For many consumers, the thought of live video automatically invokes social media experiences. And while plenty of companies are using social media to create and share live video content, it’s actually internal use cases, that would never make sense to appear on social media that are driving rapid adoption for many businesses. We can refer to these experiences as off-social, or Not-For-Social-Media live video experiences.
According to Brandlive and IBM’s recent Live Video Benchmark Report, departments throughout many organizations are discovering live video as in incredibly agile and effective communication and interaction solution, which is then made available to watch on-demand for those who missed it live, as an amazing way to train and engage employees, partners, suppliers and influencers. In the last 12 months, 48 percent of respondents utilized live video for CEO town halls and 47 percent trained customer service associates using live video. The numbers were even higher for sales rep and retail associates — at 50 percent and 56 percent, respectively.
With success in these use cases, investment in live video is poised to grow even further for 2018. Most notably, 59 percent of those surveyed will be using live video to train sales reps this year. With high turnover rates, increasing costs of travel and the need to increase speed-to-market, it is hard to beat the cost and time effectiveness of this strategy.
Also Read: Brandlive Releases 2018 Live Video Streaming Benchmark Report
Organizations are adopting live video that they can own and operate internally to use across the enterprise, to both modernize their go-to-market efforts and up-level their communications. With a variety of forms of live video events from private, to semi-private as well as public consumer events being possible with one platform they are finding it efficient and cost-effective as well as getting proficient in creating more video content, which is an essential mandate for all companies, give the consumers’ rampant desire to watch, not read.
The C-suite, sales teams and customer service teams are all making the ask in these cases because they’re seeing great results in terms of engagement and also positive responses from attendees. The investment made in a live video platform can be shared and considered as a key communication tool spread across the organization, and typically pays back in travel savings, or improved reach and speed versus other options.
Cabela’s, known as the World’s Foremost Outfitter, delivered more than 300 live events just last year, including internal training across its North American retailers. Live video has been central to the outfitter’s training program, ensuring that consistent information is relayed to all vendors and sales associates across the US.
In 2017, Healthsparq launched an event, “What the Fix,” a conference aimed at kicking the heck out of health care in a town-hall format with notable speakers. The event invited people from North America to participate via live video and the results were spectacular. The live feed kept 390 viewers engaged for more than an hour at a time, the conversation was trending nationally on Twitter with a total of 2700 tweets in addition to the 271 questions asked via the live video feed. This year’s event was held on May 17th and once again through live video, made it possible for unlimited audiences to participate. The organizers also added a live feed moderator to bring all commentary from the feed into the conference as it was happening – so everyone had equal participation in the healthcare discussion.
It is success stories like these that make off-social use-cases such a driver for future adoption of live video. Companies can leverage budgets from multiple departments to bring live video platforms into the fold which makes the investment much smaller and a library of rich video assets, all in one place. Town halls, particularly, become a growing trend for geographically diverse companies. The ability to connect with and directly engage with employees from anywhere in the world is a management boost, and a subtle morale booster for employees as well.
Also Read: Brandlive Launches Enterprise Live Video Platform for Mobile Devices
Live video has helped ease the idea of faceless organizations and usher in a dynamic where executives are more personable and accountable to large groups of employees. The successful efforts there have given rise to questions — from executives — about where else this connective technology can be used to be more agile, responsive and connected to key audiences.
The visual nature of video, has long made it a compelling storytelling medium. But the recent surge in accessibility, portability and authenticity of live video is what’s behind today’s rising interest. In the 2018 Live Video Benchmark Report, 78 percent of respondents achieved a deeper interaction with viewers, and 66 percent saw increased accessibility as a direct benefit of hosting live video events. These aren’t commercials or lengthy, black-and-white documents to read on sales procedures or protocols. Some are direct lines from the C-suite that convey a more human element and to the organization that can positively impact culture.
That human element has translated beyond the organization as well, by way of off-social engagement. Over 59 percent of respondents to the Live Video Benchmark Report valued the added human element to live video. Increased viewing time was also seen as a positive for 43 percent of those surveyed.
As Facebook tweaks its algorithm to bring less brand content to its audiences, the effectiveness of live video content on their platform is unclear, which might raise questions around where live goes next in social media experiences. However, these off-social use cases are the latest proof that live video may have originally been delivered to the masses via social media but no longer needs to be tethered to these ecosystems in order to keep progressing in terms of use cases, and audience engagement.
Quietly, live video’s been growing up behind the scenes. The novelty of the early days is mostly gone, and the quality of productions is escalating. For companies large and small, the technology is being deployed to link increasingly virtual organizations across geographies and departments, unite sales teams and properly orient new employees. The positive effect is already clear on the enterprise side. And with that success in hand, it’s likely live video’s next major innovations come from an enterprise lens as well.
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