Employee influencers—the rising stars of brand advocacy in 2025

Gone are the days when brands spoke only through polished corporate accounts. Today’s most successful companies are putting their people front and center, letting their employees connect with audiences in ways traditional corporate marketing can’t.

What makes employee influencers so powerful in 2025? It’s simple: while AI churns out content and social feeds overflow with sponsored posts, audiences are craving real human connections. They want to hear directly from the people behind the brands they follow.

Whether you’re a creative professional looking to build your personal brand or a company hoping to showcase your culture, understanding how to leverage employee voices has become essential. Let’s explore how leading brands empower their teams to become authentic brand advocates and how you can.

Your audience is flooded with AI-generated content and cookie-cutter corporate posts. In a crowded landscape, brands are discovering their most powerful marketing asset: their people. Audiences want to hear directly from the designers crafting user experiences, the developers building new features, and the creative minds solving complex problems.

So employee advocacy means using your employees as influencers, encouraging them to build their own profiles on social media and speak directly to customers about their experience of working at the company.

The timing couldn’t be better for this shift toward trusted voices. Studies show that employee content reaches 561% more than the messages shared through official brand channels. When team members share their expertise and workplace culture, they create genuine connections that corporate accounts simply can’t match.

What are brand advocates, and how can your employees act as influencers to boost your brand?

Brand advocates are team members who actively promote and support your company through authentic content and engagement. They share their expertise and experiences on social media, becoming trusted voices that help build your brand’s reputation naturally. Think of it as influencer marketing, with your employees acting as the influencers.

While some companies stick to just one method, the most successful programs often mix and match these strategies based on their team’s strengths. Here are four proven approaches that build genuine connections with audiences through brand advocates or employee influencers.

A creative director sharing design philosophy. A senior developer explaining emerging tech trends. This type of thought leadership content works because it comes from real experts doing the work. Unlike generic company posts, these personal insights give your brand authority.

While your company blog might share similar ideas, having individual leaders own these conversations creates deeper connections with your audience and tells your brand’s story more effectively. It also helps build the personal brands of your team members, making them more likely to create and share content regularly. Their success becomes your brand’s success.

Want to know what consistently stops scrolling thumbs? Authentic glimpses into how creative work gets done. Behind-the-scenes content shares something audiences rarely see. Whether a creative director walking through an ideation session or a motion designer explaining how they perfected that title sequence, these authentic peeks behind the curtain build trust while showcasing agency expertise.

In the video below, an employee of Tombras, a creative agency based in Knoxville, shares some behind-the-scenes footage from a busy day of filming.

For creative agencies, transparency demystifies the process. When an art director documents their team’s brainstorming session, it helps prospects understand the value behind agency pricing. These unpolished shares by employee influencers do more than just build followers. They show expertise that can help grow your business.

Imagine giving your team members the keys to your brand’s social media for a day. That’s exactly what forward-thinking creative companies are doing with employee takeovers. This approach turns your social channels into a rotating showcase where your audience gets a true “day in the life.”

These takeovers work well for everyone involved. Team members grow their own following while showing what it’s like to work at your company. Followers can see the day-to-day work, from morning team meetings to evening project deadlines.

This honest look behind the scenes helps you connect with new clients and shows potential hires what working at your company is like.

When companies support their employees’ personal brands, everyone wins. As team members share their work and insights online, they build their own following while naturally spreading the word about their workplace. It’s not about competition; it’s about growth together.

Take this example from Patagonia’s Head of Internal Communications. Even a job promotion becomes a chance to showcase company culture and values. By encouraging employees to share career milestones and what excites them about their work, you create authentic moments that highlight individual growth and company mission.

The results speak for themselves. Employee influencers build their reputation when they post about their latest projects or share creative tips. Simultaneously, it shows that they work in a culture that fosters creativity. This creates a positive cycle: stronger personal brands lead to more opportunities, which brings more attention to the companies supporting this growth.

Building a successful employee advocacy program isn’t about turning your team into marketers. It’s about empowering them to share their authentic experiences. Before diving in, consider these proven approaches that help create sustainable, effective employee branding initiatives.

Not everyone on your team will be a natural content creator, and that’s okay. Look for employees who already share their work experiences or industry insights on social media. These natural brand advocates often make the best champions for your company culture.

The key is identifying team members who are enthusiastic about their work and the company mission. The most powerful voices aren’t necessarily the most senior or experienced—they’re the ones who can authentically communicate their passion for what they do.

The quickest way to kill an employee advocacy program is to make it feel forced or inauthentic. Give your team members the freedom to share in their own voice and style. While basic guidelines are important, too much control can make the content feel corporate and staged.

Encourage employee influencers to share real moments, including challenges and learning experiences. Authenticity means showing the whole picture—not just the successes but also the problem-solving process and occasional setbacks that make the work real and relatable.

Employee influencers and brand advocates need clear guidelines about what’s appropriate to share, but your guidelines can’t be so restrictive that they stifle true expression. Employee advocacy aims to break through the sterile, boring content that too many companies crank out.

Remember that the most engaging employee branding content comes from the sweet spot between professional and personal. Showing how work connects to your team members’ lives is a powerful way to build trust. Whether a designer shares their creative process or a developer explains how they tackled a tough problem, the best content combines professional insights with a personal story.

Employee advocacy isn’t just another marketing trend—it’s a fundamental shift in how brands connect with their audiences. Empowering your team to share their experiences helps you create human-focused marketing.

The best part? You don’t need a massive budget or a complex strategy to start. Begin by identifying team members who naturally share their work experiences and give them the freedom to tell their stories. Create simple guidelines that encourage authenticity while protecting client privacy.

Ready to level up your brand’s social presence with employee influencers? Check out Envato’s collection of social media templates and video tools to help your team create engaging content that stands out. From Instagram stories to TikTok transitions, you’ll find everything you need to empower your brand advocates and share your story with the world. Also, check out our comprehensive social media marketing guide and read up on the latest social media trends.