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Key takeaways:

• Executives on social media build visibility, trust, and influence in ways brand channels can’t match

• Snackable video humanizes leadership and thrives in algorithm-driven platforms

• Trust scales when leaders show up online with consistent, authentic content

For large-scale businesses across financial services, consulting, insurance, and law, it’s a competitive advantage to ensure your brand is seen, trusted, and referred to by people. Executive social is an effective strategy to stand out in today’s attention economy. Featuring business leaders on social media creates a powerful mix of authenticity, accessibility, and strategy designed to meet today’s audiences where they are.

For field sales and marketing, corporate communications, learning and enablement, and video services teams in highly regulated industries, this isn't about going viral. It's about building influence, credibility, and trust at scale — all on platforms and in formats that align with how people consume information today.

Let’s break it down.

Why executive presence on social media matters

When executives show up consistently and authentically online, they don’t just build their own reputation. They elevate the entire brand. In parallel with the attention economy, in today’s trust economy, people follow people more than logos. And they engage with content that feels real.

Visibility = trust & influence

A strong executive presence online directly translates to trust. Leaders who post on social media drive more than awareness — they drive credibility and emotional connection. Customers, investors, and employees are much more likely to engage with a real person than a press release.

Reputation and reach

Here’s the kicker: 71% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company with a socially active CEO.‍

And those executives don’t need to outspend the brand to outperform it — 90% of top-engaged employee social posts are from CEOs.

‍This isn’t a fluke. It’s algorithm favoritism at work, rewarding relatable content over corporate polish.

Real-time leadership

Whether it’s LinkedIn or Twitter, executive social offers a direct line to the audience. No gatekeepers, no delays.

Social lets leaders respond to trends, share insights, and show up in the moment. It’s a way to be proactive, rather than reactive, in an ever-changing marketplace. For financial institutions sharing information about new investing trends, insurance companies breaking down impacts from complex regulatory changes, or law firms messaging around new legislation, it’s important to match speed to market with insight and authority.

Snackable video amplifies reach and authenticity

Now let’s talk format. Why does video, especially snackable video, work so well for executive social?

Humanize the leader

Text is great, but it can’t match the nuance of a facial expression or the energy of someone speaking directly to the camera. Short-form video shows tone, emotion, and personality, turning executives from abstract leaders into relatable humans.

Bite-sized = Big impact

The attention economy favors brevity. On LinkedIn, videos under 15 seconds consistently drive more engagement than longer clips. Think of it as the espresso shot of content — small, sharp, and packed with value.

Authenticity over polish

Some of the most effective executive posts aren’t studio-polished. They’re casual, selfie-style check-ins that feel more like a conversation than a commercial. In regulated spaces, where trust is precious, that kind of authenticity wins hearts and more reach thanks to search and social algorithms.

Social platforms (and audiences) prefer snackable

If you're wondering whether the platform even wants your video content, the answer is a resounding yes.

Viral shareability

Social media posts with video get 48% more shares than text posts. And video is the most widely shared content type on LinkedIn. It’s not just about producing good content. It’s about creating content designed to spread.

Increased reach and consumption

LinkedIn video watch time grew 45% year-over-year, and users now post video twice as often as other formats. In other words, the professional audience has spoken, and they prefer video.

Executives who “go all-in” on LinkedIn video often report millions of impressions, a clear sign that the platform rewards personal, video-first content.

Visibility builds trust and credibility

In highly regulated industries, trust isn’t just nice to have. It’s non-negotiable. Fortunately, executive social is one of the most effective ways to build it.

“Social CEO” viewed as more open and honest

When leaders post regularly, they demystify the brand and humanize the business. 86% of executives say that a socially active CEO is seen as more open and transparent.

A more trustworthy face of the business

In finance, one of the most trust-sensitive industries, consumers trust CEOs who are active on social up to 9x more than those who aren’t. That’s the power of visible leadership, and it’s magnified by video.

Higher engagement, greater impact with executive social

Let’s bring it full circle. In a digital landscape where attention is scarce and algorithms favor personal, engaging content, executive social isn’t optional — it’s a strategic imperative.

By combining executive voice with snackable video, organizations can:

• Break through the noise
• Build trust at scale
• Drive real business outcomes across internal and external audiences

And the best part? When scaled across the org, the impact multiplies.👉 Read how companies unlock results with scalable snackable video

Key takeaways:

• ‍Templated content creation is the most cost-effective approach
• Socialive enables creative teams to set brand-appropriate templates
• Innovative AI can make the process faster and smarter

‍Artificial intelligence is bringing to life concepts previously thought to be mythical in video creation. AI powers people without a background in video to create video masterpieces — and more of them. The way to easily scale up the amount of content you can create: automated video templates.

