When text messaging became available on phones a huge number of voice-calls were replaced by texts. Late for an appointment? “Running late. Be there in 10.” Instructions to husband for getting groceries? “Need: Milk, eggs, butter, and spinach”. “Congratulations! Heard you had a baby boy! – Love Dad.”  

OK, OK … that last one should have been a visit or at least a phone call. But you get it. Some things didn’t need the overhead of conversations. It’s the same thing now with video conferences. There are many ways video conferencing has compensated for working remotely but it has come at a cost. Wasted time for participants who were not needed and unnecessary blocked time when all were not required together but simply some information sharing was needed. A huge number of endless video conferences have added an unforeseen and unwelcome overhead.

There are several ways of making video meetings productive. We have explored them in the past. But do you need to meet all the time?   

“Much like the text message that did away with an unnecessary conversation, Video Messages can asynchronously provide a personalized way of delivering important information with an engaging video.”

Here is the simplest way to do away with some video conferences. Send a short Video Message instead of scheduling a meeting. Much like the text message that did away with an unnecessary conversation, Recipients can view video messages on their own time, give a personal touch, and are far more engaging than a video conference with many people. Email and texting do that too but long emails take time to compose and read and texting is many times limiting.

Here are 3 aspects on which Video Messages are far superior.

1. Strong on emotion:  Text messages DO NOT convey emotion well. Hence the slew of emoticons. Mostly cute but don’t convey that much. Especially when your text was quick and terse. Conveying emotion is very important when both good news and bad news need to be conveyed. A video message with you smiling conveys your body language and what seemed like a curt “Great job” now turns into a genuine heartfelt appreciation of hard work and a job well done.
2. Effortlessly accurate:  Instead of a ‘cut and paste’ of interminable text parsed in with long-winded comments, a clear screen share of a design drawing with your voiceover instructions of what is needed conveys it crisply and accurately. It also serves as an unambiguous record of what has been requested.
3. Easy to share: Your message can easily be shared within your company. And that too securely if you use kPoint (or a similar product) with only those who needs it, in a trackable manner. You can now get reactions to the message and in fact, it can be repurposed if needed.

“Start using video messaging today with a message to your team or a colleague congratulating or thanking them instead of an email or text.”

How do you create video messages? The easiest way is to use your phone. Most messaging platforms allow you to create a short video. You can even do some basic editing. For more business and work-related use, Enterprise Video Platforms give you a way to import small videos from your phone but they also provide a rapid means of doing it from your desktop to capture screens and share presentations. kPoint’s Enterprise Video Management Platform’s QuickShoot helps you create video messages. At the end of this blog, in the kPoint Corner, we have described 4 easy steps.

Start using video messaging today with a message to your team or a colleague congratulating or thanking them instead of an email or text. Share it with others who would like to know about their achievement, team members, and upper management.  Here is a list of other areas in which you could actively start using video messaging to reduce the need for conference calls.

Executive: messages for teams and individuals.

General: HR, Social, Business, Technical, Product related announcements

Corporate: All-hands notices, News, Policies, etc. 

All your teams, including Sales, Support. Marketing, etc., could benefit from exploring this way of reducing the video conferencing load. If you have a specific situation that could use video messaging and you need help to get it started at your organization, do call us! We have many ideas and a lot of experience. And perhaps you have some ways of already using video messaging that you could share!

kPoint cited for its enterprise video technology in Gartner Market Guide for Enterprise Video Content Management