These days, brands are entertainers. Entrepreneurs are becoming starring actors, baristas are social media managers.
Many people, particularly Gen Z, love consuming brand content that they can relate to, often reflecting meme or storytelling content. With more young people digesting content built for leisure purposes, algorithms are spitting out posts built for entertainment over the original reason why these platforms were created – to connect.
It’s great to keep up with this growing desire for founder-led and employee generated content (EGC), but have you thought of safety regulations to put in place when doing this?
Founder-Led Content vs. EGC: What’s the Difference?
There are some differences between founder vs. employee generated content that isn’t obvious – who is creating it. Audiences can get different things out of each of them. For example, people love founder content that shares the raw sides of being a business owner – hardships they tackled starting out, day-to-day operations, the lifestyle their business gives them. On the other hand, EGC that resonates is typically more lighthearted – pranks on the boss, matching a trending audio to each worker, office traditions.
Sharing the load is a strong way to succeed on social media, but it’s important to think about what works best for your business and employees.
Potential Risks of Founder Spotlights and EGC
Seeing thousands of viral videos of this content type, and wanting to jump in on trends can be exciting, so people may forget the potential implications of sharing overly personal content. As social media becomes the norm, cyber safety considerations are becoming forgotten, especially for younger generations. Everything we post online stays there forever, and we don’t know who could be viewing our content, so it’s important to keep in mind not to post too many details you wouldn’t want shared with a large number of people, such as your address, family details or school.
From sharing a tour of your home office which may also share too much of your house, to revealing client details in a case study without proper consent, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment and overlook the risks. While engaging content can drive visibility, it’s important to strike a balance between authenticity and privacy. Before hitting ‘post,’ take a step back and ask whether the content protects your personal and professional boundaries.
This isn’t a reason to be scared away from sharing it, it’s just important to ensure that it’s compliant, and aligned with your brand values will keep your marketing both impactful and responsible.
Making Sure Your Employees Feel Comfortable on Camera
If you have employees, it might seem like a great idea for your brand to share posts highlighting every single one, but there’s a few things to keep in mind before pulling the camera out.
What to consider:
- Ask employees what their comfortabilities are with being filmed
- Have a review and approval system in place before content goes live
- Educate employees on what is and isn’t safe content
- Urge the importance of inclusive and respectful communication
- Ensure content aligns with industry standards
For added safety, we recommend creating clear guidelines of what content will entail in a EGC contract. This can include confidentiality and data protection policies, brand voice and visual identity guidelines and rules on discussing clients, competitors, or sensitive topics.
For a way to include these guidelines but still make fun engaging content, perhaps you create “characters” based on the personalities of employees taking part, and think of ways they can each highlight a different area of your business. This way it creates clearly defined roles following regulations and also gives your target audience an opportunity to get to know your workers and hold onto stories.
What if You’re a Founder Who Can’t be on Camera?
People love feeling like an insider in the brand, and they want to know everything. Generic day in the life’s or employee story-takeovers, while still may work in some cases, mostly aren’t cutting it anymore. If this is making you feel worried about protecting your privacy, you’re not alone.
If you’re a founder who doesn’t like or cannot be on camera, but still want to share this personal style of content, there’s plenty of options for you. As always, it goes back to why you want to share this type of content and what you want to achieve. If your brand doesn’t have many employees or they don’t want to be on camera, it may seem like an obvious choice for the founder to handle that area. Or, if your brand is small and strongly tied to you, you might want elements of you to come across in online marketing.
However, this doesn’t always have to look like you sitting down and speaking to the camera, or sharing selfies to your Instagram story. The key is to align your marketing with your brand’s personality and make that personal connection with your audience, which can be done through copywriting sounding like your way of speaking, designs or branding including your favourite colours, and more!
Here are a few ways to bring your brand to life without being on camera:
- Behind-the-scenes content that doesn’t share your face (e.g. your laptop or diary cover)
- Customer and team highlights letting others speak on your behalf through testimonials or collaborations
- Blog posts that reflect your voice
Feeling like you need to follow an expectation to show up a certain way in content should never override your comfortabilities or make you work extra hours just to make it happen. There are always ways to alter trends to work for your business objectives and of course, you.
Protecting Your Content
The world of social media is unique because you do not have the same level of ownership or control over it like you do in your physical shop. Unlike your website or electronic direct mail (EDM) campaigns, you have less control over who sees it and how it is regulated. However, brands can still set expectations around how their content is used by others. From adding simple disclaimers in your captions to creating a content usage policy on your website, there are ways to draw the line without sounding too formal. Whether you’re sharing personal moments or branded graphics, it’s about setting boundaries that protect your work, your clients, and your reputation. Not every post needs a trademark symbol, but making it clear what can and can’t be repurposed helps you stay in control of your content.
Another way to protect your account is by setting up two factor authentication. Most social media platforms will have easy instructions on how to set this up, and it’s a simple way to put an extra layer of protection on your profile to lessen the chance of hackers or information theft.
How to Handle Content That Escalates from Social Media
So, your founder-led content and EGC is going viral? Maybe your business is even being recognised in public from social media? While this can feel amazing, it is also a good idea to have a plan on how to respond if things escalate in ways you might not expect, and it’s especially important to let your employees know too if they are appearing in lots of content.
As a business owner, this might look like defining your personal boundaries early on, meaning deciding how much you’re comfortable sharing and what’s off-limits. If your face or voice is recognisable from your content, it can also mean being prepared for public recognition, and knowing how to respond when things feel a little too close to home. For employees, especially if they feature in your posts, it’s a good idea to set clear expectations around how to handle public interactions or online backlash. A quick team conversation can go a long way, because having a plan means you’ll be ready to respond with confidence.
Just like a good campaign, it’s all about intention, boundaries, and protecting the people behind the brand.
Before You Log Off…
While getting out of your comfort zone can be a great way to succeed in an environment where thinking outside of the box is favoured, it doesn’t mean sacrificing your safety. Want to know how you can implement new content and strategies into your social media? Book an audit with us and we’ll tell you what is working, and areas for growth online. Whether you’re ready to experiment with new formats, need help aligning your content with your goals, or just want to feel more confident showing up online, we’ll help you spot the opportunities you might be missing. Ready to move from guessing to growing? Book your audit today and let’s take your social media to the next level.