In our first post on AI in video creation, we specified how AI powers people to easily create videos. We then touched on the AI-powered tools that make video editing fast and easy for everyone.

We've also tied time and cost savings to automated editing tools to help understand the ROI of these platforms. But you know what's faster than fast editing? Zero-touch editing.

Let's dive into what it looks like when there’s no need to edit a video. We'll show how you can turn a recording into a final video in a zero-touch workflow — the Holy Grail of video creation.

Unlock potential with automated video templates

Editing tends to be the sticking point for most video projects. From complex brand videos down to quick messages, once the footage is recorded and all of the approved assets and B-roll have been rounded up, it’s time to turn to the professional in the room.

But that doesn’t have to be the case for every project.

There are many types of videos where it should be easy to add a branded look and feel that businesses expect in every creation. Consider a quick intro video from a team lead to a new employee, thought leadership from a subject matter expert, or even the TL;DR videos we create for Socialive blog posts (check above!!!) — anyone can create content like this in a templated format.

Just record, apply the finishing touches, and the final video is ready in minutes.

This type of approach will make it so that everyone is capable of creating a video ready for prime time. Your editors will thank you, too. They can focus on the big projects while you quickly and easily create as many videos as you like without sacrificing quality.

Here’s how it works.

Automated zero-touch editing

The quickest way to accomplish any repeatable task is to work within a template.

Think of how a craftsman works within a mold. It first takes an experienced craftsman to design the mold and understand what machinery or tools are needed to create the finished product. But once everything is set up, they can leave it to an apprentice or even a DIY enthusiast to add the ingredients and push the button that spits out a high-quality creation.

Video templates are the video expert’s equivalent of the craftsman’s mold.

The professional video creator sets up the template with the appropriate intro animation, selects the placement of a lower third, decides what the layout should be, picks the outro, and selects the music bed — all based on the type of video project.

All you have to do is record your piece, and the auto-applied template does the rest. It really is that simple.

Speeding up video creation

The video creation process has long been cumbersome, but with AI, it’s becoming easier for anyone to partake and cut down on the time it takes to make a video.

AI can recognize the type of video content a person wants to create based on the automated transcript from the recording. Keywords in the transcript, the person’s name, or the person’s role could all be used so AI “knows” which template to apply.

Then the video goes through the template, snackable clips are created, and the final result looks just like what a video pro would have done in an editing platform — in a fraction of the time.

Even in an easy-to-use editor, there are still a few decisions and clicks that need to be made. AI-powered video templates are the most efficient route to the same result.

Professional video quality, no experts needed

The biggest benefit of AI-powered video templates is the amount of flexibility it provides large, distributed companies.

You know you have a number of videos you want to create. You’d love to record a quick message to provide insights at the drop of a hat, but your video services team is already overwhelmed. More than 90% of video services professionals say they are overtaxed by the rising demand for more and more content.

So rather than giving them a bunch of busy work, have them set up a template. You’re then free to create videos at will without adding to the video team’s workload.

Easily create professional-grade videos within a template

Here’s an example of a type of video where a template is perfect.

Financial advisors, on average, need tons of personalized engagement with clients and prospects to do their job effectively. Advisors can get their messaging out at scale and increase business with recorded videos. But many advisors aren’t formally trained in video — that’s OK.

The templated workflow lets an advisor create a market update or overview of new offerings within minutes. Assuming the template has already been set up, creating a video is just a few easy steps.

‍

• Draft the message, get approval

This, paired with final content reviews, will probably take the longest. After writing a script and showing the need for the video, it’s up to the brand and legal team to approve the message

• Record the message

Once it’s approved, which can be easier if creating the same type of video over and over again, the advisor hops into a self-guided recording session and delivers the perfect take with crisp picture quality!

• Let the AI do its magic

Now that the recording session is complete, the video file is automatically transferred to the next step. AI “recognizes” the type of video the recording is for, selects and applies the template to the best take, and then creates the final video. Now it’s ready for review.

• Final content reviews

The video is instantly transferred to the brand team’s review portal via a back-end integration. There’s one final review, and since the video concept was already approved, this last step goes forward seamlessly.

• Publish the video

Using those same back-end integrations, the approved video is sent to the final destination. Finally, the video is instantly sent everywhere it needs to go, such as any social media site, content management system, or Slack channel.

