How to create a “meet the team” social media post series

Your brand is so much more than a logo, tagline or advertising campaign. It’s defined by the people whose diligent work builds and maintains it: your employees. This is your sign to create a “meet the team” social media post series to highlight employees who play a crucial role in shaping your brand—from your culture to your content to your finished products.

Tapping into your employee advocates as a part of your social media strategy is one of the most effective ways to amplify your content, humanize your brand and engage your audience. Roughly 76% of social media users think it’s important for companies to post about their employees, and your metrics will reflect your community’s interest.

In this article, we dive into how you can create your own meet the team social media posts, explain how they benefit your entire company and provide examples to inspire you.

What is a “meet the team” social media post?

Meet the team social media posts describe content posted on your brand’s social channels dedicated to your employees. Meet the team social media post examples include:

• Welcoming new hires to your team
• Celebrating major milestones including promotions, work anniversaries and awards
• Highlighting your team members doing exceptional things outside of work—from acts of community service to running a marathon
• Familiarizing your customers and prospects with their key touchpoints like sales representatives and customer care specialists (Note: Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box and include your brand’s zookeepers, musicians and farmers, too)
• Going behind the scenes to show your social audience (and prospective teammates) what it’s like to work at your organization

No matter what kind of meet the team post you create, the most important thing is to make your well-deserving employees the stars of your series. Allow their expertise, work ethic and achievements to shine.

The benefits of meet the team social media posts

At your company right now, there are countless examples of compelling employee stories. By passing the mic to your team, you can make those stories a vital part of your brand reputation.

Here are specific ways meet the team social posts can benefit your entire organization.

Harness employee advocacy

At Sprout, we know how frustrating algorithm shifts, poor organic performance, economic uncertainty and crowded feeds can be firsthand.

Employee advocacy helps us level up our content and stand out. Posts that feature our employees are an essential part of our employee advocacy content strategy, and some of our most-liked content.

Why it works: Employee experiences are the most trustworthy examples of a company’s culture, mission and values. Brand advocates play a critical role in driving brand awareness, supercharging recruitment efforts and generating leads.

Humanize your employer brand

Meet the team social media posts humanize your employer brand and help build meaningful relationships with customers, leads and potential candidates.

By pulling back the curtain to reveal the people behind your events, customer care and new product launches, you become more than just a brand that delivers a product or service. You become a reliable friend.

https://twitter.com/onepeloton/status/1572241610137808897

Why it works: Your employees’ perspectives matter three times more to prospective candidates than your CEO’s. Your followers are more likely to forge emotional connections with people they relate to, and emotional connections lead to brand loyalty.

Engage your employees and community alike

According to Sprout’s employee advocacy data report, engaged social media users think it’s important for companies to post about their employees on social. Brands that do are considered more authentic, approachable and interesting.

Not only do meet the team social media posts bolster your community engagement, they also boost employee satisfaction and help team members feel appreciated.

https://twitter.com/Deloitte/status/1599055860671602690

Why it works: By recognizing the value your employees bring to your company on social media, you reinforce the reasons people want to work with/for your brand.

How to create a meet the team social media post series

Once you’re ready to create your meet the team series, be sure to work cross-functionally to align your posts with your organization’s initiatives, including recruitment, event promotion and crisis recovery.

Follow our step-by-step guide to get started.

Step 1: Create a relationship roadmap

Creating a relationship roadmap will help you visualize which teams need to be involved when crafting your meet the team series, like this example demonstrates.

When creating your map, start by considering who needs to be included as you build your strategy. Ask yourself whose input is crucial for helping you identify employees to feature and meet company-wide goals with your series.

Then, determine the team members who will be vital for story-sourcing (most likely the people who will be featured and their managers).

Next, add the names of people who will be responsible for making the content come to life during asset preparation.

In the final two sections of your relationship roadmap, chart the team members who will be essential for supporting final approvals and distribution.

Step 2: Assemble a process checklist

Consistency is key to building a successful social media series. Create a process checklist for the project to stay on track and keep all team members involved on the same page. It should include:

1. Set a cadence

Develop a timeline for your series. Will you post biweekly? Once a month? Plot your cadence for the next quarter, six months or year—whatever is feasible for your team. Planning ahead will ensure consistency and prevent your series from losing momentum.

Remember to determine your cadence collaboratively so all teams involved can advocate for what’s sustainable for their bandwidth.

2. Determine the goals of your series

Determine how your series will align with your company goals, and which goals you will focus on meeting. For example, at Sprout in 2022, we focused on awareness and engagement.

3. Define a collaborative process structure

Plan which teams will be essential to your series based on the relationship roadmap you completed in step 1. Outline how you will collaborate effectively across teams.

