Crowdsourcing Employee-Inspired Content Adds Brand Value [Study]

Crowdsourcing and sharing employee-generated content via digital channels helps companies reinforce brand value and recruit talent, according to a joint study from the CMO Council and Executive Networks.

The new study, Making the Workplace a Brand-Defining Space, shows that half of the marketing and HR leaders surveyed said that they would be interested in piloting or learning more about a social media platform for real-time employee-inspired branding because crowdsourcing employee-generated digital content has many benefits, including turning employees into active advocates and brand champions (50 percent), reinforcing brand authenticity and corporate credibility (41 percent), as well as unifying, engaging and activating the organization (40 percent).

“Whether it’s a moment that is strictly for internal circulation or a moment that is marked and voted up for external sharing, the best practice comes down to one simple notion: Let employees be your brand champions. Allow them to pull out the phones in each one of their pockets and finally assist in branding the company’s moments, stories, and narratives to the world,” says Danny Gordon, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of social sharing platform CultureSphere, who sponsored the study.

However, many brands are lagging behind. For example, more than 90 percent of respondents in the study believe that brand persona is essential, very important or moderately valuable to building long-term customer relationships, as well as attracting millennial workers. However, only 62 percent of them said that their companies have a formal brand platform that defines shared values and ethics.

And many enterprises neither adopt digital channels for real-time engagement with employees and business partners, nor do they take full advantage of digital solutions like social media to crowdsource and share employee-inspired content, says the study.

In order to keep up with the transforming digital landscape, and leverage employee-generated content to add brand values, Gordon suggests that companies should have the right content along with the right attitude.

“Bridging the gap between crowdsourcing employee content and the brands that are lagging behind comes down to two things: the right product and the right mindset. If the product’s purpose is multi-faceted, then the mindset of leaders will highly adapt,” Gordon says. “Sharing employee-inspired content, photos and videos is the best and most engaging way.”

The study is based on an online survey of more than 230 senior marketing and HR leaders across North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. To know more insights, you can request the full study from the CMO Council.

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