These steps are easy to follow and are highly repeatable. It’s time for your video program to take off!

Ways video creators can create video templates

We’ve mostly focused on DIY video creators to this point. For the video strategists, the brand teams, and the experts who will set up these templates, don’t worry. It’s a fairly straightforward process.

AI video templates are meant to save you time. They save time both by removing some of the low-stakes tasks from your plate and in the process of setting up the templates themselves.

Think of any no-code design platform. All you need to do is drag and drop assets into place, choose the order and layouts for each, make sure the styling matches your brand, and save your template.

That’s it.

You can actually use Socialive’s traditional studio interface to give you an idea of how it works. Choose a layout that fits your video, create your scenes to arrange each piece of media, and add graphics or other overlays in a single click.

Even without AI, creating a video template is an easy way to set yourself up for success. All you have to do is add the recording, and your video content is ready to go. It’s a low-touch way to add to a recording and create a well-crafted video.

Set it and forget it: scalable video creation

Every video professional knows that working within a video template makes it easier to create the same type of content. It doesn't matter if it's powered by AI or in a traditional timeline editor — templates are the way to go.

This is the way to a scalable approach to video creation, AI just makes it faster and easier for everyone. Now, video teams and anyone in an organization can team up to create as much high-quality content as they like without needing to spend more money or dragging out timelines.

Automated video templates are truly the “Holy Grail” of video creation.

"It’s important to give people an easy way to record that message and then not having to touch it again. The ability to do just a little bit of automated polish is critical — I think this is a bit of a Holy Grail."
- Craig Chapman, Sr. Manager of Broadcast and Live Events, VMware

Transforming everyone into video creators

Creating in a rinse-and-repeat process may not be perfect for every video project. But there are many types of videos where automated video templates are ideal. No need to reach out to your video services team to create that quick piece of thought leadership — you can do it on your own, and it will look amazing!

We’re dedicated to this idea, democratizing video creation. At Socialive, everything we do is geared toward making your videos top-notch! The platform makes it easier for you to create and then share your content.

Even if your team is taking baby steps down the AI path, such as only using automation in parts of the editing process, there's still immense time and cost savings.

To get a more complete idea of what a business can do with video templates and a cohesive video infrastructure, check out the VMware case study. A templated, repeatable process saved the company thousands of dollars in a single video project.

Key takeaways:

• ‍‍AI makes video editing faster and easier
• AI can replace specific mundane editing tasks
• Anyone can make professional edits with AI‍

Yes, artificial intelligence is here! As we covered in part one of our AI video creation series, AI isn’t here to replace content creators but rather to make parts of the creation process easier, saving businesses and creators time and money.

In this piece, we’ll walk through some of the major ways AI video editing makes it faster and easier than ever to edit video. If you want to get an idea of how much time and money can be saved, check out our piece on the ROI of automated editing.

For those ready to see exactly what AI can do, let's dive in.

The benefits of AI video editing tools

As we mentioned before, many AI-powered video editing tools refer to themselves as “magic.” This great innovation can seem mystical, but it has very real business uses and benefits.

The true magic isn’t in how AI makes a specific task within video editing easier, but rather in how all the features combine to make it easier to create more video content.

As Vimeo called out in the unveiling of their AI-powered editing tools, 80% of people prefer videos over written text.

This means that better editing tools benefit an audience that craves more video. Making it easier to create video removes the barrier many people have to leveraging the most impactful form of digital communication.

With AI editing tools, creating video is no longer a cumbersome, specialized task. Empowering everyone to create on their own, without an expert involved in every part of the process, lowers overall costs and improves the ROI of each piece of content.

Types of AI video editing tools

There are a number of ways AI transforms video editing, but let’s focus on six that the majority of business users can leverage right now without any video editing experience.

Automated captions and transcripts

AI can be used to automatically generate caption and transcript files. The machine pulls from the audio track of the video to generate .srt and .txt files with timing.

If you’ve ever had to manually transcribe long videos and manually add captions — you’re welcome.

Text-based editing

As the AI creates a transcript, it pairs the words and timings to the picture and audio in the editor, so you can really think of this as “transcription-based video editing.”

Rather than scrubbing through a timeline to make changes, simply select text on screen to edit the video. It’s important to note that text-based editing is just the user-friendly version of the editor. The traditional editing timeline still exists for more precise edits.

