We’re all familiar with the viral-video phenomenon. Since YouTube hit the scene in 2005, video of everything from a little boy groggy after a trip to the dentist, to a wedding party that danced down the aisle, to a charming older couple playing a piano duet at Mayo Clinic suddenly has a potential audience of millions. Capture it on video, post to YouTube, and if it has all the right stuff, it may go “viral,” with millions of people passing it along to their friends and families.
The YouTube phenomenon has changed the way we think of and use video. People want to watch video that inspires them and makes them smile. And today’s videos are easier to produce and share, making them a big part of the social media movement.
At Mayo Clinic, we use traditional video in employee communications. But a few years ago, we started also producing “roving reporter” videos that became very popular with our staff. The person who hosts the video is a member our employee communication team — a writer and editor, without any real video experience. He’d be the first to tell you he is not a video person. But that’s part of what makes the videos successful — there’s no slick video spokesperson or “talent,” just a guy with a microphone going around asking people questions.
The videos are slightly scripted — with the occasional attempt at humor — but rely mainly on the reporter’s interaction with employees to make them memorable. And it works. Employees are more willing to participate, and the message is delivered in a unique way. The occasional included blooper makes them even better.
We’ve used the “roving reporter” videos to announce and explain initiatives, to show off new facilities, and to create buzz about topics. One of the first videos we did about the opening of our new healthy living center got more than 25,000 views internally. Someone posted it to YouTube, where it got another 6,000 views. We also used the roving reporter with great success to promote an immunization clinic that was part of a disaster preparedness exercise, promote our United Way campaign, and introduce our new hospital in Florida.
The videos are mainly produced in-house to keep the cost to a minimum. In one more spontaneous case, we even used a Flip cam for the filming.
Below is a highlight reel of sorts from the “roving reporter” videos:
How have you used video for employee communications? Please share your stories and examples in the comments.
Linda Donlin is the manager of enterprise employee communications at Mayo Clinic.
admin
Lee Aase
Shawn Bishop
Randy Schwarz
Makala Johnson
Joyce Groenke
Joel Streed
Dana Sparks
Polly Gilgenbach
Ronald Petrovich
Stacy Theobald
Susana Shephard
Alyson Fleming
Jason Pratt
paulspeyser
mayoclinic
Farris Timimi
Thanks for sharing. What a great use of video for internal comms! Of course much relies on the personality of your roving reporter. And the humour is great. Two thumbs up.
Great use of video in internal communications. Glad to see the use of humor.
These are great. Do you upload them to youtube and then just embed them on your internal site?
Thanks, Marc. We have an internal streaming server for the internal sites. We do upload to YouTube for embedding on our external blogs.
Hi Lee,
I’m impressed by how many blue shirts your roving reporter owns! Like ethics training we once did in teams using a Dilbert board game, this seems really engaging for employees. I wonder how much time investment it takes per installment? Do you track any changes that come about as a result of implementing this?
I popped in to visit due to being interested in the movement toward sending out non-TV-trained PIOs to produce internal or external material, and welcome any thoughts you have on acquiring video production skills as communications generalists!
Nancy
(Recently focusing on that topic here: http://bit.ly/dhrsMX)
Hey, Nancy.
Lee asked me to respond to your question.
Depending on how complicated we make the video, the shoots can take anywhere from a half to almost a full day. And the video-editing process can take just as long. We have a video editor in-house who gets what we’re trying to do with these and makes the end product much better than we could ever do on our own.
We have done a couple videos with pretty good results using only a Flip cam and keeping things much more simple. We’ve been able to knock those out in just an hour or two shooting and about the same amount of time on editing. For one of those, we still went to our video-editing pro for some real polish and to put the thing to music — it wouldn’t have been the same without it.
Hoyt
Nice work Hoyt!
Love the video and all the comments – especially about the United Way. Laurel did a great job too!