Tap Employee-Creators to Transform Your Social Media Strategy

On Jan. 2, 2023, 19 refugees from Cuba who were adrift on a makeshift boat in the Straits of Florida were spotted and rescued by the crew of the Celebrity Beyond, a passing cruise ship. Rescuing stranded refugees has become surprisingly routine for cruise liners during an intensifying global migrant crisis. What made this rescue unusual, however, was the way it rippled across social media when the captain of the Beyond, Kate McCue, documented it on TikTok.

McCue is well known in the industry for being the first American woman to captain a mega cruise ship (one that can accommodate more than 5,000 passengers). She’s also known outside the industry as @captainkatemccue, a TikToker with 3.6 million followers (and another 900,000 or so followers on Instagram). McCue’s 67-second video about the rescue generated nearly 30 million views on social media, creating the kind of positive exposure for Celebrity Cruises that any CMO would pay dearly for. Only in this case, it cost almost nothing.

For the sake of contextualizing that value, if Celebrity Cruises had wanted to advertise to the largest TV audience in the United States, the company would have had to spend approximately $882,000 for a 30-second spot during a Sunday night NFL game, watched by an average of 18.3 million people. That’s 60% of the reach and half the engagement time of McCue’s TikTok video. Even if we were to decide that a viral TikTok doesn’t carry the same branding value as an NFL ad, McCue’s millions of followers clearly bring amazing visibility to her employer at an almost negligible cost. It’s enough to make one wonder whether every company should want its own Capt. McCue.

As a researcher who studies the emerging phenomenon of social media creators who produce and share content about their jobs and employers, I’ve spent the past few years talking to organizations about how they should be adapting to the rise of employee-creators. This article shares what I’ve learned about how savvy executives can tap into the vast potential of employees who amass large social media followings by encouraging, supporting, and even training willing team members on how to become successful employee-creators.

Creators With Two Careers

Employee-creators are employees who produce content on their personal social media accounts in ways that deeply entwine them with their employers.