YouTube and its impact on internal communication

You can write it off as a website for attention-deprived teens interested in weird cats, but YouTube and other video-sharing services like it have the potential to change the way you communicate. The YouTube factor is much more than generating publicity. As impressive and destructive as a viral video can be, what we are really interested in is its impact on internal communicators and the way organizations operate.

For communicators with deep enough pockets, video has been a much-loved channel since the mid-1990s. Those organizations lucky enough to have the technology infrastructure and a large enough team and budget have used video. video as an integral part of your communications mix: to bring corporate messages to life, deliver urgent news to all employees, reach people far away, and generally increase the impact of your communications.

While its power as a communication tool cannot be denied, video has remained out of reach for many of us, a medium that is simply too costly and time consuming for most internal communicators to consider using it as a central channel. . But all that has changed.

The barriers to video production and broadcasting have now all but disappeared. Companies of all sizes now have the technology to stream video directly to employees’ desktops through their intranets. We no longer have to rely on expensive commercial satellite TV networks or distribute content on VHS cassettes or DVDs in the vague hope that employees will make the effort to watch it.

Plus, the YouTube factor means your video production no longer has to be of the Scorsese standard; As long as it’s interesting, relevant and authentic, ‘locally grown’ will do. As many podcasters have already discovered, the content is more important than the presentation: if you have something to say that is relevant and really interesting, listeners will tune in. The same goes for internal communications.

When it comes to capturing content, decent quality digital video cameras can now be purchased for a few hundred pounds, making them cheap enough for even the most budget-conscious rigs. You may want to use a video production company to shoot additional content and edit your video, but remember that in the world of YouTube, it’s authenticity that counts. As marketers are now discovering to their peril, overproduced content is increasingly being greeted with caution.

The same principle applies internally: Employees will respond much more favorably to a CEO’s honest, unscripted assessment of an organization’s performance filmed by a communications team member with a handheld camera than they will to a dazzling standard video. professionally filmed television show with a great script. The same logic underlines the role of face-to-face within organizations: the more ‘real’ and ‘unfiltered’ the communication is, the more credible it is in general.

With trust within many organizations at rock bottom, it is those leaders and communicators who learn how to apply social media techniques internally who will be rewarded with higher levels of trust and, ultimately, better performance.