A blog entry by Ulf Seijmer, Creative Director, Induo AB
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. In that case, “moving pictures” is worth even more. My name is Ulf Seijmer and I work as Creative Director at Induo. My aim with this blog entry is to share with you how we use self-produced videos to communicate company news updates and what it gives us in return.
Induo aims to solve communication issues. Our services and products enable Sweden’s water supply system to deliver water to Swedish homes, they help the bus company to report time schedule delays, and they ensure that the fire department saves vital seconds at deployment, to name just a few.
We have been using video prolifically in our communication these past 2 years. We have used both pre-recorded clips and live video streams to personalize and enrich our news updates. The response from clients, influencers, and journalists has been really positive.
Choose the Channel
We’ve tested a few different channels but we prefer YouTube for pre-recorded clips and Bambuser for live streams. On top of that, the majority of our recorded material is also published in our newsroom on Mynewsdesk. Moreover, you can actually set up a live stream on Mynewsdesk by embedding the broadcast’s code from Bambuser in a blog or press release.
Production
We produce all our video material in-house and strive to improve the quality continuously. I feel that our viewers on YouTube and Bambuser accept the fact that our videos are not perfected in professional production studios, as long as the actual content or message is of high quality. The one thing that is worth the money and effort is the sound. Image quality is definitely secondary to sound quality.
Feedback from Press and Media
After working with videos for just over 2 years, how do we know it’s worth it? Well, apart from the clients our videos have interested, engaged, and helped, we have also received feedback from our press contacts. They have told us that they use our video material for research.
Viewer Statistics
As you can see on our YouTube channel, we have racked up nearly 10 000 views. Is that little or is that a lot?
To us, that number is well beyond our expectations. We haven’t invested in giant viral campaigns – we work in a niche market and appeal to a smaller target audience.
Most videos are used in conjunction with a news update or press release, at which point the video aids in illustrating it. We also embed relevant clips on our homepage and on our blogs.
Currently, we get about 1000 views per month on YouTube and if you add the Mynewsdesk stats to that, we get a total of about 2500 views. For our company, this is a great way to communicate our message. Viewers can choose to receive our message on their own terms, according to their own needs and wants, pressing play only when it suits them and when they have time.
Think of it in terms of sales meetings. Using our videos, we’re essentially getting about 80 sales meetings per day, including weekends. We then do face-to-face meetings only with those that really want us to visit.
Live Broadcasts
If you want to broadcast live on your Mynewsdesk newsroom, I recommend that you use Bambuser’s excellent tool.
Last autumn, we had set up exhibition stand at the Scanautomatic Fair in Gothenburg, from which we broadcasted live. We had about 100 viewers during the time we had the live stream, which was more than what we expected. Our stand could be seen from beyond the four walls of the exhibition hall, and perhaps by people that did not attend the fair at all. If you want to do something similar, I recommend that you split the stream into small parts if possible. We went as far as drawing up an official program guide, with set times and discussion topics, and did a bunch of shorter broadcasts rather than one long continuous one.
Give it a go!
You can do a lot with a good mobile phone camera and a bit of creativity. Just let your imagination run wild. And if ROI is a concern, perhaps the video below will inspire you. After the first 9 seconds, the movie is shot entirely with an iPhone 3GS, then edited on a computer. We attached this video to a press release and it ended up getting good publicity in industry magazines both online and in print, as well as in several relevant tech blogs.
More on Video
On March 30th, I will be sharing my experiences in working with video at #ssmw, a series of webinars about social media and how it can help business. The series is hosted by the Swedish Public Relations Association (SPRA). The webinars are free and are intended for those that work with strategic information. If you’d like to attend, and if you understand Swedish, register here!
If you can’t wait and you’d like to know more about my experiences with videos straight away, don’t hesitate to ask. Leave a comment in this blog or contact me directly!
Ulf Seijmer
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