<\/p>\n
The content is coming from inside the house\u2014and not every company likes it.<\/p>\n
In April, TikTok creator and Chick-fil-A employee Miriam Webb, who built a following of tens of thousands of people by reviewing Chick-fil-A menu items, said in a post on the platform that she had been notified by the company that her videos violated a rule in its employee handbook and she would no longer be posting them\u2014much to the disappointment of her comments section, which included influencer James Charles, who called it a \u201chuge missed opportunity for them.\u201d Chick-fil-A did not respond to Marketing Brew\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really was hoping that we could collab or that we could turn this into something, because I felt like I was a great candidate for it and I had the numbers to show it and prove it,\u201d Webb said in the video. \u201cBut I respect their decision, and all I can do now is adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n
And adapt she did. Less than a week later (and on a Sunday, no less), Webb posted the first of a two-video paid deal with Shake Shack where she reviewed the chain\u2019s Chicken Shack chicken sandwich. Other brands have made appearances on her account, too, including El Pollo Loco, Duck Donuts, and Claire\u2019s.<\/p>\n
As day-in-the-life and behind-the-scenes content continues to proliferate on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, brands have taken different approaches to addressing employee-created content. \u201cDifferent things are right for different brands,\u201d Mike McGarry, VP of brand marketing at Shake Shack, acknowledged, but at Shake Shack, the chain has opted to embrace team members as representatives of the brand, in addition to external creators like Webb, through content like \u201cday in the life\u201d and \u201cfavorite order\u201d videos.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team members are the heartbeat of our organization,\u201d McGarry said. \u201cThey are our ambassadors day in and day out and so it kind of makes sense for them to also be our ambassadors in social and help be a part of that story.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tension between embracing and limiting employee posts on social isn\u2019t entirely new. In 2020, paint company Sherwin-Williams took some heat after it fired Tony Piloseno, an employee who found virality creating paint-mixing videos while working at a retail location. Piloseno has since founded his own brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome brands take an approach in social of maximum yield, maximum benefit, which requires taking on some risks and giving up control,\u201d said Liz Cole, the chief social officer at creative agency VML, whose clients include Coca-Cola. \u201cOther brands take on a minimizing-risk perspective, which is all about controlling things as tightly as possible and as a result, they miss out on a lot of benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because \u201ckeeping control is a bit of an illusion in the age of social media,\u201d Cole said, brands may want to consider ways in which they can mitigate risks from employee-created content rather than limiting the practice entirely.<\/p>\n
Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cFor brands, they should be thinking of this in the sense of, \u2018The brand is not in my control,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018Do I want the biggest microphones to be in front of people that are friendly to my brand, that are overall endorsing it? Or people that aren\u2019t?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Jill Donnelly was a YouTuber before she became a flight attendant at Southwest Airlines seven months ago, and she has been posting about the company ever since\u2014something she says she made sure was allowed when she was interviewing for the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I knew what a flight attendant was and did, and then I became one, and I was, like, \u2018Wow, there\u2019s so much to share,\u2019\u201d Donnelly told us.<\/p>\n
While she has shared things like training and her travel experiences, she says there are some limits on what she can post: she cannot film people, including her co-workers, without their permission, speak on behalf of the company, or disparage the company.<\/p>\n
Ashley Bain, a PR consultant at Southwest, told us that the company encourages employees to post about their jobs, both independently and via an official employee influencer program, to spread news about Southwest and encourage others to join the company. Much of the brand\u2019s official social content centers around its employees; its TikTok bio describes Southwest as \u201cthe one with the funny flight attendants.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you encourage your employees to post, and they do\u2026it makes it so much more authentic,\u201d Donnelly said. \u201cWhen you watch a commercial about Southwest, you\u2019re like, \u2018Okay, great, they paid an ad agency to put together a commercial about how great Southwest is.\u2019 But when you hear it from the people who actually work there, it\u2019s not bull.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cole also emphasized the authenticity that can be conveyed through employee social ambassadors:<\/strong> \u201cIt comes across with some legitimacy, for one,\u201d she said. \u201cYou get the sense that these people are real, actual brand advocates and not just a network of paid spokespeople.\u201d<\/p>\n Cole said she hopes that Shake Shack\u2019s move to work with Webb serves as a message to brands that if they don\u2019t embrace their creators, it\u2019ll take just \u201cthree seconds for another brand to step in.\u201d<\/p>\n McGarry said the Shake Shack partnership with Webb is open-ended for now, but added that her videos contributed to a \u201cbig success\u201d for Shake Shake\u2019s \u201cChicken Shack Sundays\u201d promotion in April.<\/p>\n \u201cThe story behind her added some context that we believe led to some people trying Shake Shack [for the first time],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n