Automated video summarization and chaptering

As it generates a transcript, AI can repurpose the text to create a quick overview of the content within the video. The AI uses the transcript’s timings and text to create sections and titles for key moments and topics throughout the video.

Disfluency removal

AI can automatically remove long pauses, stumbles, filler words, and portions of video that clearly won’t make the final cut.

Color matching

Balancing the color between multiple pieces of video can be especially tricky, but AI can automatically match the color between different clips. With a click of a button, sync up color profiles and temperatures automatically.

Auto templates

By setting up templates in advance, paired with AI “understanding” the content of the recording, AI can automatically suggest or apply branding such as custom intros, outros, graphics, and lower thirds to create a final video.

The main thing that most video editors will recognize here — these are all tasks that require a specific bit of expertise but are often repetitive, low-stakes tasks.

If a creator is short on time, they might not touch up each subtle color correction, they may let the social media site auto-generate (usually hit-or-miss) captions, and would possibly disregard chapters for the final video.

Each of the mentioned tools does a specific task that would have previously been delegated to a low-level copywriter, designer, or intern in an ideal situation. Otherwise, this is work that’s well beneath the skill set of a seasoned professional.

Let the machine do the grunt work and let the pros focus on those complex edits. Simply manage those dull tasks rather than making them hands-on edits.

Faster editing with AI tools

Great, so we have these AI video editing tools, now, how do they speed up the process?

‍Every individual works at their own pace, and each situation is unique, but here are some industry averages for traditional forms of editing and how much time AI can save editors. This is the baseline to determining the ROI of AI video editing.

Saving time with automated captions and transcripts

Multiple sources agree that for every minute of video, it takes five to ten minutes to create a final caption file. That might not sound like much, but that’s someone who regularly creates captions and is used to that workflow taking 5x – 10x the length of the video.

A much more scalable approach is to have AI produce the V1 of the captions and then have someone edit it, which can be done end-to-end for even lengthy content in minutes.

Rather than scrolling through the video and typing along as the audio goes, it’s much quicker to simply refine an existing caption file. AI removes that burden from people and produces a file nearly instantly.

Intuitive text-based editing

As we’ve said before, video editing is difficult for people unfamiliar with the tools and best practices in place. Even if you know what you’re doing, it might take between 30 minutes and a couple of hours to edit each minute of video. Every second saved while editing each minute of video can make a huge difference.

Text-based editors make it a visual experience. No need to have the perfect headphones to listen to the audio as you scroll through, searching for portions you should keep or cut. Edit the script just like you would a document, and AI will apply your changes.

Automatic video summaries and chapters

Similar to captioning, coming up with a sufficient video summary and creating chapters for each moment is a hands-on, manual process. While it might not be as exhaustive as captioning, writing the description and coming up with the best moments requires, well, consuming the entire video.

Have fun with that one, podcasters.

With AI using the automated transcript to create segments, you have a great starting point. Rather than manually keyframing each moment, you automatically have a description and chapters from the start.

Automatically remove stumbles

Google points to research that states there’s a 50% chance for disfluency in a sentence of 10 – 13 words. Meaning, if your job is to clean up stutters, repetitions, long pauses, and mistakes throughout a lengthy recording, you likely have a lot of work ahead of you.

Automatically removing some, if not all, of those blemishes, means that editors simply don’t have to worry about going on a search-and-destroy mission for each of those moments.

Automated color balancing

In most cases, it takes a professional to catch coloring inconsistencies. It’s why in large productions, one of the first things each camera operator is told by the director is to white balance their camera. And that’s in an environment where all the recording devices are uniform.

It takes a very keen eye to catch slight imbalances across different videos captured across a variety of devices.

Since color grading and temperature can both be calculated, AI can do a much better job of catching those slight inconsistencies and balancing them. Rather than having a professional go through each clip with a fine-tooth comb, the clips are automatically color corrected.

Automatically apply graphics and branding

Manually applying graphics is mundane, mindless work. While non-experts can be trained on how to apply lower thirds, branding, and other visuals created ahead of time, it still takes time to apply and then render those changes in a timeline editor.

Those quick changes can be automatically applied, taking that workflow from minutes down to an instant. By using AI to automatically apply templates, those additions are made in an automated zero-touch workflow.

Empowering everyone to edit with AI

Perhaps the most impactful part of automated editing tools is that they make each task simple for anyone to manage parts of the editing process.

Captioning made easy

With one click of a button, anyone can produce transcripts and captions. This makes adding subtitles or on-screen captions quick for anyone.

