Why Video Is Pivotal for Internal Business Communication

Consumers increasingly demand video content from brands, but with fleeting attention spans, capturing and maintaining their interest is more challenging than ever.

To create engaging video content in 2024, brands must focus on interactivity and respect viewers' time. 

Kelly Jura from ScreenPal shares insights with DesignRush on leveraging videos to connect with and engage audiences. She also discusses how videos can engage global teams and enhance internal communication.

Who Is Kelly Jura?

Kelly is the VP of Brand and UX at ScreenPal where she helps define and execute UX strategies, bridging business objectives and user needs. Beyond her corporate role, she serves on the board of the Design Management Institute and regularly speaks at events like EdUP’s EdTech and WomenTechNetwork’s Global Conference.

ScreenPal’s rebranding journey marks a significant milestone as the company evolved to better represent who they are and where they are headed.

Previously Screencast-O-Matic, the descriptive name had some practical challenges and did not fit the long-term vision, Kelly tells me.

Despite its unique charm, the lengthy name and its complex logo made it cumbersome, even for loyal users, failing to convey its intended meaning and leading to credibility issues, especially in the business sector.

However, the strong product loyalty provided a foundation for a new name.

“After years of confidential brand research focused on understanding user sentiments and exploring various strategies, we identified "ScreenPal" as the ideal new name. This name not only retains the original’s warmth and approachability but also offers the benefits of being easier to pronounce, spell, and remember, enhancing our brand connection,” she adds.

The brand underwent a carefully planned release in 2023, updating and unifying its rebranding across all platforms, including marketing materials, product interfaces, customer support channels, app stores, and partner websites.

“This transition wasn’t just about a new name; it was an opportunity to unify our presence under a brand identity that truly reflected our values and vision,” she concluded.

Use Videos To Connect With Your Audience

Given that video is one of the most effective strategies to connect with your audience today, I asked Kelly how companies can leverage ScreenPal in their video development efforts.

She explains that the platform can help businesses complement their onboarding, training, and marketing efforts. Specifically, there are three key elements of ScreenPal for brand growth:

• Craft and personalize on-brand content: Brands can use the screen recording and storyboard editor to create engaging onboarding and marketing videos and enhance them with custom overlays, music, and intros/outros using the video editor.
• Maximize audience engagement through content hosting: ScreenPal’s hosting platform allows for direct video sharing and embedding, with customizable branding options. Companies can utilize CTA buttons for cross-promotion and analytics to optimize their campaigns.
• Foster interaction and collect valuable feedback: Companies can add interactivity to their videos with ratings, polls, and questions to engage their audience and gather valuable feedback, creating memorable experiences aligned with the brand.

Videos Enable Teams To Connect and Engage

With companies becoming more global and remote, recorded videos can be an important tool for training new employees as well as building expert branding on social media.

Hence, I asked Kelly to share advice on how companies can use ScreenPal to create these videos.

She highlighted that ScreenPal can help with the following efforts:

• Enhancing team connectivity and productivity: Capture and share videos to connect global teams and maintain a cohesive work environment.
• Streamline training: Create detailed onboarding and training videos for new employees.
• Promoting products: Produce engaging product demos and updates for sales and prospects.
• Fostering quick and clear communication: Use quick video messages for feedback and project updates while adding a personal touch to your communication, making interactions within your team more engaging and effective.
• Humanizing content: Show the faces behind your company to build a relatable brand image.
• Demonstrating thought leadership and personal branding: Create content that shares insights and tips, positioning your company as an industry authority.

If you're looking for a professional agency to help you elevate your brand presence and captivate your audience, be sure to check DesignRush's listing of top video production agencies.

How Videos Enhance Internal Communication

Organizations also leverage video and streaming to enhance internal communications.

“Video has become pivotal in enhancing internal communications within companies, largely because they serve as mediums for authentic communication that genuinely resonates with employees,” Kelly notes.

She shares the types of content that tend to resonate with employees, as well as examples of content that may not get such a positive response.

