Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches Robert Scroble: On Video
After reading Robert’s post below, comment on your potential use of video to communicate in your new startup…..
May 15, 2007
Why Corporate Online Video Rocks
I keep getting more and more interested in online video as a corporate application. Let me tell you why.
Go up to a CEO or other senior official. Tell him or her that they need to blog, to post at least three times a week and a few will take you on. Some will hit home runs with blogging, using them to change perceptions of themselves and their companies at amazing low cost, but with a significant time investment tied to it. Even CEOs who understand the power of social media tell me they just do not have the time. And if they do blog, but find themselves forcing or rushing their posts posts. If they are sending messages out without joining other conversations, without listening to Comments on their post, with spouses as well as employees begrudging their loss of available time, the CEO is just not going to dive into the blogosphere and start swimming.
But here’s Option B. Go to the same CEO and say, “we’d like to video interview you a few times every month. We will lightly edit the results and then post it for people to see. Over time, we will interview all the key players here. We will use digital video to announce new milestones, answer investor questions, show the humanity and brilliance of our key players and create a permanent record of what the people here have done.
I’ll bet you a whole mess of C-level executives will now be very willing to participate. If you happen to be the inhouse evangelist in your organization, and you are tired of the bosses shuffling papers and looking at their watches when you mention corporate blogging, you might try discussing online video and see if you get a better result.
I’ll bet video is about to dramatically increase the companies in social media. Video today is taking baby steps in terms of corporate adoption, but the baby is wearing running shoes. It s not yet truly conversation, but there is abundant evidence that it is headed that way. It is not clear yet how the videoscape will lay out or which startup is the one that will endure.
But I will wager you that corporate online video is going to be very big.
I agree! Video usage will be huge in the next market boom. The video could be useful in all sorts of ways; I really cannot pick out just one good use for it. It could be used for promotion, direct customer relations, product usage demonstration etc. However, the best usage for a start-up company would be the use of online video as a means of communicating or gathering interested investors to invest in your start-up. It may even simultaneously serve as a means of advertisement online. I too, have personally looked into ways in which online video streaming could help a potential idea of a start-up that I had in mind. I think all entrepreneurs should look into ways to continually improve and take advantage of the new technologies that are out there, which I think Hank does a great job in doing, in-terms of an “Education Entrepreneur†haha.
My humble opinions:
A successful executive’s time is focused outward; i.e., growth, financing, acquisition, legalities, etc. His time for in-company work centers on decision making, assignment of responsibilities and reviewing performance.
An executive doesn’t have time for blogs and video performances because there is no payoff. Unless the company is going belly-up or involved in an acquisition, there isn’t much that the exec can say that is applicable to all employees. The blogs, video shows and newsletters are promoted by the HR departments. Why? HR isn’t up to answering the questions; solution: new HR Manager. Some executives with great egoism might authorize these show productions, but where’s the $ payoff. There’s a XEROX commercial with a broken MUTE Button that exemplifies one form of audience behavior during a video conference. I’ve seen much worse. Many in the audience usually snooze, browse or write e-mails. Where’s the payoff?
A good executive is best at one-on-one communications. And he can usually communicate successfully with small groups. (See my first opinion.) Many successful executives manage by wandering around. An-announced visit with uncensored communication with the workers has major payoffs.
The responsibility of mid-management is to motivate workers and improve production.
Don’t bet the farm on blogs and video shows. They provide headaches for the exec and won’t sell.
I feel that media will be extremely helpful when attempting to train employees for something as simple as teaching children how to play a game. But i feel that in the future people will be become dependent of media and will not long have to think for themselves. This in return will cause people do less reading and which will later lead to those who are dependent upon media and they will not appreciate the one on one usage of a teacher. Media is great an I hope it continues to grow, I only hope that those in the future will be able to appreciate traditional and one-on-one teaching instead of internet and media classes,,
I think video will continue to grow because it appeals to more senses than just words on a page. I could see press releases being done through video, for instance. From an organizations perspective, they will still have control over the content, but from an end user perspective, a video is far more interesting than words on a page. In some ways, I think this is great and forces us to teach undergraduates the methods of creating, editing, etc. video, and it also forces us to use more video more often…the drawback, IMO, is that the more desensitized we become to flashy media, the more boring books will look, and as much as I agree that many print versions of things could be made into video, I believe firmly that novels and a lot of the fiction writing out there is best left to print and the reader’s imagination.
In terms of organizational use, though, I think video is a MUST - particularly if the company is targeting the udner 30 crowd as potential employees or consumers.
