Why business video is the content king

Video can be a great way to get your business noticed, but even if your business doesn’t create content it should have streaming capability. Video can be used for more things than you might realise.  

Business video is used for so many things in a modern workplace that it can be disastrous if your company doesn’t have the video capability to support streaming.

Streaming a video is different to downloading one – streaming means that the video is delivered in a constant flow, you don’t need access to the full video before you can start playing, whereas downloading means you have the full video on your computer or device.

The main difference between the two is that, once a video is downloaded, you don’t need internet access to watch it, whereas a streamed video will require a fast internet connection or you could face interruptions and buffering.

That said, if you do have a strong connection, streaming is quicker as you have instant access, rather than having to wait for a download. In addition, sometimes streaming is the only option – if, for example, what you’re watching is live and you need real-time access, as would be the case with a video conference.

Video is more shareable than text – if you think about your own personal social media platforms, it is likely that you see videos shared more often than articles or even images. It is growing in popularity, and therefore a great tool for marketers if used correctly.

“We all have a TV production studio in our pocket these days (i.e. smart phone or tablet) so it is super easy to capture video assets,” said Stephen Wind-Mozley, director of digital at Virgin Media Business.

“Start with simple, short films and experiment with some editing software (loads of good free/low cost solutions out there).  Edit your content down and share on platforms like Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube.”

Online video accounts for half of all mobile traffic and 64 per cent of all consumer internet traffic, according to InfographicDesignTeam.com. Perhaps it is not surprising that 52 per cent of marketers feel that online video marketing is good for boosting brand awareness.

Furthermore, 45 per cent believe it works well for lead generation and 42 per cent think business video marketing is good for online engagement. Of those businesses which are already using video marketing, the vast majority believe it to be successful.

Creating your own business videos and sharing them on social media can help create a sense of a community hub, and can be great for positioning yourself as an expert. Videos don’t necessarily have to be long or corporate quality – you can utilise apps like Vine, or film videos off a smartphone. The important thing is to ensure the content always aligns with your brand’s identity.

Another great reason to ensure that your broadband speeds are top notch is to ensure your business has video conferencing capability.

“Video conferences allow you to do more – less travel time, more face-to-face time, so you can conduct more highly engaging meetings, saving your travel budget, working greener and being more flexible in terms of location and working hours,” said Wind-Mozley.

In fact, quite a lot of small businesses are already making the most of this technology.

“We use Skype for business and Go to Meeting for streaming purposes. As an international company with a lot of knowledge sharing between our offices, internal presentations and training sessions tend to be held and streamed using Skype for business,” said Sahil Deva, marketing and PR managerUK at Testbirds.

“For external, educational webinars on testing and our solutions, which we present approximately twice a month to the general public or on an invite only basis, we tend to use Go to Meeting.”

Vegas Mattresses also utilises Skype for business meetings, and often relies on it to communicate with its supplier in Belarus, enabling it to keep the lines of conversation open without spending a lot of money on international trips.

“With more and more services operating online through password protected and encrypted operation, a fast internet connection literally keeps you connected.  Slow internet connections mean that you end up being disconnected from your service and having to start all over again,” said Nicole Barrett, director at Vegas Mattresses.  

Of course, the last thing you want during an important meeting is to lose connection, or have the image freeze, and there are security concerns to keep in mind, as some older conferencing systems don’t support encryption.

Overall, when selecting a video conferencing system, it is crucial that all the tech is up to date, and you have the internet speeds to support it. Once this is in place, you can reap the benefits.

Another reason your business might need a faster internet connection is to enable streaming of “how-to” videos as a learning resource, or for webinars.

For example, YouTube is free and easy to use, and hosts a lot of useful videos that help train staff on all sorts of things. You can use these videos to create your own HR courses, or for in-house training on a variety of things, from social media to cyber security.

You can even find videos on how to use certain software programmes, and these are often very detailed and drill down into specific actions your employees might wish to perform.

The advantages of this include not having to pay for bespoke training, and instant access to guidance.

“I think on an individual level everyone uses YouTube tutorials. Whether it’s a developer figuring out how to write a particular piece of code, someone in the graphic department learning new editing tricks, YouTube tutorials are a great way to learn new methods and techniques for everything from sales strategies to learning and adapting new technology/platform,” said Deva.

“For internal training sessions, it’s usually the employees with the most knowledge about the subject that give them, however it’s common that they would use YouTube tutorials when researching or even feature snippets of a tutorial in their presentation.”

Hiring an outside expert is not as cost effective, and many companies may prefer to get employees to teach each other when they have the skillset in-house. However, Deva noted that in some cases or with niche topics, it may be necessary to get some outside help.

Streaming business video is already a huge part of the running of a modern workplace, and over the next few years businesses will only come to rely on it more and more. It enables so many functions, levels the playing field, and offers smaller businesses the opportunity to compete on the same level as larger businesses.

Make sure your business has the best internet connection it can to enable video capability, and don’t get left in the dust.