Content that typically garners a positive response includes:

• Personalized welcome messages: Welcoming new team members through personalized videos makes them feel valued and part of the team from day one.
• Behind-the-scenes (BTS) footage: Showing employees what happens behind the scenes in different departments fosters a sense of belonging and inclusivity.
• Employee spotlights: Highlighting employee achievements and milestones celebrates success and encourages others.
• Training and educational content: Videos that help employees develop new skills or understand company products/services better are highly valued.
• Leadership updates: Transparent updates from the leadership team about the company's direction, challenges, and achievements help build trust.

On the flip side, content that may not receive a positive reception often includes:

1. Overly scripted messages: Employees can sense a lack of authenticity in overly scripted or corporate-sounding videos, which might disengage them.
2. Irrelevant content: Content that feels irrelevant to employees' roles or interests can lead to disengagement.
3. Overwhelming amounts of information: Bombarding employees with too much information in a single video can be overwhelming rather than informative.

“In essence, creating video content that is authentic, relevant, and engaging is key to resonating with employees and enhancing internal communications,” she added.

ScreenPal offers solutions for creating and hosting on-demand webinars. Hence, I asked Kelly about the biggest challenges companies face during a webinar, and how they can overcome them.

This is her answer:

“Webinars surged in popularity during the pandemic, and remain an effective tool for brands to communicate with prospects and customers. But everyone’s time is limited, and getting people who sign up for your webinar to show up can be challenging.“

Kelly believes that the biggest challenges companies face during a webinar are attendance and engagement.

She shares two key strategies to boost attendance rates:

• Offer webinars on-demand: Providing on-demand access to webinars increases overall attendance as people prefer watching at their convenience.
• Set clear expectations: Communicate the value and learning outcomes to boost attendance rates.

Discussing the marketing side of the business, Kelly shares what she has learned in terms of generating engagement with video content in 2024.

“The key is the efficacy of brevity coupled with engagement. Shorter, more digestible content tends to resonate better with audiences, underlining the importance of curating bite-sized chunks of information that are easy to consume.

Adding interactivity has also proven to be pivotal for engagement. Encouraging viewers to interact with the content through embedded quizzes, polls, or ratings provides a richer viewing experience.

Utilizing features like Chapters helps organize content in a clear, navigable fashion, allowing viewers to easily jump to the specific information they need.

It's about crafting focused, interactive content that respects viewers' time while providing value—this is the formula we've learned for generating engagement with video content in 2024.”

Speaking of interactive content, Kelly advises businesses to create intuitive, relevant, and valuable experiences by including elements like quizzes, polls, and ratings which engage the audience through active participation. Adding CTAs and annotation buttons helps serve relevant content and maintain engagement.

She suggests avoiding overwhelming the audience with too many choices, as it leads to frustration and disengagement.

Interactive content should not feel gimmicky or disconnected from the viewer's needs. Balance simplicity with meaningful interaction to genuinely enhance the user experience.

Using User-Generated Content (UGC) the Right Way

Next, we discussed the surge in user-generated content, with some organizations using it to boost awareness and engagement.

Hence, Kelly shares the parameters that companies should prioritize when looking to use UGC:

• Brand guidelines and quality control: Establish clear guidelines for the quality of content you accept, including resolution, lighting, and sound standards. This ensures that UGC enhances rather than detracts from your brand image.
• Rights management: Clearly define the terms of use. Ensure you have the right to use the content in your marketing materials and that contributors understand how their content will be utilized.
• Accessibility: Optimize UGC for all users. This includes adding captioning for videos or alternative text for images, ensuring your content is inclusive.
• Engagement analytics: Use tools to track how UGC performs in terms of engagement and conversion. This helps identify what content resonates with your audience and informs future strategies.

Use Generative AI Responsibly for Creating Content

Lastly, we touched upon AI-generated video content and how it may impact streaming and video recording tools.

"There are valid concerns regarding AI's impact on authenticity. The personal touch and unique perspectives that creators bring to their content are invaluable, and there's a delicate balance to be struck to ensure AI enhances rather than dilutes this authenticity,” she notes.

According to Kelly, at ScreenPal, they've focused on integrating AI responsibly to handle repetitive tasks and optimize workflows. By automating repetitive tasks like generating titles, summaries, and captions, they free creators to focus on their unique messages and creative vision.

The aim is to enhance productivity without sacrificing authenticity, ensuring rich and diverse content as AI evolves in video creation.

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