User-friendly editing

Timeline editors are very specific to video editing, but anyone can rearrange text in a way that makes sense. Quick edits, such as rearranging parts of the story or cutting out entire sections, is easier for everyone.

Instantly call out moments in content

Many people outside of content creators might not notice descriptions and chapters in videos they consume online. Without a second thought, it’s easy to have those helpful navigable bits of information tied to the video.

Fix disfluencies and mistakes

Just the word “disfluency” is real inside baseball. Catching those stumbles might not be difficult, but stitching the footage around them together in a way that makes sense sure is. Leave it to the AI to catch and fix those mistakes.

Color corrections anyone can do

If the term “white balancing” goes over your head, that’s OK. Without needing to determine if a clip is warmer or cooler than the others, the AI will handle them for you.

Zero-touch post-production

We think “zero-touch post-production” speaks for itself. AI makes those easy, standardized branding additions so you don’t have to.

With this in mind, video creators without specific editing expertise can still do parts of the editing process — or can even be self-sufficient in video editing.

Easier video editing for everyone with AI

AI video editing tools are to video what the Crock-Pot and Air Fryer are to cooking. While you still need the right ingredients and should probably follow the guidance of a professional, pretty much anyone can create a masterpiece in moments.

Ideally, businesses will empower individuals to create without over-reliance on video experts, leveraging the pros as creative oversight rather than tacticians, making the entire process more cost-effective.

Text-based editing makes video editing as simple as cleaning up copy in a Word doc.

Auto-applied templates and graphics, color corrections, and chaptering all speed up manual parts of the editing process that take time but not necessarily tons of expertise.

These are just a few examples of how editing video with AI powers a user-friendly editing experience — but even this AI-driven experience isn’t radically different from what we’re already used to. AI just makes the entire process faster and allows everyone to pull off professional edits.

The leading enterprise video creation platform now makes it even easier to source and record real people — supplemented with AI to enhance, repurpose, and translate content automatically and accelerate impact across the enterprise

‍LOS ANGELES — August 6th, 2025 — Socialive, the AI-powered enterprise video creation platform, announced the launch of a major platform evolution that introduces powerful capabilities that simplify and scale authentic video creation across the enterprise.

With the release of CreatorSuite and major enhancements to ProducerSuite, organizations can now source, guide, and edit high-quality video from employees, executives, and subject-matter experts faster and more effectively than ever. Later this year, Socialive will expand the platform even further with AISuite, a collection of AI-powered tools that automatically enhance, repurpose, and translate video content — boosting ROI and reach without adding time, cost, or complexity.

The Moment: Authenticity Is the Future — AI Is the Accelerator

Short-form, human-first video has become essential for driving brand visibility, employee engagement, and executive communication. From snackable clips to podcasts, livestreams, and webinars, audiences respond to real people — especially when messages are delivered quickly, clearly, and with professional polish.

At the same time, AI is transforming how enterprise content is produced and scaled. According to McKinsey, AI-powered automation could generate up to $4 trillion in annual marketing and content value by automating production, streamlining localization, and unlocking greater ROI from every asset.

“With the new and improved Socialive, enterprises can create more video, faster — without sacrificing quality, control, or compliance,” said David Moricca, CEO and Founder of Socialive. “By combining structured workflows with AI-powered enhancements, we’re helping teams scale human-first content that’s on-brand, impactful, and ready for every channel.”

What’s New?

• CreatorSuite, available today, is the enterprise-ready solution for scaling short-form video creation across departments. With smart recording invites, built-in teleprompters, customizable templates, text-based editing, and structured projects for managing approvals, CreatorSuite empowers teams across marketing, communications, employer brand, and L&D to capture high-quality, compliant, on-brand video — quickly and at scale. Learn more by watching our on-demand webinar, “Snackable Success.”

• ProducerSuite, now enhanced, provides studio-quality production for podcasts, livestreams, and webinars — directly from your browser. Recent updates include improved Tech Checks and Producer Controls, which provide the ability to remotely manage guest devices in Studio. Whether for live or simulated-live experiences, ProducerSuite delivers broadcast-quality results without external tools or vendors.

Coming Soon

AISuite, launching later in 2025, is Socialive’s new AI engine for unlocking more value from every video. Fully integrated with CreatorSuite for short-form video and ProducerSuite for long-form productions, AISuite enhances quality, surfaces key insights, amplifies reach, and streamlines workflows, helping enterprises deliver more high-quality, on-brand video at scale.

