‘We Are Cisco’ goes live to reach key talent audiences

Cisco Systems has been schooling the recruitment marketplace for a few years with its “We Are Cisco” talent brand and its associated social media accounts. With the introduction of live video on Facebook and its Instagram platform, the Cisco Talent Brand Team saw another opportunity: Recruit “Cisco Culture Contributors.” Exploiting that opportunity with video has earned Cisco first place in the “Live Video” category of PR Daily’s 2017 Video and Visual Awards.

On Instagram, “We Are Cisco” content is produced entirely by employees. A different employee takes over the accounts every day, sharing photos and videos from his or her job to convey Cisco culture and values in an authentic and entertaining way.

The Cisco Culture Contributors are “a super select (yet now growing) set of ‘roving reporters’ who are trusted to broadcast live from site events, take viewers on site tours and show off the Cisco life. We don’t work with influencers,” Cisco explains. “Our employees are our influencers.” 

The Talent Brand Team manages the content calendar and schedules live events with employees, who agree to abide by a set of general guidelines. “We can only sit back and watch” as employee ambassadors broadcast live, using their own judgement about how to report on local activities. 

Instagram Live was used for two employee videos that averaged 150–200 live viewers and five “Culture Contributor” live videos were broadcast on Facebook Live, averaging 16,600 views per event and achieving a total of nearly 165,000 views, more than half of which were viewed with the sound on. 

Congratulations to “We Are Cisco” and Macy Andrews, Carmen Collins, Casie Shimansky and the Cisco Culture Contributors.