Strategy & Planning for ICOMMS

So, in case you haven’t noticed – we’ve got enterprise videos on the brain . . . specifically enterprise videos for internal communications.

We’ve talked with experts, we’ve covered some content ground. But, then – we realized, what we actually need to do is – start at the beginning. And, the beginning (of just about anything really, even just going to the grocery store) is always: strategy and planning.

It’s clear that we want to use videos with our internal communications – whether for HR objectives or for any type of internal comm from just about any stakeholder in the organization, e.g.:

• Summarizing key takeaways from the big industry event
• Recapping insights from the CEO’s town hall at HQ
• Introducing the latest version of the flagship product
• Launching a new internal campaign, such as for the annual engagement survey

After all, employee communications that are articulated through video earn a 3x higher click-through rate than any other type of content.

However, we can’t do all of our internal comms via video. So, how do we decide what to do, when to do, and how?

Well, here are some tips for answering those questions and key steps to take when building the strategy and plan for your internal video comms.

What’s the Point?

First, define your objectives, and we mean – not just HR-related objectives. We must also take heed of the people-driven über-objectives that management has set out for HR and the company’s leaders.

Pick a Lane and Go!

Once we know what our high-level goals are, we can prioritize what to talk about first and when. And, we can/should use each of these objectives as the driving themes and topics that feed the ICOMM video content creation plan.

For example, if increasing recruitment via referrals is a top priority, we can create a series of short videos for cross-company distribution with a call-out for employees to refer their friends and peers to exciting new positions.

Likewise, if crowdsourcing for innovation is a key objective, then we can have a company-wide hackathon that will be rewarded with prizes and promoted by a series of inspiring videos.

To Know You Is to Communicate with You

Before we go ahead and create our videos – it’s important to also make sure we really know our audience.

We can hold focus groups, we can send out surveys, we can host roundtables. But, whatever we do, it’s critical to understand:

1. What is the current employee perception of the company and its ICOMM efforts?
2. How often do they like to receive internal communications?
3. Which types of content resonate with them the most?

The natural flip side of this effort is to also ask ourselves:

1. What do we want employee perception to be? (vs. what it is)
2. What do we want people to remember, think and feel after seeing the video?
3. What is the call to action for each video?

And, of course, what is the tone of voice (ToV)? As we’ve noted in the past, if the corporate ToV is business casual, then our ICOMM video ToV cannot go too far astray.

Once we’ve nailed our ToV, we should also make sure that guidelines are shared with all those who communicate at a relatively mass level or at regular intervals. For example:

• Educate without being patronizing
• Be informal without being unprofessional
• Be personal without being intrusive
• Be smart but not condescending

Keeping Our Eyes on the KPIs

With all the effort we put into understanding, mapping, planning, and guiding – how do we know it’s all worth it? How do we know our videos are helping us achieve our objectives?

Well, the good news with modern marketing/internal communications – and video! – is that it’s very measurable.

We can measure views, time on site, clicks, opens, etc. It’s important to take a baseline of how other communication channels are faring, e.g. text/designed emails, portal articles, internal social channels. Then measure every month/quarter/year, the engagement rates we see with video, both versus video in previous time frames, and also versus other channels.

Other great avenues for measurement is through surveys, where you can include questions about ICOMMs and video ICOMM in your employee engagement survey.

As for specific objectives as those noted above, here are some KPIs that can be measured:

Put It in the Calendar

If you want to be super prepared and organized (and we must admit – even though it may seemingly require more effort at the outset – there’s nothing like the sublime satisfaction of planning your work and then rocking your plan) – put it in the calendar.

Just like with any other content effort – whether in the marketing department or at a press house – create a content calendar.

Of course, there will always be ad-hocs and unknowns. But, for the most part, if you align with marketing, sales, management, and HR leadership – you can know when your main target ICOMM milestones will be coming up. For example:

• Annual sales kickoff and customer event
• Key industry events
• Planned version drops
• Annual performance reviews and employee engagements survey
• Holiday greetings

You can also DIY an ICOMM video calendar. For example, initiate your very own compelling events for communication via video – such as a quarterly update from the CEO to the entire company, and from leaders to their respective business units.

Stay tuned, coming up in our next installment of enterprise Video for Dummies, we’ll be taking a look at what are the elements of a great external video strategy. Can’t wait!

See you next week!