Ulta Beauty isn’t just cool with its employees making social media content on the clock–it’s paying them to do it

The relationship between companies and employees who make content about their experiences working there has always been a tenuous one. A few years ago, employees were possibly more likely to get a call from the boss and a “Hey, stop that,” than a “Congratulations, you’re making our brand go viral.” Things shifted a bit during the pandemic, with TikTok letting everyone from fast food staffers to farriers share their daily lives at work.

And now? Cosmetics company Ulta Beauty is not just letting employees make social media content about working there–it’s paying them for it.

Its new ambassador program seeks employees who are already successfully making content about their Ulta workdays, christens these staffers as “Ulta Beauties,” and pays them to make two commissioned deliverables per month. Per Glossy, these deliverables are usually themed around Ulta’s current sales promotions and new product and category launches. The Beauties also consult with Ulta, helping it sharpen its owned account social media strategy.

Beauties are allowed to make content on or off the clock, too. Pretty sweet gig.

“We knew we had an untapped superpower with our [store] associates,” Stacy Coblentz, Associate Manager of the ambassador program, told Glossy. “They know what’s happening before we do.”

“Our associates are really the heartbeat of what we do,” Amiee Bayer-Thomas, Ulta’s Chief Retail Officer, added. “Our associates post and engage on all sorts of different [social media] platforms, and [last year] we said, ‘My gosh, our biggest advocates and those most passionate about what we do are our own associates,’ so we stood up this influencer program.”

Ulta announced the program at its recent field leadership conference, and ~1,500 associates applied. (For context, Ulta has around ~50,000 total associates in its ~1,500 stores, so that’s a decent chunk of their population.)

Not everyone gets in, though; Ulta has only accepted around 30 staffers for its first cohort. Those staffers range in position from cashier up to store manager, with expertise in (and content about) areas like hairstyling, makeup, skin care, and nail care.

One of the newly crowned Beauties is Jenn Rodriguez, who’s a General Manager in Lansing, Michigan, and began creating social media content a decade ago. She has 50,000 followers, and says that as part of the program, “We get to engage with the team on a whole different level, and I can feel that they respect us and value our input in so many different ways.”

Ulta says ambassadors that stand out in the program can be offered further opportunities, like starring in commercials and hosting Q&A livestreams on Ulta’s official accounts. All ambassadors get perks like PR packages from brands, paid trips to Ulta events, access to masterclasses, and educational opportunities with platforms like TikTok and Meta.

Ambassadors told Glossy the program has helped grow their follower counts. Between that and the other perks, they seem to be benefiting measurably–and so is Ulta, which gets high-quality social content that’s consistent with its brand messaging (all the Beauties’ deliverables have to be approved by corporate before they’re posted), help with its social ad strategy, and potentially some future marketing executives out of the deal.

“A lot of them want to end up at corporate in marketing, [creative social media, or PR],” Coblentz said. “I would say the possibilities are limitless. They could be CEO of Ulta one day.”

We wouldn’t be surprised if this forward-thinking strat is embraced by other brands–especially brands that want their products to sell in social-driven ecom hubs like TikTok Shop.