Employee Content Creators and Influencers in the Workplace

Facebook has turned many personal profiles into digital creators, but content creators and influencers are different kinds of social media hotshots. Do you have employees like them in your company? Do you think these public figures are assets? What is it like to work with them anyway?

Employee content creators and influencers are not necessarily hired with the same job title or paid for the same task. They are in-house creatives maximizing the power of content creation, from blog writing to video livestreaming. They are social media users with a considerable number of active followers. They use social media platforms to influence, educate, entertain, and inform people about an event, company, personality, advocacy, product, or service. They can attract customers and solidify business branding. They can make or break your company’s public appearance.

At eLink Systems & Concepts Corp., we see social media as a powerful tool for branding, marketing, recruitment, sales, and more. With that, JP Abecilla – The Millennial Writer, a Cebu-based content creator and influencer, was tapped to use his platforms to create content, particularly blog articles, for recruitment and job hiring. Instead of just posting job vacancies, JP Abecilla usually features top-performing employees and deals with employment-related topics. Employee content creators and influencers can do the same or a lot of things similar to it.

Defining Content Creators and Influencers

Before we dig deeper, let’s have a more industry-driven definition and differentiation between content creators and influencers. “Content creators,” according to Sprout Social, “produce entertaining, educational, or captivating content for digital distribution.” Influencers, on the other hand, also create content, but they focus more on connecting brands to their target audience.

Content creators have some kind of influence, but they are not necessarily promoting or advertising products and services, let alone brands. Influencers are the ones who usually post content with the purpose of building a brand, attracting customers, recruiting job seekers, and more. Having these individuals at the office will save you from hiring advertisers or paying content creators and influencers outside your company.

Related Post: 6 Types of Bloggers You Need to Work With

Employee Content Creators and Influencers

As mentioned above, these employees are not necessarily hired with the same job description as content creators and influencers. They can be regular employees passionate about the job and the company. They can even be posting about your business already without your knowledge. For instance, eLink employees usually post about the experiences they have with the company. They are also free to tag the Facebook Page of eLink.

Most Cebuano content creators and influencers are employed professionals. Depending on the employers, many of these digital creators don’t usually speak about the jobs they have, let alone the companies they are connected with. In the case of JP Abecilla, he is employed as a Brand and Marketing Generalist at eLink. Outside work, he is a member of the Cebu Bloggers Society, the premier blogging organization in the Queen City of the South. JP is also affiliated with Vidanes Artist Management, a national organization for Filipino celebrities (like Mikael Daez and Megan Young) and influencers (like Joyce Pring and Gerick Manalo).

Empowering Employees to Be Brand Advocates

Social media has become a platform both for positive and negative experiences. For this reason, many companies created human resource policies for the use of social media inside and outside work. We’re going to deal with this issue in the last item we have for this blog. For now, I would like to encourage companies, businesses, and brands to empower employees to advocate for them.

Content creators and influencers are advocates of some sort. This is especially true for creators posting about a brand, product, or service without receiving a professional fee. Similarly, employees praising or posting positive experiences with their companies without strings attached are proof of good public standing. Employers should grab this opportunity to build a more solid brand or thought leadership in the industry.

Advantages of Having Employee Content Creators

Employee content creators and influencers can be an asset to the company. Aside from building your brand, you can save from investing in outside promotion and advertisement. Also, the presence of social media personalities talking well about your business resonates with the ideal company culture job seekers are looking for. In addition, you can gain more visibility online with more voices reverberating your mission and vision.

Employee digital creators humanize brands. Instead of just using an unpopular brand name and logo, your company has now a face more familiar to the public, both online and offline. Businesses can tap them for issues related to public relations as well. It can also boost the morale of employees, knowing they have someone advocating for them and praising the unheard successes they have accomplished.

Social Media Terms and Policies at the Office

Many companies, especially in the BPO, restrict the use of social media in the workplace. Aside from avoiding unproductive work, employers find the use of social networks a threat to leaking confidential information and company practices. Whether a threat or not, companies must create terms and policies about how employees should use social media in the office. This is especially important for businesses with in-house content creators, bloggers, influencers, and the like.

When it comes to negative online posting, it is not really ethical to rant on Facebook related to internal company issues, such as conflicts with a manager, salary disputes, workload complaints, and more. The Human Resource Department should spell out the policies but not totally restrict the use of social media inside and outside work.

Since JP Abecilla started writing for eLink last year, we’re receiving positive feedback both from regular employees and job seekers. We have actually gained employees and strengthened work relationships through our blogs.

To read more company and employment-related articles, feel free to browse The Millennial Writer’s website. For more information about job vacancies at eLink, don’t hesitate to contact or send your CV to careers@elink.com.ph. You may also visit us on the 9th floor of Chinabank Corporate Center, Samar Loop cor. Panay Road, Cebu Business Park. Start building a life-long career today!