Why employee-generated video fails (and How to Fix It)

It's been 6 months since Chick-Fil-A cancelled one of its employees Mirithesiren from sharing how much she loves their recipes on TikTok.

They cited 'brand misalignment' as the reason to kibosh her channel and as the story goes, she ultimately moved to one of their biggest competitors Shake Shack taking her 160k followers and 5m+ engagements with her.

For employer brand teams employee-generated video (EGV) sounds like the perfect plan. Who better to promote your business than the people who work there? They’re authentic, relatable, and already on the payroll. And video is the richest way to show them being their most authentic selves.

But in reality, most EGV campaigns crash and burn faster than the brand police can hit reply all.

There are a lot of similarities between the Chick Fil-A story and what we've seen at other brands over the last 10 years we've been working in the space.

So if you're thinking about kicking off an EGV strategy, here are the top three reasons why EGV fails—and how to avoid these pitfalls—from 10 years making every mistake possible

1. Your leaders don't really get it

So you’ve decided that EGV is important and you're running a presentation trying to convince the big bosses to take part. They nod politely in the meeting but look like you've asked them to start an interpretive dance channel on TikTok.

They simply don't see how employees talking on Linkedin helps them hit their priorities. More to the point, they see the risks more than they see the benefits.

While your CEO may be all about boosting sales, it's understandable that it takes a leap to understand how filming videos on your phone and uploading them to Linkedin could help them sell more. It's up to you to help them make that leap.

And more than that, it's important they also understand the net effect of EGV above and beyond the bottom line - building your employer brand and hiring the best people should also be high on their priority list as they tie directly in with the bottom line.

A litmus test we suggest to new Seenit customers is to set your leaders the task to film a video themselves. You’d be amazed how many leaders we speak with who flush red as soon as they’re expected to be on camera themselves.

"This is for them, not us", "this doesn't feel necessary", "sure, where's my production team?". If your leaders come with excuses, you failed the litmus test and you need to find another way of convincing them.

We generally find there's one brave leader who will step up and be your guinea pig. Create with them, and with their team, and build a business case to report back to the rest of the C-Suite on why they too should get involved.

The key learning here is that permission to do EGV has to come from the top. If the boss can’t record a 60-second video about “why I love working here,” why would anyone else bother?

2. You tell, instead of show

Translation: You should be showing, not telling your stories.

Your employees are like living, breathing Yelp reviews for your company. If your culture sucks, no amount of team-building pizza parties will convince them to gush about you online. And let’s be honest: fake enthusiasm is worse than silence.

Imagine if your company is going through redundancies, projects are being paused or cancelled altogether, and every decision all of a sudden has to go through the CFO. You’re then asking employees to “be themselves” online?

Cue awkward, robotic responses like: "Proud to work for a company that values... uh... process?"

The hard truth: This forceful telling of stories never works and people can smell inauthenticity a mile away. If you're trying to tell stories with employees who feel stifled, undervalued, or just plain unhappy, their content will scream, “Help me, I’m trapped!” even if that’s not what they’re saying.

"EGV isn't a plaster for a bad culture; it’s a mirror that shows you exactly what’s going on."

Even in hard times where your brand and culture take a hit, EGV has a place to show and to amplify the positive stories.

We've seen super successful internal "change maker" campaigns telling the stories of people finding innovative ways to thrive during downturns and in turn inspiring others to embrace new technologies, team structures, and build resilience.

These kind of stories will exist at your business too, your challenge will be finding willing storytellers and giving those people the confidence to take part. It also helps to give them the tools and the messaging framework to tell their story in a way that comes across as authentic as oppose to tone deaf*.

*this sounds more complicated than it is. Try a "problem, solution, result" framework and don't shy away from addressing hard truths.

**the Seenit team are here to help if you want more tips on using video for change or crisis comms!

3. No-one really owns it

Translation: A plan without a planner is just a wish.

Let’s be clear: “everyone owns this” is code for “nobody’s going to do it.” Without someone dedicated to steering the ship, your EGV program will end up on the laterbase with the Metaverse.

A common scenario is to announce the launch of an EGV project at the all-hands meeting, it’s assigned to “everyone to go film” and then... crickets. A month later, someone asks, “Didn’t we start a content thing?”

What you need is a champion. This doesn’t have to be a full-time role, but someone needs to own the plan and the process and be passionate about the stories they’ll be helping to tell.

The initial plan can be basic. It just needs…

• A business objective: Employer branding? Recruitment? Just trying to look cool on Instagram? Pick a goal and stick to it.
• What you’ll measure: Likes? Shares? The number of job applications with “saw your TikTok” in the cover letter?
• 1-3 content themes: What kind of stories do you want? Employee success stories? Behind-the-scenes office life? A mix? Shortlist a few ideas and pick your favourite to trial and keep things consistent.

Without someone running the show, EGV will get buried under “urgent” emails and endless Slack notifications. As long as they are given the time, they're enabled with skills, a process, and the best technologies (shout out to Seenit) so they have the foundations from which to scale. It won't be on their shoulders only forever but to start with this person has a crucial role to the success of EGV at your company.

The TL;DR Takeaway

Employee-generated content can be a game-changer—if you don’t let it flop. Avoid these mistakes:

1. Get leadership on board (and on camera) so employees see the value and feel inspired to join in.
2. Always reflect what's really going on, don't forcefully tell stories if it's not a true reflection of what's happening at your business
3. Put someone in charge. A clear plan and a dedicated owner are non-negotiable.

So, go forth and empower your employees! Just make sure they’re empowered for real—not in that “we value your input, but do what we say” way.