In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday Ruth talks about how social media is keeping people updated instantly regarding the Olympics, and how some television stations are behind the times. (I was watching live Olympics this morning at 2 a.m. PST on CTV, while NBC was still repeating yesterday’s events.)
Go Canada Go!
At AHA, we’re into the Olympics. We watch the coverage at lunch and on our breaks (which are amazingly timed to see Canadians win medals). For these two weeks, our conversations are pretty Olympic focused. This includes the broadcast coverage and how the media, bloggers and citizen journalists are participating.
Times have changed. Technology has changed. How we want to get our information has changed. I am not so sure that broadcast strategies have changed enough. The fact that NBC delays coverage until U.S. prime time doesn’t make sense – thank goodness our Canadian broadcaster, CTV, doesn’t do that. Social media ensures that results are all over the place by the time NBC is even close to airing the event.
And what about the athletes who have been pulled from the games for inappropriate social media usage? That’s a whole new ball game too.
At AHA, we understand the value of using video in communication initiatives. Some of the work we do in brand journalism has video segments as the central communication tool.
One of the challenges that we face is finding the balance between what the client wants to say and what the viewer really wants to see. And sometimes that is harder to do than it should be.
We have had some passionate discussions with clients about the content and length of their videos over this. (For the record, I believe strongly in passionate discussion – even disagreement. As long as it is respectful and focuses on the topic and not on the people, a discussion where not everyone agrees can be of huge value. Done well, it can create an exceptional end product or result.) It can be hard to get someone to move away from what they want to tell and focus on the other side – what people want to hear, how they want to hear it and when they want to hear it.
In working with clients, one of our responsibilities is to provide a strategic perspective. To me, this means that I must represent the perspective of the community, the audience and/or the stakeholder group during the planning, creative and implementation stages of the process.
During planning sessions, I often ask (respectfully, of course): “Why does that matter to this audience? Who will care about that point? Does that need to be included? Does that need to be said in that way?”
For the most part, at AHA we’re not big fans of overly produced, corporate style videos. It always depends on the client’s objectives, of course, but in all of the research we have done, for all of the videos we have made (as AHA and in our prior lives before we found the happiness of AHA), time and time again it comes back to creating compelling content that the target market relates to. That doesn’t mean you don’t need good production value; it does mean that you need to understand how to tell a story that is relevant to the person you are telling it to.
Too often, video becomes overwhelmed with corporate speak, too many messages and even becomes embroiled in the politics of an organization. (If VP Smith is in the video, we have to include VP Jones. If we film at the East Office, we have to also film at the West Office. And the list goes on.) This dilutes the value of the video and moves you away from the objective – to create relevant, compelling content that connects you to the viewer.
When you are producing video for your organization, it’s crucial to take the focus off what you want to say and focus on what your community wants to hear from you.
In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday Ruth talks about the need for an organizational social media policy and references athletes using social media at the Olympics.
We are happily busy here at AHA. Busy enough that it keeps us all out of trouble, but not so busy that we aren’t able to get it all done. It’s a nice blend. Personally, I have had a busy few weeks and haven’t had time to get ahead in my AHA blog posts or AHA Fast Take Fridays. I have several things to write about, but haven’t found the time yet to put my mind to it.
This morning, I took an early ferry into Vancouver (which is what I usually do), I grabbed a coffee and sat down to write this blog post and realized A) I have a few good blog posts and articles to talk about and I want to share them all, and B) it’s a beautiful morning and I am sitting here, overlooking False Creek with a lovely dark coffee in my hand. No offense, but the call of a half an hour enjoying the view, the weather and this coffee is pretty appealing.
However, I do want to share some interesting pieces with you that are worth a read.
Ditch these 5 business writing mistakes (This is an informative post!)
Why a high Google rank is becoming ‘worthless’
How social media transformed a Canadian city
I hope you find them interesting and of value. I am off to enjoy a coffee break in my beautiful city.