Employee-generated content (EGC)—content created and shared by employees that showcases their experiences, insights, and perspectives about their company or industry—has evolved beyond traditional employee advocacy to become an important pillar of brand marketing in 2025, giving brands a potentially powerful tool for connecting with audiences. 

According to the “Employee Advocacy Benchmark Report 2025” by employee advocacy platform DSMN8, which surveyed organizations with over 1,000 employees including IBM, AstraZeneca, Expedia, P&G, Lenovo, and Oracle, 72% of organizations now use technology platforms to manage their employee advocacy efforts, indicating widespread adoption of formalized EGC approaches.

Among the respondents, 26% manage their activity manually, while 2% preferred not to answer, indicating a potential for further technological integration in employee advocacy.

The Rise of Employee Influencers in B2B Marketing

The shift toward employee-driven content is becoming increasingly common in B2B environments. 

“Marketing teams will be better positioned to deliver exceptional results if they included employees in their social media strategies, empowering them to become content creators, thought leaders, and even influencers,” notes Bradley Keenan, founder and CEO of DSMN8, in his January 2025 Forbes article.

Bradley says this trend is particularly effective for B2B brands looking to leverage their internal expertise. “By creating educational content, your employees can demonstrate their industry expertise and real-world experience,” he explains. “As they build trust on social media, they simultaneously build trust in your company.”

DSMN8’s benchmark report reveals that 24% of organizations cite enhancing brand awareness and visibility as their main objective for employee advocacy programs, while 17% aim to strengthen thought leadership and industry authority. An additional 14% focus on increasing employee engagement and morale, and 11% on improving employee retention and recruitment efforts.

Bradley provides a concrete example in his article: “A cybersecurity firm could have its engineers create short-form video content explaining complex security concepts. This content would make technical information accessible and engaging, reflecting positively on the business.”

Bradley Keenan (Image source: Forbes)

AI Integration: Empowering Employee Content Creation

Content creation among employees has also been impacted by artificial intelligence, making it more accessible to employees across all departments. 

“AI-powered tools help busy employees craft posts in their own tone of voice while ensuring that the content is optimized for engagement, following social media best practices, and aligning with company messaging,” Bradley tells Net Influencer.

However, Bradley also emphasizes that “AI is not replacing human authenticity; it is amplifying it.” According to him, this balance between technological assistance and genuine employee voices remains critical for successful EGC programs. “I always recommend using AI as an enabler, not a substitute, for real employee voices,” he adds.

The benchmark report indicates that 61% of organizations view employee advocacy as “Extremely Important” or “Very Important” to their overall strategy, suggesting that investing in tools that facilitate employee content creation is becoming a business priority rather than merely a marketing tactic. 

Forward-thinking advocacy programs are already leveraging AI for both content creation and performance analysis, with Bradley noting that “sentiment analysis can also be used to refine messaging in real time, making advocacy efforts even more impactful.”

Cost-Effectiveness and ROI of Employee Advocacy

One of the most compelling aspects of EGC is its cost-effectiveness compared to traditional marketing channels, a factor becoming increasingly important in ROI-driven marketing. 

The benchmark report reveals that 23% of respondents are generating a cost-per-click (CPC) under $1 from employee shares, demonstrating efficiency in reaching engaged audiences. However, it’s worth noting that 61% of respondents currently do not track the cost-per-click generated from employee shares, representing a key missed opportunity for measuring ROI.

Image source: Employee Advocacy Benchmark Report 2025

Bradley predicts continued improvement in this metric: “CPC efficiency is set to improve in 2025 due to three key factors: more sophisticated AI-driven targeting, greater adoption of employee advocacy platforms, and shifting ad budgets.”

He believes this efficiency is driving organizations to rethink their marketing allocation. “Companies will allocate more paid media spend behind employee posts, effectively blending organic advocacy with paid amplification. This hybrid approach will yield higher efficiency at a lower cost than traditional paid ads,” Bradley tells us.

The benchmark report identifies multiple ways organizations measure ROI from their employee advocacy programs, with 18% monitoring social media engagement, 14% tracking website traffic and conversions, and 12% measuring brand awareness.

Leadership Involvement: The Key to Successful EGC Programs

The benchmark report identifies leadership involvement as the top strategy to boost advocacy engagement in 2025, with 73% of respondents citing it as crucial. This highlights the importance of executive buy-in for successful EGC initiatives.

