directly with their target audience in order to build trust.
Recruit new talent or maintain a company’s culture
Videos also help attract new talent and maintain a company’s culture.
Let’s say you’re looking to hire someone who is passionate about your brand and mission. You can create a video series showcasing employees who embody the values of your company, showing the audience what it’s like to be part of your team. This gives potential candidates an idea of what working at your organization is really like, providing an immersive experience that goes beyond just listening to a job description or reading job descriptions online.
When trying to retain top performers, employee-generated videos can be incredibly effective if they showcase how much fun people have at work and why they enjoy working there so much (and why others should too!).
Teams can benefit from asking employees to create videos
Employee-generated videos are a great way to recruit new talent, maintain your culture and create a positive brand image. They can also help increase customer engagement.
- Recruitment: You can use employee-generated videos as part of your recruitment strategy or as part of your hiring process. For example, you could ask employees to record their own video applications when applying for a position at your company.
- Culture: Employee-generated videos can be used for internal communications purposes and for communicating with employees about the culture of the organisation in order to ensure that it is maintained throughout the workforce.
- Brand image: Employee-generated content can be used as part of corporate branding activities to communicate what makes an organisation unique from its competitors by sharing stories from different perspectives within it (such as those of customers). For example, if one person says they love working at company X because they offer free fruit every day while another says they love working there because they have an amazing pension scheme then these two examples might highlight how these workers experience working at X Corp differently but still share similar feelings towards it which could then be communicated through multiple channels including social media channels such as Facebook & Twitter along with other online portals where users spend time online like Google search engines!
Videos are a powerful way for organisations to connect with their customers, employees, and followers. They can be used to educate people about products or services, show how great it is to work at your company and much more.
Further Reading: