Developing Your Video Strategy for High-Performance Culture, Part 3

Part 3: Can I Shoot this on My iPhone?
This is the question we get more and more frequently. Since smartphones are ubiquitous, we are all carrying around the tools to shoot and edit video in our pockets. So can you shoot it yourself?

The answer is: MAYBE.

We recently ran into this question with one of our clients, a global Consumer Package Goods company. A  new boss came in and said to our client, “I want you to make all of our videos on your iPhone.” She called us in a panic.

It’s not about making a video, it’s about making a strategic video. There is a level of sophistication required to understand your audience, the message you want to send, and then having the ability to tell a story that resonates and creates action. You must first understand the business case, then have the creative ability to execute it. And when you’re using less-than-professional equipment, it’s even harder.

The fact is we at Tribe have 30 years of experience telling business stories to affect a specific audience. We hire writers, art directors, editors, camera operators, sound people, etc. to aid in the professional execution of these stories.

You don’t have to do it our way. You may have the internal resources to define the audience and business case and an exceptional storyteller with the video experience to pull it off.

There are many cases in which we use self-shot cell phone footage in a narrative manner. It adds a sense of playfulness and casualness that suits certain stories.

It’s not about the tool but how you use it.

Final Tips: One Thing You Should Never Do
The one thing that you should never do is lie on video. It seems obvious, but people just don’t necessarily know it. They think they can speak in hyperbole. They think they can communicate in a way that shows an extra dose of hubris or power.

I believe that we all have this inner BS detector when we’re seeing these kinds of videos, that we either respond to them or don’t respond to them. It’s an automatic response mechanism, we think you’re telling us the truth, or we don’t think you’re telling us the truth. True leaders communicate with authenticity. True leaders are vulnerable. True leaders reach out to us as human beings. Once video is published, it’s out there forever.

Final Tips: Three Things You Should Always Do
It is essential is that you start with the audience. These are commissioned films. If you can truly understand the audience that you’re trying to reach and whether they’re positively disposed to you or negatively disposed to you, the state of mind that they’re in, and their receptivity to hearing the message, you have a head start. We always begin with this key question: what do you want the audience to think do, feel, buy, or buy into? If you ask yourself that simple question, you’re going to make such a much better video.

The second thing is to start with outside-in thinking, which means understanding the messages that you want to communicate. Many people start with inside-out thinking, which is like, “Here are two notebooks filled with all the messages I want you to see in this video.” Research shows that most people only remember one or two things in a video. You want to be focused on the most important messages.

The third thing is that you need to consistently weave in the mission, the vision, the values–the “why” across all of your films–whether they’re for investor relations, recruiting, or sales and marketing. Research shows that it takes somewhere between 7 and 13 times for somebody to actually hear a message. If we’re not consistently and constantly having a video strategy that’s not communicating the core of what your company is about, it’s not going to touch people. It’s not going to move the needle. People won’t know who you really are.

Read Part 1: What is culture and why is it crucial for business success?

Read Part 2: What does an effective video strategy look like?

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“It’s one thing to understand the role of video in business communication, it’s another to know how to use video to solve actual business problems. Vern Oakley gets that.”

LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT

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