Breaking Down Starbucks New Employee Generated Content Program
Starbucks just officially backed employee generated content in a big way.
Here's what you need to know:
Employee Generated content is different from 'User Generated Content' in two ways:
1) it builds trust and authority authentically
2) it leads to 8x more engagement and often a 78% increase in pipeline growth
While UGC is all about social proof and the 'bandwagon effect', EGC is all about building trust and authority by leveraging stories and expertise from those with day-to-day access to the company itself.
And it scratches the itch of curiosity as employees can share behind-the-scenes info they can't get anywhere else.
So what's Starbucks new EGC program and what can we learn from it?
Starbucks new EGC content pilot program branches off of their prior 'Green Apron Creators' program which encouraged staff to post authentic content about the brand.
The new program takes it a step further.
With select employees receiving brand briefs and being compensated directly through ad revenue sharing in a partnership with TikTok.
Here's how it works:
Compensation: Starbucks will now give employees a direct cut of the advertising revenues generated from their TikTok videos.
Content Guidelines: Starbucks issues specific, curated briefs to creators. The chosen employees then post behind-the-scenes glimpses, coffee recipes, stories, and more.
Audience targeting: This targets younger audiences who want to discover products from peers rather than traditional corporate ads.
How Your B2B Company Can Do Something Similar
You don't need to partner with TikTok to get started.
While it is nice to have ad-revenue as an incentive for employees to become creators, many B2B companies aren't there yet.
They'd be better off choosing 2-3 employees spanning from founder - to product - to marketing and start sharing stories and expertise. Choosing people from the executive suite, management, or department heads can jump start the EGC process without needing heavy incentives.
Start with small incentives and work up from there.
Hold 30-minute content circles to pull content from later.
Provide bi-weekly content briefs to EGC creators.
Decide on scheduling, platforms, posting, and ownership.
The last two is where many B2B businesses have some trouble.
You'll need to have bi-weekly briefs provided to employees that have been prepared ahead of time. These briefs include talking points, literal scripts, ideas for where to stand, when to change backgrounds, how to film the specific video, etc.
Then comes the questions:
where will it be posted? (employee page or company page).
who will schedule it? (are employees responsible for this?)
which platforms are you focusing on? (this will come down to the audience you're looking to reach).
Ultimately, you'll want someone in charge of the EGC schedule as a whole, checking to make sure employees have posted on time, and there to answer any questions.
Where many businesses fall short in the EGC system is they don't tie their content to specific outcomes. Sure, EGC content is used to build trust and authority, but it's also a huge driver of inbound leads.
But... I'll leave that until the next newsletter where we'll dive into lead magnets and the content types that drive them.
See ya soon! - Carlee.
