Internal Video Communication
As previous Public Relations Portugal online publications have highlighted, digital media has the capability to include interactive features. These are rich media contents, such as infographics, videos, animations, voice recordings and sound effects.
Video Is the Present and the Future
Video is one of the fastest growing forms of media content in communication. Digitalisation dramatically reduced the previously high cost of film making. For instance, YouTube has more than one billion users who watch ‘hundreds of millions of hours’ of videos each month. The number of viewers on YouTube has been increasing throughout the years. In addition, other social media and internet platforms have been expanding their video features and capabilities.
In the PR industry, there is a classic example that illustrates this shift. One large corporation, with 250.000 collaborators worldwide and consolidated revenue of hundreds of billions dollars, faced a challenge regarding their internal communication. Many employees did not read the company’s magazine and various internal newsletters.
They conducted an internal research, which found that employees prefer video to textual information. In a bold step, they discontinued the expensive printed employee magazine and newsletters, reducing costs considerably. In their place, they launched a series of video programmes. But then came the question of how could effective video programmes be produced for less than printed communication?
The Simplest Can Be the Best
The answer was in the collaborative nature of social media, and in the company’s already existing but often overlooked capabilities. Employees already generated a considerable amount of the video content for internal use. They utilised their own camera phones, small video cameras and GoPros to record events and interview colleagues on interesting issues. So the practice was not completely novel for them, it just needed a little push.
Many interviews and reports were in low resolution, with clear signs of being shot on a handheld camera. But these qualities, rather than being detrimental, gave the reports authenticity. Employees saw, that eye witnesses, their trusted colleagues recorded these videos, rather than professional camera crews, in a highly staged setting. Building upon these findings, the company curated and edited a video campaign, using employees’ professional experiences. This resulted in a series of videos that contained highly credible content with lots of relevant information.
Evaluation went through a major improvement in the field of internal video communication. More and more companies realise that their employees need more information, just not from boring and formal newsletters.