Are there barriers that prevent the successful use of video for internal communications? What are they?

• Producing video is time consuming and can be expensive – our research shows that while it is an important part of the internal comms mix, it is not hugely impactful.
• Getting stakeholders to understand the value of video as an internal communications tool and managing expectations when they want a Star Wars- style video on a mobile-phone selfie-stick budget.
• I work in a large public service organisation and the network has latency and load issues which results in us having to comprise the quality of the video significantly in order to get it to load quickly enough.
• Explaining the value of it to senior leaders and making sure they put as much energy into it as an external piece.
• It generally comes down to investment – both time and money – but also the skills required to lead and implement internal comms with video successfully.
• There is an old fashioned idea that video content has to be created by professional production companies, rather than being created in house using professional grade consumer products.
• Providing access to non desk based colleagues and the cost of creating multilingual versions.

Do you have concerns over the security of internal video?

• Yes – we have a secure site but because of the technical barriers, we do on occasion use unlisted YouTube films for anything not commercially sensitive. It’s not an ideal situation.
• No. If we’d say it in a briefing paper or a meeting, why wouldn’t we show it? Working in an organisation where security is paramount (because we manage national security assets and have a function to respond to major incidents), we are quite clear about what info is for secure handling and what info can be shared more widely. I’m also quite cognisant that I need to keep my team on top of and acting as service leads for other ‘security’ issues such as copyright, contempt of court and libel in the comms materials we produce.
• Only if they have the potential to damage external reputation.
• Yes, we’re starting to use Google+ and I’m concerned with accidental/inadvertent sharing of company videos outside the organisation.

What is the future of video for internal communications?

• I think it is an important part of the internal comms mix and will continue to grow in importance. It really depends on your audience though and what you are trying to say and asking them to do. However internal communicators need to get better at using video more effectively and also getting leadership more comfortable at communicating on camera.
• Lots and lots of user-generated, low production videos for every day comms mixed with high end, high production impact videos for key comms.
• I’d like to see it phased out. Prefer face to face!
• Peer to peer sharing, realtime streaming of key corporate events, use of animation, graphics and creative storytelling – not death by talking heads.
• I think it will become more popular – it is just a matter of reducing production costs – particularly with regard to animations. The quality of product people are accustomed to via social media is high and they bring those expectations into the workplace.