Short-form video and messaging apps – like Twitter, Snapchat, Reels and Tik Tok – have revolutionized the way we communicate. Isn’t it time corporate communications followed suit?
The Way We Communicate Has Changed
Your workforce is consuming content faster and in shorter form than ever before. Attention spans have changed, and the future leaders in your company communicate differently than we have in the past. Getting to the point and being succinct isn’t just efficient, it’s critical to getting through to your team and ensuring your message is heard.
With the rise of remote work and video communication platforms like MS Teams, Google Meet and Zoom, “meeting fatigue” has become a real thing. Meetings are draining, especially when they take up hours of the day, multiple days of the week. The last thing your team needs is another hour-long meeting to get details they could’ve received in a five-minute video clip.
It’s time for business leaders to meet employees where they are and rethink how we deliver the key messages that drive business.
How to Use Video to Effectively Communicate with Your Teams
As an executive producer for Worktank, I’ve sat in on thousands of all-hands, town halls and employee meetings for a variety of companies over the years, and almost all can be broken down into five key messages or elements:
- Where we were – a look back at the past quarter and how we did on goals
- Where we’re going – adjustments to the plan and/or roll out of new goals
- Spotlight – the highlighting of an employee, team, project, or customer
- Culture – an announcement about upcoming events, educational opportunities, or initiatives
- Q&A – a chance for team members to ask questions and provide feedback (which is often cut short)
Instead of covering these topics in a meeting, we recommend using video clips to deliver the same message in a more succinct format.
Step 1: Create the Videos
Start by taking the five messages above and breaking each topic into its own video. Really focus the message on the key components that your teams need. The goal is to pare down the information into five-minute video clips or shorter.
Step 2: Share the Details
You won’t be able to cover everything in a five-minute video, so build a digital library with all the details. Treat the short video as a highlight reel and follow up with a white paper, charts, or more documents and videos for those who want the specifics, and house them all in one easy-to-access place.
Step 3: Build a Community
To take another cue from life outside the corporate world, consider that every one of us is on some type of social media. Why? Because people crave community. Create a company community that brings teams together and encourages conversation with a business messaging app like Slack.
Step 4: Q&A
Video communications don’t eliminate the need for hybrid or in-person meetings, but they do allow you to change the focus of them. Now you can devote more time in meetings to answering questions, engaging in conversation, and building a place where people can, and want, to share.
Need Help Rethinking Your Corporate Communications?
An hour-long meeting may seem like the most efficient way to communicate important information to your team, but that doesn’t mean it’s the most efficient way for your team to receive it. Unfortunately, you may not be prepared to add video editor and producer to your long list of responsibilities either.
If you’re interested in using video to change your corporate communications, but don’t know where to start, Worktank can help. Our team of expert content creators and video producers work with hundreds of CEOs just like you every day to regularly create video communications that are dynamic, professional and always engaging.
Give us a call at 877-975-8265 or contact us online and let’s talk about how we can partner with you to rethink your corporate communications.