AISuite unlocks four key advantages:

• Enhance: Make every recording look and sound flawless with AI-powered tools like eye contact, studio voice, beauty filter, video mastering, and super resolution.‍
• Highlight: Surface key moments instantly with automated clips, highlight reels, chapters, and summaries — turning hours of content into digestible, usable assets.‍
• Amplify: Extend reach across audiences and channels with AI-generated social posts, blogs, emails, translations, and dubbing — without added cost or effort.‍
• Streamline: Automate compliance checks, simplify content search, and accelerate approvals with batch workflows that reduce risk and speed time-to-market.

“AISuite will turn a single video into a full campaign — professionally polished, ready for every channel, and localized for every market,” added Moricca. “That’s real ROI unlocked in seconds, not days.”

In addition to AISuite, Socialive is developing AI-powered translation capabilities, which will let you localize video content and ensure compliance for diverse global audiences in 75 languages, increasing reach.

Built for the Enterprise

Socialive is designed for regulated and global organizations that demand both scale and control. With Enterprise Controls like SSO, department-level Spaces, role-based permissions, approval workflows, and audit logs — backed by SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications — teams can collaborate securely while ensuring brand consistency and compliance at every step.

“Socialive is redefining what it means to create enterprise video. It’s no longer about choosing between speed and quality, or creativity and compliance. Our platform empowers strategic leaders and creatives alike — from video services and marketing to communications and field operations — to scale their authentic message without the typical video production roadblocks. This is the future of enterprise video creation technology: fast, flexible, and built for the way people actually communicate today.”

David Moricca
CEO & Founder, Socialive

About Socialive

Socialive is the AI-powered enterprise video platform that helps global and highly-regulated organizations scale both short-form and long-form video — fast, cost-effectively, and without sacrificing quality, control, or compliance.

Press Contact

Jennifer Burak

VP, Marketing, Socialive

Key takeaways:

• ‍‍Video creators of all abilities benefit from AI
• AI can allow creators to do more without diminishing returns
• AI "centaurs" (humans assisted by machines) and Agentic AI are the way of the future

‍Artificial intelligence. The latest tech du jour or the innovation that we've been waiting for?

AI is here to stay — and that's a good thing for content creators!

It's the answer to many inefficiencies and issues we run into each day. AI makes video faster, easier, and cheaper to create.

Rather than thinking of it as a new way to create content, think of AI as a catalyst that enhances what enterprise video creation platforms like Socialive already do well — recording, editing, publishing, and livestreaming.

This post, the first in our series on how AI enhances video creation, will go through the benefits of AI in video creation, lightly touch on how it all works, and, most importantly, debunk myths about AI video creation.

AI empowers people without deep video expertise and the grizzled video veteran alike, tearing down what were previously high barriers to creating professional-quality video.

The way we harness AI in video creation will largely change the way we work and the amount of content we are able to create. But the key appeal of video remains the same: highlighting the voices of real people.

AI video tools vs. synthetic media

First off, let's make it clear that by AI in video, we're referring to AI tools and features that make it easier for people to create video. We’re not talking about synthetic media, which refers to computer-generated images, text, and speech.

Whether it’s ChatGPT, Midjourney, or an avatar-based video generator, synthetic media is usually what people are referring to when voicing fears of “the robots taking over.” That’s not what we’re talking about here.

Those types of generative AI have some nifty uses, such as cleaning up a script or helping with reshoots. But they could never fully replace real people and years of actual experience.

AI tools vs. synthetic media: Inspector Gadget vs. Terminator

All of the ‘80s and ‘90s kids out there should remember the depictions of the “future” machines. There’s the dystopian, machine-attacks-humans future. Skynet, the Terminator, the machines take over the world.

But that’s not the reality of what AI presents in video creation. AI is much more like cybernetics used by people to do incredible things previously thought to be unachievable.

Enter Inspector Gadget.

The titular character of the popular show was equipped with an array of devices and tools designed to make him that much better at his job. Better, stronger, faster.

Of course, one of the main themes of the show was that while all the gadgets in the world made Inspector Gadget unique, his intuition and uniquely human qualities (plus, of course, Penny and Brain) drove his success. The tools just helped him get from Point A to Point B quicker.

For those who are deep down the rabbit hole of AI, you may know this concept as "centaurs." It's the idea that AI is only used to augment people, not replace them. The "Go Go Gadgets" are only meant to help us.

That’s what AI video creation tools are here to do — supercharge our creativity. We can build better video creation tools. We have the technology.

