Not too long ago, employees risked getting fired for posting TikToks about their jobs. Now more companies are paying them to do it.
In July, Gap Inc. expanded its creator program to allow staff at Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta to earn commissions from affiliate links on social media.
Then there’s Starbucks. It became the first brand to pilot TikTok’s new program that turns content from a custom network of creators, including employees, into paid ads. Who did Starbucks choose? Its own baristas.
The change in attitude toward employee content comes as brands shift their strategies to focus more on niche influencers over just big social media stars. It also comes as content from “Staples Baddie,” a Staples employee in upstate New York, has grabbed consumers’ attention, organically showing companies the value of having staff represent them on social media.
Employees are “the ones who deal with the product every single day” and can best speak to “what they’re putting into customers’ hands,” Moritz Bartsch, global head of creative and brand product operations at TikTok, told us. Bartsch is leading the partnership with Starbucks.
People seem to agree. Almost half (46%) of consumers want to hear from regular employees on social media, according to new data from Sprout Social. That was well ahead of the marketing team and C-Suite executives, who have also increasingly started whipping out their phones to post content. (Sorry to the McDonald’s CEO!)
Other research suggests that employee content can also drive business results. Seven in 10 adults in the US said they are more likely to buy from—or support a company—after seeing a real employee experience, according to December data from The Harris Poll.
A similar percentage (77%) of respondents in Sprout Social’s survey said they had discovered a product or service from an employee influencer.
Still, encouraging employees to post on social media comes with risks, including the potential for content that reflects poorly on the brand. That’s a big reason why brands have historically been hesitant about their employees making content about their work.
It’s also why we now see companies building out formal employee advocacy programs, rather than just asking their employees to post more. Formal programs give brands more control over the content and the creative.
On TikTok, for example, brands can choose which employees they work with, outline briefs and review content before it goes live. Meanwhile, Gap said it would provide its employee creators with clear guidelines around transparency, disclosure and brand standards.
For employees, structured programs can give them a clearer picture of how they will get paid for their content: 61% of consumers in the Sprout Social survey said employee influencers should get paid extra for their promotional efforts on social media.
Even so, only a few companies have launched official programs so far and most of them are in the retail industry. For Starbucks, the TikTok partnership also builds on its existing Green Apron Creators program, which launched in late 2024 and allows baristas to earn money from their content.
But there’s plenty of room for other types of companies to lean into employee content creation. Expedia, for example, told us it’s exploring an employee creator program that could roll out this fall. TikTok’s Bartsch also pointed to another unexpected category: Automotive.
“Cars are historically very hard to ship to creators,” he said. “You can’t just work with hundreds of creators at scale and send them a car to shoot.” Instead, car brands and manufacturers should look to content already coming from employees at dealerships.
Looking ahead, we’re most curious about what the content guidelines look like—and what happens if creators don’t follow them. We’re also interested in how much these employee creators are getting paid.
TikTok told us it doesn’t handle payments for the Starbucks program, but that could change for other employee programs in the future. It’s unclear how much Gap and Starbucks are paying their employee creators or how those payments compare to typical influencer marketing rates.
Either way, filming a TikTok on the job is a lot less risky now!
The Round Up
It’s not just Netflix that YouTube needs to worry about. Disney signed an original content deal with YouTuber Dhar Mann for kids and family content, starting with 20 episodes. Mann and his company Dhar Mann Studios have also created original episodes for Samsung TV Plus.
Instagram launched a new feature called First Draft, which automatically edits video clips into a Reel. From there, creators can continue editing as they see fit.
Travis Kelce and Publicis Sports have teamed up to launch TEKTA, a new consulting arm that helps connect brands with college athletes and universities. On the other side of the Kelce universe, Jason Kelce is going viral for appearing in an ad for Liquid Death and Garage Beer where he proposes an unusual solution to cool data centers.
Mattel is launching a live competition series of its card game Uno, which will livestream on Twitch. The tournament will end on Nov. 11 in Los Angeles, with an in-person and livestreamed event. The grand prize winner will take home $50,000.
By the Numbers: 10%
That’s how many websites show signs of AI editing or authorship, according to new data from Pew Research Center. While that might not seem like a lot, keep in mind that ChatGPT only launched in late 2022 and there are plenty of websites that have been around since way before then.
To account for that, Pew also considered just the websites that launched after ChatGPT and found that 35% of those new websites showed signs of AI authorship. What are some of those signs? According to Pew, it’s not just em-dashes: AI models are also more likely than humans to make lists of three and to use Oxford commas.
Regulatory Woes
TikTok reached an agreement with the DOJ to pay $400 million to settle a Biden-era lawsuit that claimed the app collected data on children, Bloomberg reported.
Twitch and its parent company Amazon are being sued by a streamer from Connecticut in a class action lawsuit over claims that the platforms are using creators’ streams to train Amazon’s generative AI models without permission or compensation, legal news outlet Courthouse News Service first reported.
Creator Moves
Victoria Garrick Browne is back with a new podcast. She’s hosting the show, called “Inner Childish,” with her childhood friend and fellow creator Aubrey Wood. The show is part of the Lemonada podcast network.
In April, Browne ended her mental health podcast “RealPod” after seven years. She is reusing her old podcast account for the new show, giving it a built-in audience. Smart move! (Read more about why other OG podcasters have abandoned their shows here.)
Talent Tracker
Stephanie Coffua joined the Washington Post’s Creator team as senior video and audience strategy editor. She will oversee social media channels and support video storytelling from creator-focused reporter Dylan Wells and other creator partners. Previously, Coffua was an audience editor at ABC News.
Josh Leon is now part of OpenAI’s go-to-market team focused on advertising solutions. Before that, he spent more than six years at TikTok, most recently as vertical manager of enterprise tech and apps.
🔊Remember the once-buzzy social audio app Clubhouse? CEO and co-founder Paul Davison is hiring a chief of staff with a $270,000 annual salary.
Major League Soccer is hiring a director to help build and lead the organization’s creator strategy.
