Real people. Real stories. Real impact.
That’s what we tell our customers to aim for when working with subject matter experts. As Tribal’s Senior Marketing Specialist, I decided to turn this advice inward.
I wanted to shine a light on our subject matter experts, and I’ve written this blog for other marketing professionals who want to empower their employees to become trusted advisors.
After all, as our CEO Sarah Goodall puts it, “When you show the real people behind your brand, you create a human connection that traditional marketing can’t replicate.”
Here, I share five things I’ve learnt from the experience, and how you can work with experts across your organisation to create content that’s real, relatable and high impact. Spoiler alert: the results were worth it. One employee post saw a 196% increase in LinkedIn impressions compared to the same post on our branded channel.
1. Start with a conversation and a snapshot of where people are
Before anything else, I looked at where our employees sat on their social media journey. Using the same social media maturity matrix we produce for our customers to get a quick health check across the team. This is important for measuring impact later on, I also gather things like the number of followers, connections, and SSI scores, which all help to measure performance later on. It takes time to see the longer-term impact, so I’ll be revisiting this blog with the updated results soon.
Pictured: Tribal Impact's Social Maturity Matrix complete with data on Tribal employees.
Then came the conversations. I booked time with each team member for a proper chat. Not a video shoot. Not a writing session. Just a conversation. I kept it relaxed and informal, staying open to new ideas.
I asked each person about what area of expertise they wanted to be known for, what their personal interests are, and how they like to grow and learn.
The great thing about this process is that every person brought something different. Grace is a project manager who loves cooking, and this led to a wonderful cooking metaphor for managing social selling programs. Natalie brought storytelling wisdom and helped explain why some leaders struggle to post consistently on LinkedIn with a unique Disney twist you would never get from a brand blog.
None of those ideas came from a form or a script. They came from a conversation that asked: “What are you most passionate about?” and “What do you find most interesting about your job?” That’s where the magic starts.
2. Be clear on the message and content formats
Once we’d agreed on the main angle, everything else became easier. A lot of work went into curating the relevant information, for example, testimonials needed approval and research.
I started with the blogs as the main ‘hero’ content piece. From there, our digital specialist designed supporting carousel posts.
Here’s an example of how we used a blog and carousel on LinkedIn for Anna, our Senior Trainer and Coach.
After the blog came a video for those who wanted to, it’s important to recognise that not everyone will be comfortable with every piece of content, and that’s ok!
3. Make it easy behind the scenes
A lot was going on in the background. From coordinating feedback and managing tasks for each employee to sourcing photos and setting deadlines for approvals, this kind of initiative needs a solid plan.That’s especially true when juggling multiple contributors. Each person had a different schedule, comfort level, and way of working. Some love writing. Others are much happier on video. As a content lead, it’s your job to flex around that, while still meeting deadlines.
4. Give people a reason to feel proud
One of the best parts of this project has been watching our team grow in confidence. There’s something really powerful about seeing your own words in a blog or hearing your voice in a video that gets positive comments.
That confidence can be contagious too. Once a few of the blogs were live, others across the team started showing interest in getting involved. Deepa’s blog in particular sparked a lot of internal chatter, her visual-first approach and practical tips resonated with our team.
And it’s worth investing in. When employees share their knowledge and experience, it builds their personal brand and improves employee engagement across the team.
5. Keep it real and results will follow
Every blog, video and post we created was rooted in real experience. No corporate gloss. No buzzwords. Just honest insights from the people who do the work every day, posted from their own accounts to their real connections.
And guess what? When content comes from employees, it feels more genuine. Which in turns builds trust. Nielsen found that 88% of people trust recommendations from people they know more than traditional marketing.
Already, we’ve seen some great results from our employee content, both from a business and a team perspective. Take Deepa’s video, for example. We shared one version on Tribal’s LinkedIn page, and Deepa shared another from her personal LinkedIn profile. Her post saw a 142% increase in impressions compared to the version on our branded LinkedIn page, with interaction from an existing customer too!
If that hasn’t impressed you, how about this. Natalie’s blog saw a 196% increase in impressions on her personal LinkedIn post about it, compared to the same content shared via Tribal’s page.
Next steps if you're giving this a go
If you're thinking of creating subject matter expert content in your business, my advice is simple:
- Start with a conversation, not a content plan
- Help people find their angle, use this as a central idea, the rest flows from there
- Keep it structured behind the scenes, even if it looks relaxed on the surface
- Make it easy for people to feel proud of their contributions and want to share them
- And always, always keep it authentic and real
It takes time and care, but when you show the real people behind your brand, you build the kind of connection that traditional marketing just can’t match.
If you're looking to bring your employee stories to life and don’t know where to start, I’m always happy to chat, feel welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn.