What AI video creation really means

Arthur C. Clarke was right when he said that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” — that’s why so many new AI video creation tools refer to themselves as “AI magic.”

Don’t worry, we’re not magicians. We’ll present specific examples of AI and its uses in content creation throughout this series to cut through the mystery without any sleight of hand.

AI video tools allow users to record and select the best take, add graphics, add music, add in other video clips, delete moments, and transfer the finished video — basically, anything that someone can do with a traditional video tool, just easier.

Think of the difference between manually altering raw footage in a program like Adobe Premiere vs. using a platform like Canva to apply pre-set templates.

AI creates an easy, user-friendly experience that anyone can pick up quickly, combined with the power and customization of traditional video creation platforms. That’s the true idea behind AI-powered video creation.

Fast, easy, powerful video creation. For all.

Saving time and money with faster, easier video creation

By making it faster and easier to create video content, businesses will save both time and money. The value prop of AI in video creation is pretty much the same as every great piece of technology — it’s all about efficiency.

VMware saved $100,000 across a 150-video project by saving time in file transfers. This was a project that required tons of guest recordings, which included the occasional mistake, and short videos that were combined into longer videos. Consistent branding (and coloring) was needed across all the videos. Socialive made it faster and easier for the team to get all of this done.

AI would have driven even higher cost savings by multiplying the amount of time the VMware team saved. By layering AI over already existing video creation platforms, businesses will see their ROI rise exponentially.

Much like in the way Socialive has saved businesses time and money in the overall creation process, AI makes it that much more efficient and cost-effective.

Easier, better, faster, stronger video creation with AI

Bill Gates is credited with saying, “The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don't really even notice it, so it's part of everyday life.” When it comes to AI in video creation, that’s the ultimate goal — to integrate these powerful tools into every creator’s workflow in a way that becomes normal and boring in the near future.

Yes, AI makes video creation easier, better, faster, stronger. But that’s only if the tools are built in a way that makes sense for everyone. Not just professionals with a degree from Full Sail.

The heart of what we do at Socialive is empowering people of all ability levels to create professional video. That's because while a chemist or financial advisor might have decades of experience in their field, they don't have the same level of expertise in video creation.

By making it easy for people without a wealth of knowledge in video to contribute or create, the video creation process becomes more cost-effective for companies with a huge appetite for video content.

We use AI to make the job easier for people to focus on delivering the take and crafting killer content.

If you’re ready to dive deeper into AI in video creation, check out part two of our series. It's all about AI in video editing.

Key takeaways:

• ‍‍Your internal subject-matter experts can get your point across in an authentic way
• Outsourcing thought leadership runs up the budget
• Personable video is perfect for the Growing Middle tier of content

‍You just put the finishing touches on your thought leadership campaign. You have the data and messaging you want to get across. You’ve identified the target audience. You know the precise channels you want to leverage.

But you’ve got little-to-no budget to work with to promote it.

For many marketers, this might feel like the point of no return, and the campaign needs to be deprioritized. But there’s a lever that just about every marketer can pull — their internal subject-matter experts.

Once you know what needs to be said and how to say it, you only need to identify who should say it. There might not be a better place to turn than in-house.

Using your own subject-matter experts will help with the budget, but also goes a long way to humanize your content with real perspectives from your people. The trick is to identify the right person to deliver the message. Once you do, it’s off to the races with your in-house subject-matter experts leading the charge.

Cost savings of in-house video production

Outsourcing video creation is expensive. Agencies, travel, and in-person video shoots all add up.

The ROI of in-house content creation is easy to recognize. Fewer moving parts, less money spent on agencies, and less of a need to rely on others.

For an earlier piece, we outlined that just the act of sending an internal video team to do an on-site recording can cost nearly $5000. So many marketers leave video out of their thought leadership campaigns due to these costs.

But this is where the “Growing Middle” of video creation shines.

Most projects won’t meet the justification of a $25,000 studio shoot just for a few promo videos and a social clip or two. Still, many need to be of a much higher quality than Zoom or other meeting tools can deliver. This middle tier of content creation using digital video platforms can hit the mark.

Video is a must for each campaign to help with promos, teasers, social content, short explainers, and a number of other ways to distill the information into a digestible format, especially at the top of the funnel. A 5000-word PDF won’t hit the mark there.

This is why there’s a need for a subject-matter expert to drive the point home.

What to look for in a potential subject-matter expert

OK, so you’re convinced video should be a priority! Now comes the hard part — identifying your SME and then getting them on camera.

