Video has drastically changed the way we communicate. Several studies show video is a much more effective medium for communication when compared to other media. According to one study, video leads to greater viewer motivation and retention of information, as compared to text. Not surprisingly, external video communication has become the most popular method of external communication for businesses.
Most contemporary organizations use video platforms such as Vimeo, or YouTube for their external streaming. Some common examples of external communication activities for which organizations leverage video include marketing, managing public relations, CSR communication and streaming corporate events.
In this blog, we'll be taking a look at how to use video for external communications.
What Challenges Do Organizations Face for External Video Communication?
Organization generally turn towards YouTube for external video communication, which is a great option but there are inherent challenges.
For starters, by uploading videos on YouTube, you agree to give away rights to YouTube to make unlimited copies and distribute your content as it wishes. This is not good for an organizations that wants to retain ownership of their content. To overcome this challenge, organizations need to turn to paid video platforms to stream their external communication videos.
Types of External Video Communications
Video has enabled organizations to communicate much more easily, concisely and in a more personalized manner than in the past. Their effectiveness means a growing number of organizations nowadays are using video platforms for external communication to stream and manage their videos more effectively.
Without further ado, here are 6 ways organizations are using video for external corporate communication activities.
Optimize public relations activities
As a superior medium for communication, public relations videos act as a more functional substitute for textual content. Examples include delivering more effective video pitches to journalists instead of typed press releases, sharing and circulating recorded speeches with the public, and creating vlogs or media stories to generate more engagement and viewership. Even more importantly, videos help provide a more personalized response that helps regain the public's trust and confidence in case of crisis management. Furthermore, as a relatively new and more efficient form of communication, using video for public relations creates a form of interpretive dominance for the company's brand.
Promote CSR initiatives
In the contemporary show and tell era, businesses cannot rely on CSR sustainability reports to publicize their CSR efforts. Corporations now need to show a visually engaging representation of the level and depth of their investment and participation in CSR activities. Video is a necessary part of a company's CSR strategy because it allows firms to visually showcase how they integrate their social and environmental obligations into the jobs they create, the kind of products they make and how they utilize resources. Without video documentation and presentation of all CSR initiatives on a visually engaging medium, it is unlikely for a business to gain prominence or publicity through its CSR efforts.
In addition to creating and circulating on-demand videos (VOD), live video streaming can also be used to virtually include and engage your employees and customers in CSR activities while firmly positioning your company's brand as socially responsible at the same time. Some examples of well-executed video CSR campaigns include Marc Jacobs x Sato Project and Ikea – My Place to Play.
Keep investors and shareholders informed & engaged
Each organization understands the importance of keeping their investors and shareholders well-informed on the company's well-being. Video messaging provides a quick and more personalized method of communicating to build trust and create a stronger connection between the company with their investors and shareholders. Organizations use video messaging to communicate how the company is operating and the condition of the business, such as the company's financial health, announcements of dividends, etc.
Such personalized form of communication becomes even more important in times where the business is facing setbacks or controversy. Higher-ups such as CEOs and upper management can reach out to their investors and shareholders in a more personalized manner during difficult times that require immediate nurturing to regain their trust and maintain a positive relation. Furthermore, using a video streaming platform that can scale your audience allows organizations to include their investors and shareholders to view their live or on-demand videos during internal CEO broadcasts or to share executive messages relevant to keep them updated or increase their awareness of the company's programs and initiatives.
Market and provide support to customers
Customers are the lifeline of any business, and without attention to an effective customer communication strategy, you're bound to lose them easily. Different organizations use different mediums for their marketing strategy to engage their customers. However, video has become the choice of medium for most organizations since it engages people the most. Moreover, information communicated through video is easier to retain when compared to other mediums such as text. As such, customers are more likely to remember important details, such as the highlights of your products and services.
Organizations can embed their marketing videos on their website, social media networks, blogs and other platforms to reach and share their videos with their existing and potential customers. In addition to promotional content, businesses create how-to video tutorials for their more technical or complicated products, customer support videos, service change announcements, FAQ video libraries and more.
Here's an example of an advertisement included in our blog:
Reach out to communities
A proactive approach towards creating community relations is important for corporations to attract and retain good talent, position the business positively among its customers and other stakeholders, and improve its position in the market. Organizations can use videos for a range of community-related use cases. Organizations can devise and create visually engaging messages using videos to involve the community in public business processes, communicate the organization's positive impact on the community, and mitigate any negative social or environmental issues affecting the community.
Video can also be used to generate public attention through community targeted video campaigns, respond to public concerns, promote the organization at college campuses to attract talent, and stay involved in community affairs. By staying engaged with community leaders, members and advocates such as environmentalists, organizations can maintain strong business-community relations, and by using a digital medium such as video, they can avoid having to dedicate too many resources on the ground.
Train and educate external partners
There are several external partners in a business ecosystem that help support the organization. This includes service providers, such as suppliers, vendors, creditors, contractors, and others. To do so however, they need a level of training and learning to understand how they can best support the organization. Training videos are widely used by organizations to train and educate their external partners about the industry standards, business ethics and protocols for third-party relations.
Communicating information using video not only makes it easier to remember, it's also much cheaper. For example, Microsoft launched a video portal for training their internal employees; their costs fell from $320 an hour per person to just $17 (almost 95 percent!).
To be able to share videos with external audiences, you need a video platform that can do so; through links or through authentication. We have discussed more about this in our blog on detailed sharing and access management.
Effectively Managing Video for External Communication
Videos are incredibly engaging and cost-effective. Their versatility means organizations can use videos in a multitude of ways and for a wide range of use cases. As such, videos have become the staple for most organizations in their corporate communication activities, such as external communication.
In order to efficiently use video for their external communication activities, most modern organizations utilize video platforms for external communication activities. However, it is important to understand that most video platforms out there only support video streaming for external communication. Take Vimeo for example. These are not well optimized for internal video streaming; say how would you train your employees through video by using Vimeo? This is where you need something much more advanced - a video platform that supports both internal and external video streaming.
VIDIZMO provides an enterprise video platform for end-to-end video streaming and management; be it internal streaming or external streaming (live or on-demand). With multiple users, portals, segregated access, detailed sharing and more.
You can also visit our detailed guide on video platforms to learn more about the market and the different vendors out there.
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