Trust, Credibility, and Consumer Engagement in Employee-Generated Content (EGC)
Explore how employee-generated content (EGC) fosters trust and credibility in your brand, enhancing consumer engagement and driving loyalty. Learn effective strategies to leverage EGC for authentic connections.
Realyn Manalo
5/27/20253 min read
As social media continues to reshape brand–consumer interactions, the rise of employee-generated content (EGC) presents a compelling shift in how organizations build trust, credibility, and engagement. Unlike traditional influencer marketing or firm-generated content, EGC leverages employees’ authentic voices to humanize the brand and foster more meaningful connections with audiences. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn are increasingly populated by relatable employee creators who produce behind-the-scenes videos, tutorials, and culture-driven narratives—often shared under official brand accounts. While the value of authenticity is widely recognized in digital marketing, the dynamics of parasocial relationships, audience trust, and content resonance across platforms, content styles, and user demographics remain underexplored. This research aims to investigate how and when EGC most effectively builds consumer engagement and brand equity in different social media environments.
Who Can Use These Topics
This research is ideal for students and professionals pursuing the following courses or strands:
College Programs:
BSBA Marketing Management
BSBA Advertising and Public Relations
BA Communication
BS Digital Business & Innovation
Senior High School Strands:
Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS)
Accountancy, Business, and Management (ABM)
General Academic Strand (GAS)
Why This Topic Needs Research
Several gaps remain despite a growing interest in employee-generated content in marketing:
Platform-context ambiguity: Although Koskinen (2025) emphasized the potential of TikTok-based EGC, research has yet to determine whether audience trust and parasocial relationships behave similarly across platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook—especially when content is shared through official brand accounts.
Boundaries of persuasion: Saleem and Hawkins (2021) showed that EGC increases purchase intent, but called for deeper investigation into whether certain EGC types can backfire—triggering skepticism or reactance—particularly in product-sensitive or highly saturated industries.
Influencer versus employee impact: Hesse and Schmidt (2022) argued for the role of corporate influencers in shaping brand meaning, but little is known about how job role (e.g., frontline vs. executive), culture, or industry norms affect perceived credibility and message retention.
EGC in B2B and low-digital sectors: While Balaji et al. (2023) found EGC highly effective for B2B engagement, industries like food logistics or manufacturing as well as for (Sirén, 2024), it lacked studies showing whether personalized EGC can increase trust and conversions in low-digital-maturity environments.
Comparative trustworthiness of EGC vs. UGC: Although Blangger (2023) documented the strategic risks and rewards of user-generated content (UGC), there is limited comparative research on how consumers respond differently to EGC versus UGC in building long-term brand loyalty and perceived expertise.
Feasibility & Challenges by Target Group
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References
Balaji, M. S., Behl, A., Jain, K., Baabdullah, A. M., Giannakis, M., Shankar, A., & Dwivedi, Y. K. (2023). Effectiveness of B2B social media marketing: The effect of message source and message content on social media engagement. Industrial Marketing Management, 113, 243-257.
Blangger, F. (2023). User Generated Content in the Communication Strategy of Marketing Departments: Opportunities and Risks from a Business Perspective.
Hesse, A., & Schmidt, H. J. (2022). Employees as Corporate Influencers and Co-creators of Brand-Meaning. Transfer: Zeitschrift für Kommunikation & Markenmanagement, 68(4).
Koskinen, I. (2025). Firms as Friends–the Value of Employee Content Creators on Social Media.
Siren, M. (2024). Leading website content marketing: business-to-business customer perspective.
Saleem, F. Z., & Hawkins, M. A. (2021). Employee-generated content: the role of perceived brand citizenship behavior and expertise on consumer behaviors. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 30(6), 819-833.