How to Use Video Content for Internal Communications in Your Company
Video content is mostly used - and talked about - for marketing strategies and external communication purposes. However, companies are composed of humans too, and video provides a great channel to streamline important messages (instructions, protocols, major project shifts) in simple, entertaining, and efficient ways. And that’s what this piece is all about.
As companies continue to migrate from offices to remote settings, there is an urgent need to create resources and strategies for good cross-team communication.
Let's be frank: working from home is flexible, but it complicates interpersonal interactions. Whether it's to exchange words during coffee-breaks or to ask colleagues for feedback, the work environment is simply not the same if everything happens through impersonal emails and push notifications.
Remotely recreating an environment that motivates your team to work under a common objective is a challenge; that much is a given. However, by implementing video for your company's communications, you get to create content that helps your team increase their efficiency and productivity while somewhat circumvent some of those pitfalls.
At first, introducing video for your internal communications may seem complicated, but in this guide, we’ll tell you all about the process of creating videos so you can start addressing your team needs with this type of engaging content.
How Video Boosts Your Internal Communications
Video content is excellent for unifying your company's messages and building a cohesive workforce. But what are its competitive advantages over other communications tools?
- Video speeds-up learning. By integrating different communication resources, such as storytelling, compelling visuals, and audio, into easy-to-consume pieces, video allows employees to learn through accelerated engagement.
- Video fosters authentic, human connection. Contrary to cold communication via email, video promotes face-to-face conversations between company employees.
- Video encourages active participation. Through accessibility and user-friendly availability, this content reduces employees’ need to resort to mediators for the solution of common problems.
Types of Video That Work Best for You
In the world of video, there is a whole range of types of content you can rely on to better convey your messages. Here, we bring you four of the most popular ones that you can turn to for different purposes.
Whiteboard Videos
Learning about new company projects, products, and concepts can be tricky business, especially for the uninitiated just joining your team. This kind of content can benefit greatly from the animated style—and it deserves to be so!
Whiteboard videos are a favorite for those going through the complexity of certain basic processes and topics. Its unique hand-drawn style allows viewers to appreciate how various components add up to a whole, thus accelerating learning and boosting information retention.
How-To Videos
Videos are essential go-to resources for any training platform where users learn the step-by-step of business-related protocols and practices.
Whether as screencast recordings, live demonstrations, or animations, how-to videos are perfect for mastering and refreshing skills by example. By watching them, users can get a real picture of the specific tasks involved in their daily work.
FAQ Videos
You don’t need to have the most complex idea or competency to explain as excuses to optimize your internal communications. FAQ videos allow you to create short pieces focused on the key questions that most commonly arise among your team members.
Having these videos on training platforms, you can save yourself from receiving unnecessary emails and encourage greater learning autonomy.
Company Culture Videos
Ultimately, videos are not only useful for training employees but also for inspiring and motivating them to pursue greater challenges.
The leaders, managers, and other company staff are the best people for this job. Recording their experiences and stories, as well as the overall company’s accomplishments, can foster a sense of belonging and collaboration in any workforce.
Polishing Your Videos for Peak Efficiency
Having explored the different options in video content, you need to optimize your pieces to fulfill their purpose. What goes into producing a spectacular video, whether to communicate day-to-day news or to immerse your team in essential business tasks?
Focus on One Message at a Time
We’ve discussed how one of the benefits of video is to help you simplify and align your company's communications. For this reason, it’s crucial that, when working on your next piece, you focus the script and all audiovisual resources on delivering a single coherent message.
You don't want your team to spend more of their valuable time on getting your point than on their actual creative work. So, try to keep your clips under the two-or-three-minute mark. And when you need to go longer, break the content up into pieces that can be seen in one sitting.
Use Stories to Illustrate Your Point
Messages intended for news or training don’t have to be boring or routine. It’s possible to find the perfect balance between being informative and engaging viewers with great design choices —and one step you can take to achieve that is by using visual storytelling to convey your point.
For example, if your induction course includes a section on protocols or problem solving, a story with characters comes in handy. Through their example, you can better communicate the specific troubles users can run in everyday tasks, as well as the concrete steps to solve them.
Make Videos Widely Available
Producing videos for your company requires significant work. You probably don't want to create pieces to be seen only once. On the contrary, you want videos that your workforce can easily access in the future whenever they need them.
So, you shouldn’t limit the distribution of videos merely to email communications. Videos should be an essential part of your courses on training platforms, which employees can turn to for refreshing their knowledge. Also, videos—whether animations, interviews, or any other format—are a great addition to business presentations, to explain key points to audiences as well as to hook them.
Conclusion
Making the move to video content can bring dynamism to your company's internal communications and take them to the next level.
Don't wait for the next opportunity to pop out of nothing. Take your next best idea, message, or product to communicate to your team and try to transform it into a stunning video. With enough practice, you will gradually see your company’s communications improve, as well as your team’s motivation.