What is asynchronous video and why you should be using it every day.
Not too long ago I accepted a job. Of course, before I even interviewed for the position, I did the required research on the company. Turned out the company was involved in synchronous and asynchronous video communications. “Huh? Wah? What is synchronous video communication? What is asynchronous video communication?”
In simple terms synchronous video is live video and asynchronous video is video on demand or recorded video that you can access when you want to access it. In consumer terms, it’s like recording a live news broadcast on a DVR and watching it a week later because you were too busy (or lazy) to watch it live. For example, a friend of mine records live sporting events and watches them when he wants to not when the networks want him to watch.
There are lots of reason why businesses should be using asynchronous video communication. To begin with, a quick search of the web resulted in statistics that show nearly 50% of people watch more than five videos a day. It’s clear, video communication is ubiquitous. Other stats show that 80% of the internet is video. And yet another stat, 80% of viewers remember what they watch, with half of them taking action afterward.
Beyond statistics, here are 3 ways every business can and should use asynchronous video every day.
Executive Communications & Town halls
When I did join the company, part of the routine was watching videos by the CEO. Each week he would update all employees about the company, its progress, its accomplishments, and its challenges. I did not have to watch the CEOs videos live, I could watch them after I got my daily workload completed or I could watch them before I started my day. The cool thing is that I would actually watch them. I knew it made the CEO happy that employees were watching because I also knew the CEO was using the built-in analytics to see how many people were watching, how long they stayed engaged with the video and more. It’s really the perfect way for a C suite executive to reach all employees without standing by and waiting at the water cooler or in the elevator to meet each and every one of them. Not to mention that today, there may not be a water cooler or an elevator, more and more of the workforce is distributed and working remotely.
Onboarding
When we look back at customer onboarding/training and employee onboarding/training we will ask ourselves, ”How did we train people without asynchronous video?” Not that long ago we used in person classroom training with its associated costs for travel and time. With asynchronous video those costs have disappeared. Customers and employees can learn at their own pace and in their own space. It’s a better and less expensive experience for both trainer and trainee. Win. Win. Win.
Product Launches
Typically, a product launch would require the big announcement be made in front of a live crowd, for dramatic purposes, with the required press corps there for amplification. They would be flown in and feted at the event with food and drink. Plenty of glitz and glamor—and expense. With asynchronous video not only can you launch your product with less expense, but you can also actually attract a much, much bigger audience than a live event ever could. You can employee not only creative techniques like 360-degree video along with embedded links and documents and PowerPoint presentations inside the video, but you can send the async video out to hundreds of thousands. Why would you do a product launch any other way? Or at the very least consider a hybrid event featuring both live and asynchronous communication. One of the clients of the company I work for, a major international auto manufacturer, did just that and met with such great success they are expanding their use of async video to include many more users throughout their organization.
- Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.
- 68% of consumers prefer watching videos to learn about new products or services, as compared to articles, infographics, ebooks, and presentations.
Whether it’s the company I work for or yours, asynchronous video can be effective and efficient. However, before you leap into a video first business strategy look for a video platform that has the features you need to drive success. Look for a platform that can not only help you create video but add value to the video you’ve created. Truth is, it really doesn’t matter what platform you use to create video—Zoom, Microsoft Teams, whatever. You need one that can manage your video content, secure the content, and analyze and measure the content. Without those last three components, you will not get the intelligence nor the ROI from your asynchronous video communication strategy.
Russ Cohen is Director of Creative Services and Content for Qumu
Qumu has been making video smarter with its video engagement platform serving the Fortune 500 and Tech 1000. Qumu has committed to a 100% remote workforce that works from wherever, whenever, forever.