I’d like to pose a question to you all: Do you think video is almost always better than printed text? We discussed this a bit in class (history books would benefit from video and from being online wikis, but calculus books might not work as wikis) but I would be interested in exploring what areas you all think cannot be improved through the use of videos, in terms of the web (video blogs versus traditional blogs (that sounds like an oxymoron, but I’ll go with it)) but also in terms of other parts of life (i.e. novels).
1. Rebecca’s posed question is worthy of further discussion. I’ll post it as a stand along posting early next week.
2. IMHO, Beachbum is way off the mark. The head of GM’s R&D is a blogger and encourages same.
Steve Balmer @ Microsoft has openly recognized the value of blogs and supports their use throughout his company, where there are over a thousand different blogs. But what does he know? He’s only running a Global company and is a billionaire in his own right. There are countless examples of high level executives using blogs to communicate with their organizations. The model Beachbum cited is “so yesterday”:-)
3. Stay tuned….:-)
Clearly Coperate Online Video is going to take off in the near future. Considering youtube had 400 million hits (I believe Hank stated this in class) per day shows that videos are the future, and it is what the youth and general population are becoming accustomed to. With this in mind coperations will be forced to learn how to post online videos almost daily, and if they do not become religious with these videos I feel their consumers will diminish.
Can you ponder on the words in a video as you hear them? Can you listen to those words again to ascertain the idea before you go on to the next thought being presented? Can you write notes in the margins of the video? Can you compare thoughts expressed in different paragraphs by the author?
Read about the habits of successful people. They read. They don’t watch videos. Most successful people can read faster than others can speak.
A speaker can get away with a multitude of sins. A writer has to put thought into his text.
If you want entertainment, watch videos. If you seek knowlege, read.
Hank, the new entrpreneur doesn’t have the resources of Microsoft and GM to waste. My comments are based on my experience to provide over $100M income to an employee owned company.
I am admittedly not incredibly familiar with a lot of corporate policy, but it seems like a lot of big, fortune 500 type-companies have regular conference calls with investors and other important individuals. Some of the time these are open to anyone who wants to listen, and if not, the information is eventually disseminated to the masses via some extension of the media. The use of video, if not already used by large companies to broadcast the conferences, will likely be implemented in the near future.
I like what Beachbum has to say on this subject. Particularly his first post.
I honestly don’t see the payoff of having a video blog by CEO’s and Executives. I don’t think there is a payoff anywhere. As an share holder of a publicly traded company, I don’t particularly care what the CEO has to say if he is saying something new every week. I am satisfied with annual reports, its hard for me to extract the data from a video, plus its much easier to read faster then watch a video faster.
As an Employee of a company, I don’t want to hear what the CEO has to say 3 times a week, month, or even a year. I come from a military background, and there are times when the Commanding Officer (CO) gives a speech. Some times someone even higher like the Commanding General gives a speech. I have been “forced” to attend many of these speeches and still do this day I can’t remember learning anything from it. Because, whatever a General has to say, does not affect my situation significantly. I would have been happier if someone told me what is served for lunch.
So drawing on parallelism to the civilian world, what ever the CEO has to say probably does not apply to my situation and I would zone out to some distant land.
Just because the technology is there does not mean we should use it. It is easy to forget that technology is simply a tool. It is not a destination.
An example of technology available but not used by society, video phones. Why don’t we use those? Quite simply because people don’t want to get dressed and look presentable every time their phone rings.
It is inevitable that video will be utilized within the corporate realm as a means of communication. Aside from its ease of use, it will also be ideal for the frugal corporate leader or entrepreneur intending to save on travel costs and time. The impact of video communication will be so profound that I believe it will be utilized within the political spectrum as well. Communication is the essense of politics and business, the efficiency derived from video can potentially change the complexion of politics and business for the better.
I also believe that video will be the next big thing of the corporate world. It allows executives to put a face to their name. People will have more of a connection with what is happening in the company once they see the executive letting them know what is going on via video. I think that the growth of this trend is evident when Tim O’Malley showed us how he is using video for his American Venture TV program.
I think that online video will prove to be a really useful tool, especially for enterpreneurs starting new businesses. Building a little off what Shervin said: instead of traveling to meet prospective investors, frugal entrepreneurs can point them to an online video explaining their idea and why they should be invested in. Also, it’s been brought up a few times that a C idea with an A team is far more likely to succeed than an A idea with a C team. By using online video, investors can see more than just your idea (as they would in a paper explaining the concept), and you get a chance to sell yourself also (without having to actually go meet them).