Today, people have portable video studios in their pockets. You just don’t have to be Steven Spielberg to be good at using video to tell a story anymore. If you’ve posted a video to YouTube, you know that producing, consuming, and distributing moving images is simple and easy. Why should it be any different in the workplace? In 2018, it’s critical to ensure that you have an IC channel capable of sharing video to strengthen employee connections and bring internal messages to life.
Video is one of the most effective tools for communication that businesses have at their disposal. Since the time of the nickelodeon, technology has evolved and created many more distribution channels for companies to exhibit their video content on. With the rise of social media, video content is growing in popularity. A recent study by Cisco predicts that by 2020, 82% of all consumer internet traffic will be video content.
Video has steadily risen in popularity as tech advancements have made it simple for anyone to produce video content. Social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube play host for uploading and sharing videos with friends, family, and followers. More companies are launching corporate video marketing strategies and video marketing campaigns to build relationships and brand awareness with customers. Video has the ability to translate messages in a way that makes content easy to understand, and with the ease of producing video, video is well on its way to being the most popular medium to communicate content on a global scale.
Video as a Communications Tool
Engaging videos aren’t just for marketing. They can be useful tools for any communications task. Videos can send nonverbal communication cues through elements like tone and body language that will help prevent miscommunication and make the content more engaging. Video content has the ability to sum up messages in a fraction of the time it would take to read page after page of information, making it the ideal format for efficient communication. Visuals have higher success rates for communication: Studies by eLearning Industry show that after three days, people only retain 10% of information received audibly, whereas they remember 65% of the same information when visuals are added to the equation.
Video content is also inherently more rich than traditional text-based content. It comprises elements of all other mediums, reaching viewers via audible, visual, and textural channels. This makes video superior because it can condense information and communicate much faster to viewers while fostering greater engagement.
Smiths, a global leader in technology and innovation, has found great success sharing video content via their employee engagement app. They recently launched “The Video Hub” which hosts all of their video content within the platform, including videos that communicate their code of ethics, training initiatives, and brand awareness. Smiths has found internal comms videos to be especially efficient for employee onboarding to create greater employee engagement from day one.
Russell Evans, Assistant Vice President of Culture and Communications at Foresters Financial, has found similar success with video in his team’s award winning project. The company received recognition at the IABC World Conference for their employee video campaign project “More to our Core” in which they encouraged employees to make videos that explained the company’s story to their diverse workforce. The winning video has more than 4,000 internal views and counting.
Video is undeniably the marketing and internal communication medium of the future. Google reports that videos are 45 times more likely than text to rank on the first page of search engine results because there is less competition as a result of the content density. Video accounts for over half of all mobile traffic and lets companies reach their entire market and communicate emotionally with their customers. Video is the paramount storytelling tool at the disposal of communicators. After all, storytelling is the primary job of communications professionals.
Watching a video to digest information is fast, interactive, and entertaining. The format can project emotion and tell a story more vibrantly than words on a page, making it easier for your employees to relate to what you’re trying to tell them. As the shift to the digital workplace continues, video will be a versatile tool for helping you accomplish your internal communications goals. So go ahead—lights, camera, action!