Turn Your Crew Into a Content Machine

"Are you guys having your crews take videos of like before and after or anything like that while they're going?"

I asked this during an onboarding call. The answer was what I expected: "They're supposed to be."

Supposed to be. The classic gap between what we want to happen and what actually happens.

Here's the thing: your field crews are already standing in front of content gold every single day. Broken equipment about to be fixed. Spotless installs. Satisfied customers. The raw material for a year's worth of social media posts is right there.

You just need a system to capture it.

Why Employee-Generated Content Works

Content created by employees generates 8x more engagement than content posted from a brand's official account. That's not a marginal improvement—that's an order of magnitude.

Why? Because people trust people more than they trust logos. A polished corporate video feels like an ad. A quick clip from a technician showing off their work feels real.

Research from PostBeyond found employee-generated content can generate up to 10x more engagement on social media platforms. And personal stories—the kind of thing your crews naturally produce—generate 9x more engagement than reshared corporate content.

Your technicians aren't professional content creators. That's exactly the point. The authenticity is what makes it work.

The Before/After Formula

For service businesses, there's one content format that outperforms almost everything else: before and after.

It's dead simple:

• Photo of the problem (dirty filter, broken unit, clogged drain)
• Photo of the solution (clean install, working system, cleared line)
• Brief description of what was done

That's a post. That's content. That's proof of competence that potential customers can see with their own eyes.

And your crews see these transformations every day. They just need to document them.

Why It Doesn't Happen

If it's so simple, why don't most crews do it?

No clear expectation. "You should take photos" is vague. "Take a before photo when you arrive and an after photo when you finish every job" is specific.

No easy submission system. If techs have to email photos or upload to some complicated platform, it won't happen. The friction kills the habit.

No feedback loop. When a photo gets used and the post does well, the tech should hear about it. Recognition reinforces behavior.

No training. Most people don't know what makes a good photo. A 10-minute training on basic framing—good lighting, clear subject, before the mess and after the clean—goes a long way.

Building the System

Here's what I'm setting up for clients:

Shared drive access. A Google Drive folder that techs can upload to directly from their phones. No apps to download, no accounts to create. Just open the camera, take the shot, upload to the folder.

Daily prompt. A text or notification reminding techs to capture content. Not nagging—just a trigger to remember.

Content review process. Someone (maybe you, maybe an assistant, maybe an AI) goes through the uploads weekly and picks the best ones for posting.

Auto-posting pipeline. The selected content gets scheduled across platforms automatically. The tech's work becomes a post without them having to do anything beyond taking the photo.

The system does the heavy lifting. The tech just has to press the button.

Getting Buy-In From Your Crew

Some technicians will embrace this immediately. Others will resist. A few things help:

Explain the why. "When we post your work, it helps us get more customers. More customers means more work. More work means job security and potential for growth." Make it about them, not just the company.

Make it optional at first. Start with the techs who are naturally interested. Let them become the example. Others will follow when they see it's not a big deal.

Recognize publicly. When a post does well, mention the tech by name. "Great install by Marcus in Oro Valley—look at that clean ductwork." People like being recognized for good work.

Consider incentives. Some companies pay small bonuses for content that gets used. $5 per photo that gets posted. $20 for a video that performs well. It's cheap marketing.

The Scalability Advantage

Here's what happens when this works:

You've got a team of five techs. Each one captures content from two jobs per day. That's ten pieces of raw content daily. Fifty per week.

You only need seven posts per week across platforms. You now have surplus. You can pick the best stuff. You can schedule months in advance.

Compare that to the owner trying to create all the content themselves, juggling operations and sales and customer service while also trying to remember to post something on Instagram.

The crew-generated model scales. The owner-does-everything model burns out.

Start This Week

If you're not capturing content from your crews yet, here's how to start:

1. Create a shared folder they can access from their phones.
2. Tell your team: "Before and after photos from every job. Upload to this folder."
3. At the end of the week, pick three good ones and schedule them as posts.

That's it. You can get more sophisticated later—video clips, customer testimonials, day-in-the-life content. But start with the basic before/after.

Your crews are already at the job sites. The content is right there. They just have to capture it.

Build the system that makes that easy, and you'll never run out of things to post.