Use the DACI Decision-Making Framework if you need help streamlining your process.

4. Nail down types of content assets

How will you tell your employees’ stories? Will you use video content, photos or blog posts? WIll you reshare across multiple channels? Determine this ahead of time, and create clear visual asset requests for teams supporting your series.

5. Employ a system to measure results

Have a system in place to measure your content performance and how well it delivers on your goals.

You can download our creative testing template to measure the effectiveness of different types of content.

Step 3: Start creating your meet the team series posts

After completing your checklist for your overall project strategy, follow these steps to create your first feature. Replicate this process for each post moving forward.

1. Set goals

Ask yourself what goals you want this specific post to achieve. How does it fit into the goals of your overall meet the team series strategy?

2. Source your story

Tap into managers who will help you find the right team member for your first post.

3. Select your featured team member

After collecting different stories, choose a team member that best embodies your brand and helps you achieve your goal.

Before reaching out to them, be sure to confirm your plans with their manager, who might also offer helpful, specific details and stories you could highlight.

Then, reach out to the team member and ask if they’d like to participate.

4. Develop questions

Create a list of questions for the team member to answer personalized to their background and experience at your company, including questions related to the goal you’re trying to achieve.

For example, if your goal is to support your recruitment efforts, ask your team member questions about what they like about your company’s culture and how their career growth has been supported.

5. Finalize asset and distribution channels

Should this post be a photo, video or blog feature? At this point, decide which medium would most effectively tell the story and how you will distribute the post on social.

Then, clearly define what you need from the featured employee. For example, if you’re filming a video, assemble a list of clear instructions and on-camera best practices for them to follow.

Also determine what you need from other stakeholders involved, like your design team.

6. Alert other teams involved

​​Let the teams developing your creative assets know a feature is coming up. Submit a visual asset request and confirm project timelines and expectations.

7. Capture your content

Schedule your video shoot, set up your Zoom interview or send your questions via email. However you choose to capture your raw content, make sure your method will be conducive to the finished product you want to create.

Then, share your files and let your editing team and/or content writers get to work on the final product.

After you approve the content and write your meet the team caption, share the post with the final approvers.

8. Get final approvals and schedule your content

Run finalized assets by necessary teams for approval, allowing yourself enough time for reviews and edits.

Once you gain final approval, it’s time to schedule your content.

Pro tip: If you’re working across teams to approve and schedule content, Sprout’s Message Approval Workflows can help you organize who’s responsible for each step of the review and scheduling process.

9. Share with your organization

Encourage employee advocacy by sharing your final posts across your company via email, in Slack or by using a solution like Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social.

10. Analyze your data

Track your post performance, and compare it to other content and future meet the team stories. Share your findings with stakeholders, and. use data storytelling to explain how your efforts supported your company’s goals.

3 meet the team post examples you can learn from

As you delve into creating your own meet the team series, look to these three cutting-edge brands for inspiration.

San Diego Zoo: Behind the scenes with a Wildlife Care Specialist

It’s safe to assume many of us dreamed of working with animals at some point in our life. To help us relive our childhood dreams, the San Diego Zoo takes their followers behind the scenes with images and videos of their employees.

Not only is this content highly engaging, it’s also a chance for the zoo to demonstrate how they fulfill their mission to provide wildlife with the best possible care.

Apply it: While not all brands have adorable animals at their disposal, you should illustrate the unique expertise of your employees and the benefits of your work setting in your meet the team post.

Shopify: Free To Be Me series

For Shopify, work is rooted in global diversity and belonging. Their initiative to create and support a diverse and inclusive environment is an intentional process that is encapsulated in their Free To Be Me series that centers the experiences of LGBTQIA+ Shopifolk.

In this post, it’s clear professionals at Shopify are free to exist as themselves—regardless of their gender identity or sexuality.

Apply it: Meet the team posts are an excellent way to showcase your organization’s culture and how your employees live out your values.

Starbucks: #LatinxHeritageMonth

People are at the heart of Starbucks’ recruitment strategy. As they declare on the website, their partners are their most valuable resource and they strive to create an environment of warmth and belonging.

In this meet the team post, a shift supervisor named Cici recalls how she felt she could embrace her identity as a Mexican American from her very first day.

Apply it: How would your employees describe their professional journey at your company? Use their answers to inspire your next meet the team post. Include the small details—like a decorated name badge—to paint a vivid picture for your followers.

Celebrate your team on social

A meet the team social media post series is a powerful tool for recruitment, brand management and employee engagement.

To help guide your employee spotlight series creation, we’ve designed a collection of customizable templates with everything you need to launch a meet the team series.