Social media storytelling brings people together and unifies communities. Thanks to digital technologies, brand stories are now omnidirectional. They can spread from the company to customers, customers to companies, and most importantly, employees to customers.

There is immense power in sharing employee stories on social media. Daily, users around the world spend approximately 950 million hours on Facebook. They watch 1 billion hours of YouTube videos daily and send 340 million tweets.  Such is the reach and influence of social media.

Benefits of Social Media Storytelling for Business

Social media platforms help businesses to seamlessly engage broad audiences and build authentic connections. Therefore, by sharing employee experiences and insights on social media, you get to weave your brand into the fabric of society.

If you are undecided about implementing employee narratives on social media, here are some tangible benefits to consider.

1. Creates an Informed Consumer Base

Sharing employee stories on social media can drive consumer empowerment and education. 

Social media storytelling allows your teams to share important product or service information, which can lead to better user experiences.

Brands that engage in employee-driven social media story-telling improve corporate accessibility.  

Customers can get quick solutions to their pressing concerns. In turn, the company stands out as caring and responsive.

2. Cuts the Cost of PR

Traditional PR is costly. PR spending in the US in 2021 was $12.5 billion, according to Statista. 

But when employees share their stories on social media, controlling the brand narrative and building an organically-driven positive reputation becomes easier. This can help to slash PR costs.

The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer report shows that in the eyes of the public, employees are the most trusted resource of company information.  In other words, customers trust news and updates from employees more than the company itself. 

Employee story-telling on social media gives you agency. It's an opportunity to own your story and tell it how you want so that no one can hijack and wreck your reputation.

3. Helps to Connect with Your Audience on an Emotional Level 

To eventually get consumers to care about your brand, you must tell a good story.  

It is an exceptional privilege to relate to customers one-on-one like we do today. 

And if you let your teams tell captivating stories across social media, your chances of building a following and increasing your reach will be much higher.

Remember that customers buy from the brands they believe in, and emotions play a fundamental role in creating this trust. 

Through social media stories, employees work hard to create and maintain emotional bonds to give consumers the perception that they have a stake in the company.

Building that emotional connection with customers will result in more sales conversions, return business, and more online traffic to your website. 

4. Drives Product Innovations

Social media fosters innovations and can help to reduce research and development costs. A small business can use social media storytelling to test and market its innovations. 

When your teams share prototypes or leak new products or services on social media, they can instantiate instantaneous feedback from large audiences. This makes it possible for businesses to enhance their products through feedback and crowdsourced ideas.

Procter & Gamble launched the Connect and Develop program to harness the power of external idea generation through a dedicated platform. 

The public contributed their ideas, which the company’s R&D team evaluated. This led to the birth of the one-billion-dollar Swiffer range of products.   

5. Improves Engagement Rates

To examine the importance of creating employee stories on social media, it is relevant to compare this with traditional marketing techniques. 

Traditional marketing used a one-way communication system that aspired to deliver messages to a silent audience. 

In comparison, social media storytelling thrives on two-way communication, and direct customer-to-employee engagements and interactions are paramount.

Employee stories that are interesting, insightful, and thought-provoking serve two functions at once. 

First, they enable participation, which transforms your audience from passive consumers to participants. 

Next, they give your audiences an opportunity to express their own viewpoints. This helps build a robust community around your brand, leading to reduced marketing costs.

6. Improves Employee Advocacy

Employees' endorsement of companies on social media greatly broadens the spectrum of a brand's communication strategies. The brand gains broader recognition and exposure when employees publish helpful and relevant material.

A new report compiled by Deloitte and MIT Sloan Management Review reveals that over 80% of employees from all generations want to be employed by a digitally-enabled organization. 

Researching new employee social media post examples can help you post content that positions you as a favorite employer brand.

Conclusion

Employee-driven narratives on social media serve as a window into the soul of your brand.  The AJ Center can help you leverage this opportunity by empowering your teams to share stories that foster trust and inspire loyalty.

Contact us to learn more.  Info@theajcenter.com.