5 Ways Video Makes Your Messages Stick-ier

Send a video; not a thousand words.

Words are beautiful. Banging them out on the keyboard right now to communicate with you gives me joy. They are powerful when arranged effectively. They will never go away. They are too popular. Just like the popular kid might be fun to hang around with, you look for different qualities in someone you want to spend the rest of your life with.

Like the perfect marriage partner, video grabs your attention, is hard to forget, is multi-talented and doesn’t leave you guessing.

VIDEO CATCHES YOUR EYE

Attention Costs Money; Spend Wisely

What you already know yourself is that your attention span has got shorter. You don't need research to tell you that. What you probably haven't thought about is that the cost of people's attention is rising. Advertising costs for business have increased about ninefold since 1990. (1)

There is even an emerging discipline called Economics of Attention. Where the cost of attention is rising, then getting video - with its auditory and visual senses combined for the price of one - is a bargain. A Facebook study revealed that people spend 5 times longer watching video content than reading static content. (2)

VIDEO IS HARD TO FORGET

I Hear I Know. I See I Remember. I Do I Understand

The retention of information is greater the more we combine our senses during learning. If you want your staff to remember more of what you say to them, use video rather than emails. The research suggests we can double our recall when we use the audio-visual potency of video.

VIDEO IS MULTI TALENTED

Imagine a video pops into your inbox. You click and a short five second video plays. There’s no speaking, no music, just a shot of your boss with one eyebrow raised and a half smile. She’s holding a card with ‘Report? Today?’ written on it. Clarity, efficiency, face-to-face yet confrontation free.

Video and sound, without sound, with captions reinforcing the words, just a video of words put to a music soundtrack. Yes, your messaging can be more effective with video, but it can also be more creative and fun.

VIDEO DOESN’T LEAVE YOU GUESSING

DON'T YOU TYPE AT ME IN THAT TONE OF VOICE!!!

It's so easy to be misunderstood.

• "The ants are my friends/They're blowin' in the wind" ("The answer my friend/Is blowing' in the wind”- Bob Dylan)
• "Sweet dreams are made of cheese" ("Sweet dreams are made of this”- Eurythmics)
• "The girl with colitis goes by" ("The girl with kaleidoscope eyes”- The Beatles)

How many times must you explain your text messages because the reader interpreted the words the wrong way? 

Email is perfect for simple information like: meet me at this date and time. Video is very good at improving the understanding of complex messages.  Imagine calling in sick via text and calling in sick using Facebook LIVE. If a picture paints a thousand words then a video must be an entire library.

FAUX INTIMACY

The concept of faux intimacy of print means the reader hears the words in their head in their own voice as they read the words on the page. The faux intimacy of radio/video means the listener hears the words in YOUR voice. If the voice in their head is one of negativity and resistance to change, then they ‘hear' your email this way. The same message delivered in audio or video delivers the message in the tone you intended.

Video is attractive, isn’t it?

It has never been easier to get started

We all carry a pocket-sized TV station called a smartphone. The AI in smartphones means just tapping the record button gives you a great video image. Give your message sticky-ness. Use video.

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Sources

(1)https://hbr.org/2015/10/when-people-pay-attention-to-video-ads-and-why

(2)https://www.facebook.com/business/news/insights/moving-pictures-the-persuasive-power-of-video