Do you remember one of the first trendjacking employee generated content (EGC) pieces to gain national recognition?

In 2022, Laura Fulgenzi, a professional dancer and part-time employee at Asda’s Gosforth store, kicked up a storm on TikTok by jumping on a Strictly Come Dancing trend.

Asking her boyfriend to attend the store and shoot the video of her performing a salsa dance with a tub of salsa, the video was then picked up by the media. The key differentiator of this early example is that Fulgenzi posted it to her personal account, and Asda's marketing department seemingly had little involvement in its inception.

This arguably started the first shockwaves in what has become a seismic shift in trendjacking EGC — but in the wider context of employees using social media in 2020 and beyond, not all was good.

HR and employment lawyers had the vapours as EGC could also be disparaging and damaging for corporate reputation. Notably, a Wetherspoons chef known on TikTok as J Salsa ramped up millions of views microwaving a chicken korma curry at the chain, and was reportedly suspended. Even football pundit Gary Lineker had a run-in with a social media policy when he participated in a trending Brexit debate on his X account, causing BBC to temporarily take him off-air in 2023.

Andy Barr, senior communications manager at Season One Communications explains: “Employee generated content on social media remains high on the risk matrix that the majority of big companies use. I advised a top five UK supermarket on this very topic when this trend was in its infancy and well before brand, social media and marketing departments tried to embrace it into their plans.

“As we all know, the majority of PR fails brands are accused of, arrive through no fault of the comms team, and are usually employee caused or employee related. Unauthorised employee generated content being, I would hazard a guess, the largest cause. The companies that I have worked with and advised from a crisis comms perspective since the early 2000s have always factored this into their risk planning.”

He caveats: “The companies that embrace their workers posting on social media, and even endorsing the content, are the ones who seem to do the best in terms of marketing results. The likes of Waitrose, is a brand that does this very well, giving what looks like autonomy for customer facing staff to post social content in uniform.”

Lucy Ruff, senior account director, social and influencer at Frank argues that ultimately: "It comes with some risks, and clients need to accept that."

However dangerous adopting this form of social strategy might be, the potential power of EGC on brand sentiment arguably pales in comparison to the perceived reputational risk.

An, albeit rather outdated, statistic from MSL released in 2015 found that brand messages reached 561% further when shared by employees, in comparison to the same messages shared by official brand social channels. Additionally, it found brand messages are re-shared 24x more frequently when distributed by employees.

A decade later, employees have cleverly been absorbed by brands. In 2024, social media consultant Rachel Karten reported on Link In Bio that Max Coatney, social media manager at US-based apparel company Fleet Feet had said: “In 2024 we increased the amount of store-generated content [his phrasing for EGC] published by +38% YoY resulting in 25% of our total Instagram posts. We saw total organic impressions up +192% YoY and total organic engagements up +305% YoY.”

One thing is for certain, trendjacking EGC when harnessed correctly is impactful and can do wonders for a brand. Ironically marking the absorption of influencer employees, three years later, Fulgenzi is now pinned on Asda’s company TikTok in an attempt to make its iconic pocket tap into a dance trend with Peter Andre.

The shift of encouraging employees to ‘social’ for the company, rather than adjacent to it, plays brilliantly into PRs skillset. Where previously trendjacking EGC was almost entirely relegated to HR, legal and marketing departments, it now precariously perches on the desks of PR and communications teams; both of which are highly skilled in pushing of-the-moment trend stories for clients that will seem authentic to the general public.

Joe Toal, senior account director at The PHA Group says: “From a PR perspective we would have in the past tracked daily news coverage to see what the trending news stories are and react for our clients.

“Now it’s very much social-led where you look at what's trending every day on social channels [TikTok, Instagram and X] and create content from that, whether it's social content or PR content. Social media is a form of PR essentially, so that’s where we would trendjack and hijack trends. The key is turning it around as quickly as possible, some trends last days where others only last hours.”

Sam Corry, managing director at Taylor Herring, the agency responsible for Aldi’s Grammy Castle and Moschino’s 'celery bag' dupe, points out: “The art of newsjacking, where brands jump on trending stories to capitalise on the conversation, is a finely honed PR skill.

“PR teams can be orchestrators and puppeteers of reactive ideas that ride trending moments. The authenticity part comes in the execution. Keeping the content raw, unpolished and imperfect is the answer. If the content looks like it’s gone through 100 rounds of approvals, is over produced, and has brand logos all over the place, then no one’s thumb is going to stop scrolling."

With Lidl, Aldi, Currys, Hobbycraft and Argos providing a crash course in how to trendjack with EGC, clients may now be begging their PR agencies for a slice of the viral brand sentiment pie.

Indeed, knowing when to advocate clients into a trend and when to discourage is yet another part of PR’s bread and butter, and explains why the practice is now increasingly falling into PR’s remit as opposed to a specialist digital marketing agency, or in-house marketing team.

“Using employee influencers isn’t for everyone,” says Samantha Allen, associate director and FMCG and lifestyle lead at The Wilful Group.

“For example, in highly regulated industries, employee involvement can be tricky, and corporate-toned brands may struggle to connect, unless they find the right moment to play off their seriousness.

“Brands also have to be comfortable with the fact that the content may not be perfect, but that’s the beauty of it. Also, if employees feel disengaged, asking them to get involved can backfire. However, when done right, just look at the engagement these posts generate and the media interest they attract to see how effective it can be. It’s all about knowing your audience and staying true to your brand.”

Rachel Humphrey, founder and director at Brand Building Co adds: “The trend of employee generated content is an evolution from the way we have previously showcased internal talent for PR purposes. It definitely requires a different creative eye and early adoption of trends, but it has the same foundation of ensuring people within the business are showcased to create a more intimate, and personality led, PR plan.

"Like all evolving marketing tactics, we can add this to our [PR] tool kit when appropriate for a brand. I am a big believer in integration and respect across all tactics that feel authentic to a brand.”

A further nod to PR’s active involvement comes from the art of collaboration. While PR agencies and departments have the new task of EGC in their remit, one mustn't forget that collaboration with HR, legal and various other departments is absolutely essential.

Ruff says: “When something happens that your brand can react to, you need to be quick, and often have to try and get it past various legal teams to have the best success. The most viral posts may look simple and organic, but there often will have been a lot of work behind the scenes to get there – such as Weetabix and beans. It’s also important that both clients and agencies have a strong relationship with the client legal teams.”

It’s evident that PR now has a firm foothold in the ever-evolving world of trendjacking EGC for its clients, both from a brand sentiment standpoint and the wider creative aspect — which the PR industry has fought long and hard to be recognised in.

However, much like a viral trend, the spike in popularity of seemingly authentic trendjacking EGC could be fleeting.

Toal warns: “When audiences realise this is staged or a corporate direction, it will lose its edge. It’s hard to predict [when the trend will end]. At the moment there’s a novelty factor because not every brand is doing it, but once they do it will become less ‘cool’. I think you’ll see a spike in it this year with brands you wouldn't expect jumping on the bandwagon and then someone else will come along and do something different.”

Whatever the next thing may be, PR will undoubtedly take on the next big thing to perch precariously on its desk, while using its multi-faceted skillset to ride the creative wave of social media relevancy.