“In 2025, the most impactful leaders will lead by example, actively sharing content and engaging with employees’ posts to set the tone for company-wide participation,” Bradley states, adding that “recognizing and celebrating advocacy efforts will further motivate employees, while granting them creative autonomy ensures authenticity.”

The report further supports this, revealing that 34% of organizations have Executive Leadership as one of the most active departments in their advocacy programs. By comparison, Marketing leads at 34%, followed by Sales and Business Development at 24%.

Image source: Employee Advocacy Benchmark Report 2025

Blending Thought Leadership with Employee Advocacy

Bradley believes the distinction between traditional thought leadership and EGC will blur even further in 2025. “Instead of viewing them as separate entities, businesses will merge these strategies to appear more genuine on social media and generate the best possible results,” he says.

The industry vet notes that the integration is yielding tangible results, particularly for executive content. “With our data revealing that CEOs are able to generate the same level of engagement as a company page with 98% fewer followers, we’ve seen an uptick in ‘executive influencers’ over the past year being prioritized over company channels,” he reveals.

Beyond executives, organizations are empowering employees across various levels to become subject matter experts. “We’re also seeing employees increasingly becoming known as micro thought leaders within their sectors. Crucially, these employees share industry insights, trends, and expertise, not just traditional brand messaging,” Bradley explains.

Career Development Through Social Advocacy

The benchmark report reveals a key statistic: 96% of respondents believe posting on social media has positively influenced their careers. According to Bradley, this finding signals a shift toward formalizing EGC as part of professional development programs.

“As we move into 2025, I expect EGC to become a formalized part of professional development in many organizations,” he predicts. “Companies will begin offering training programs to help employees build their personal brands, improve their content skills, and position themselves as industry experts.”

This approach creates mutual benefits for both employees and employers. “Forward-thinking organizations will even tie advocacy participation to career growth opportunities, recognizing employees who consistently contribute to brand conversations,” Bradley adds.

Content Formats and Engagement Strategies

The benchmark report provides insights into the types of content that engage employees most effectively. According to the data, 75% of organizations curate images or graphics for employees to share, followed by 74% using text-based articles or blog posts and 68% leveraging video content.

When sourcing content for employee advocacy programs, organizations primarily use social media posts from official company accounts (70%), company blog articles (66%), and industry news articles (52%). Interestingly, EGC itself represents 50% of the content included in advocacy programs, creating a cycle where employees share content created by their peers.

The benchmark report also reveals that most organizations (57%) offer employees more than 10 content pieces to share weekly, providing them with enough options to maintain regular posting schedules without feeling constrained by limited choices.

Building Genuine Engagement While Growing

As EGC programs expand, maintaining authentic appeal remains a key challenge. The benchmark report identifies several obstacles organizations face when encouraging employees to share content – 28% cite “uncertainty about what content to share” as the primary challenge, followed by 21% pointing to “resistance to using social media” and 14% mentioning “lack of interest in company content.”

To tackle these challenges and boost advocacy engagement in 2025, organizations are focusing on multiple strategies. The report indicates that 73% plan to encourage leadership involvement and support, 67% will provide thorough training and resources, and 57% intend to highlight success stories and best practices.

“Recognizing and celebrating advocacy efforts will further motivate employees, while granting them creative autonomy ensures genuineness,” Bradley says. “By championing, recognizing, and empowering advocacy, leaders can drive stronger engagement and more effective employee-generated content.”

The Future of EGC: A Strategic Imperative

Heading into the latter half of 2025 and beyond, EGC has the potential to become a strategic business imperative that spans departments and objectives.

The convergence of several trends—the growing distrust in traditional advertising, the premium placed on authenticity, and the increasing sophistication of social media algorithms that favor personal over brand content—has created the perfect environment for EGC to flourish.

Bradley believes that organizations that will enjoy a competitive advantage in 2025 and beyond will be those that view their employees not just as advocates but as genuine brand partners.

The DSMN8 report has shown that when employees feel personally invested in sharing their authentic experiences and expertise, the impact transcends marketing metrics—it transforms company culture, recruitment efforts, and, ultimately, bottom-line results.

The full report is available here.