BY ASHLEY COUTO
Your next breakout creator might already be on payroll. Here’s how to spot them before your competitors do.
In June, Starbucks said it would turn its baristas into paid TikTok creators. Through a program it calls Green Apron Creators, the company is now the first brand piloting a custom Creator Network inside TikTok, sharing content briefs and ad revenue with staff who post. Starbucks says its employees already post on social media at three times the rate of workers at similar chains.
This isn’t a one-off stunt. Employee-generated content, or EGC, is becoming a real strategy at companies of every size, and it’s the cheapest creator talent you will ever find. If you run a startup, the person who can grow your audience might already sit three desks away.
Look at the companies already doing this
Starbucks isn’t alone. Dell runs an internal ambassador program built on a certification it calls Social Media University, with roughly 1,200 trained “champions” posting across 84 countries.
Sprout Social built one too. It grew from six employees to about 100, and in 2025 those staff creators drove nearly 30 percent of the company’s video impressions while making up less than 8 percent of its content.
Look at how these companies are leveraging their employees. What type of content are they making and where? I’m the brand face for the creator vertical at the company I work for, so I appear in social content, as a host in our webinars, a coach in our programs, etc. Leverage faces as recognizable assets that bring you brand equity.
Follow where the marketing money is moving
Brands spent $32.55 billion on influencer marketing in 2025, up roughly 35 percent in a single year, according to Later’s 2025 State of Influencer Marketing Report. But the dollars are sliding down-market.
In the US alone, eMarketer expects sponsored social content spending to pass $10 billion. And more of it goes to smaller creators every year. eMarketer expects micro and nano creators to claim 45.5 percent of influencer marketing spending in 2026.
Your employees are the ultimate nano creators: credible, niche, cheap and already on payroll.
Bet on trust, because that’s what’s winning
Polished ads keep losing ground. People believe other people now. Sprout Social found 40 percent of consumers discover products through employee content, and that climbs to 61 percent for Gen Z.
Audiences are also tiring of the influencer machine. In a June 2025 Clutch survey, nearly half of consumers said they hadn’t bought a single product an influencer recommended in the past year.
When your employees talk about why they like working for your company, shopping at that company, showing their own dollars being invested back into the company, that builds a level of confidence a random influencer can’t.
Find the employees who already act like creators
Start with the people who want it. Look for who already posts about work on LinkedIn or TikTok, who co-workers go to for ideas, and who shows up for culture initiatives. Don’t draft anyone. Forced content reads as forced, and that kills the entire point.
Your best sign is someone who can take a rough script, make it sound like themselves, and hand back a finished video without much hand-holding. That person is ready to scale.
Treat them like talent, then cover yourself
Give your creators real support. That means a mic, a tripod, coaching and actual pay. Paying them matters more than founders think. Sprout Social found 61% of consumers believe brands should compensate employees who promote them, so set a model before someone goes viral and feels used.
Then handle the legal side. The FTC requires employees to disclose that they work for you, clearly and inside the post itself, not buried in a bio, and each violation can cost up to $53,088.
One last guardrail: employees can leave and take their followers with them. Keep your brand account resharing their work so the audience belongs to the company too, not just the person.
You don’t need a Super Bowl budget to win attention anymore. You need a few employees who love what they do and a phone. The brands pulling ahead right now already figured that out.
Feature image credit: Getty Images