[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/06\/27\/stop-tattooing-your-face-workforce-marketing-goes-mainstream\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/06\/27\/stop-tattooing-your-face-workforce-marketing-goes-mainstream\/","headline":"Stop tattooing your face: Workforce marketing goes mainstream","name":"Stop tattooing your face: Workforce marketing goes mainstream","description":"The future of employee-based branding\u2014what is being called workforce marketing\u2014requires winning over employees.","datePublished":"2014-06-27","dateModified":"2024-04-12","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/jason-seiden\/#Person","name":"Jason Seiden","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/jason-seiden\/","identifier":73,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/59660d9ecb4e6224b8809edc2998e6bfbc33d3c3e487d97e5642f3b5685aedbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/59660d9ecb4e6224b8809edc2998e6bfbc33d3c3e487d97e5642f3b5685aedbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Workforce-marketing-FTR.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Workforce-marketing-FTR.jpg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/06\/27\/stop-tattooing-your-face-workforce-marketing-goes-mainstream\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/customer-engagement-marketing\/","name":"Customer Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q5196451"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/employee-engagement\/","name":"Employee Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Employee_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q14937678"]},"Employee Experience & Engagement",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/marketing-general\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]}],"wordCount":484,"keywords":["Customer Engagement","Marketing","Workplace Trends"],"articleBody":"There was a time in the not-so-distant past when the only way an employee could meaningfully represent his or her company was to:Tattoo the company logo or product to his faceWear a uniform and staff a booth at a trade showSit through hours and hours of media training and then hit the TV circuitMake the evening newsThis was pretty much it. (Some techniques were more preferable than others.)But social media has changed all that.Workforce marketing: Winning over employees for the best type of marketingThe future of employee-based branding\u2014what is being called workforce marketing\u2014is not shocking, demeaning, difficult, or sensational. Just the opposite: it\u2019s genuine, authentic, empowering, and small. It works exactly like product placement.The key to the future of branding is for companies to look inward and ask how they can win over their own employees. Do this, and they position themselves to massively amplify their brands through the combined, additive power of all those internal voices.In 2011, Ajax Workforce Marketing researched 51,608 employees of the top 50 digital ad agencies. We found the about 10% of all employees had any mention of their company on their LinkedIn profiles. In 2013, a similar study, also done by Ajax, showed that no more than 20% of employees at the top 25 Best Places to Work (according to Fortune) engaged with their companies\u2019 brands.These companies, on average, spend $3,300 to recruit every open position\u2014despite filling 40% of open jobs with internal candidates (Bersin by Deloitte, 2013). On the other hand, Zappos recently announced that they\u2019re doing away with job ads\u2014by empowering employees to engage with their networks, Zappos has been able to build a pool of available and interested candidates they can draw from for their hiring needs.The savings possible from shifting from $3,300 per position to an organic process for filling open jobs is significant, and is just one example of the financial gains companies stand to realize by engaging their employees.Whether or not companies will be successful engaging their employees depends on their ability to bring marketing and HR together. For decades, marketing has been developing an expertise in turning total strangers into customers, fans, and advocates; HR, meanwhile, has developed an appreciation for how to approach different employee segments. Both sides own an important part of the workforce marketing puzzle.What happens if these two groups don\u2019t come together? Panera found out the hard way: when its marketing team started calling bakers \u201cartisans,\u201d minimum wage-earning bakers revolted and started a union drive, their logic being, \u201cIf we\u2019re going to be marketed as artisans, then we will be paid as artisans.\u201dAs social business reaches critical mass, the dawn of workforce marketing is just beginning. Where it ends is anybody\u2019s guess.  Work doesn’t work like it once did.Win, retain, and grow talent in a changing, competitive landscape. Real-life proof points \u2192HERE."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2014","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"06","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/\/06\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"27","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/\/06\/\/27\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Stop tattooing your face: Workforce marketing goes mainstream","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/06\/27\/stop-tattooing-your-face-workforce-marketing-goes-mainstream\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]