The first piece is pretty intuitive, but still needs to be thought out. You know the messaging for the campaign better than anyone. Your SME needs to be someone who knows the material inside and out. They may have been the same person you met with for an informational session or the individual whose research you’re promoting.

For example, we met with Naomi Titleman for a campaign about the power of video for DEI and HR professionals. We recorded her with both the written piece and the promotional videos in mind — one of which is featured at the top of this blog.

Your on-camera SME should:

• Have specific expertise and significant experience related to the topic
• Be someone capable of speaking freely on the topic without the need of a script
• Be a more senior team member
• Have availability to meet for a 10 to 15-minute recording session

Titleman hit the mark in each of those categories. She has ample experience in the field of HR, she hosts her own video podcast, is the co-founder of her company, and had just enough time on the calendar to meet with us.

It’s best to prepare your speaker well in advance of any recording session, so they can get their thoughts and notes together. Plus, this will streamline the recording session for the sake of your SME’s calendar.

Now comes the easy part — recording your thought leader, editing the video, and getting it out to the right channel.

How to quickly create thought leadership video content

First step, set up a date and time where you and the speaker can meet. You should do this in a high-quality recording platform. Of course, we recommend our own, but you should be covered so long as you can capture the speaker in HD. Plus, your speaker can feel confident and relaxed using our in-platform teleprompter.

Next, the video needs to be edited down to the perfect soundbite to promote the rest of the campaign. Socialive’s CreatorSuite is another great example of a platform to use. It should allow a way to quickly find the right spot, trim out the rest, add branding, and get the clip on its way.

All in all, this should ideally be a same-day project — not a days-long journey to create the video.

Of course, our marketing team follows this process. Here’s an example of one of our recording and editing walkthroughs for a video featuring an SME.

Outsourcing thought leadership has a fixed cost

So why go through the process of recording everything yourself? Why not just pass along the work to an agency to handle the recording? Why not just draft up a script and send it over to an external SME with a bit of notoriety?

These tactics drive up costs — and remember, we’re working with a thin budget here.

Using freelance business analysts and consultants

Many business analysts and consultants can serve as great spokespeople for a digital campaign. They specialize in thought leadership, and analysts are great at digging into the research.

The average business analyst charges around $60 per hour of work. Everything from reviewing the data, crafting a narrative, and recording their content counts as billable work.

Custom market research projects

Hiring a consulting firm or other group to do primary or custom research and own the project end-to-end guarantees that your team doesn’t need to do as much work on the front end. It should be expected that video content, promotional materials, and rich content are all a part of the package.

But this is the most cost-prohibitive approach.

A custom research project can cost between $20,000 and $50,000 per project. Again, the benefit here is that it can be a hands-off approach for the marketing team.

This probably wouldn’t be a realistic option since you’ve already done the legwork on the research, and cost is a factor.

Influencer marketing and paid spokespeople

Many marketers will choose to hire an influencer or well-known expert on the topic to be the face of the campaign.

For a mid-tier business influencer, you could expect to spend somewhere between $250 and $1250 per video. It’s not nearly as costly as outsourcing the entire project, but it’s still much more expensive than turning to your own internal SMEs.

Besides, hiring someone to speak on your company’s behalf is pretty obviously a paid promotion.

There are clever ways to make it seem more authentic — such as working your messaging into organic content that the expert or creator is already known for. Creating a roundtable or webinar on the topic and letting them be the face of the promotion.

But this still risks coming off as inauthentic and can’t replicate the real experience of someone who specializes in the area you’re highlighting.

Cost-effective, authentic content in the Growing Middle

We’ve mentioned authenticity a few times now. There’s a reason why — your audience wants to know the real opinions and experiences of real people. Paid sponsorships defeat the purpose of creating authentic thought leadership content.

There is space for the larger, $50K project, but it’s much more scalable to have more cost-effective solutions. The “Growing Middle” fits this concept perfectly. High-quality, professional video content that matches the effort and thought that has gone into the campaign. Just with a more cost-effective approach.

The best way to sum up the Growing Middle: the ease and flexibility of self-service video tools combined with the power and quality of a studio shoot. Striking that balance ensures that your costs stay down as you launch your thought leadership campaign.

Again, your internal SME has as much knowledge on the subject matter as anyone. Rather than using them as an auxiliary resource, make them the primary focus of your external-facing content. Allow your SME to provide their perspective in a real, human way, and your audience will connect with them and what they have to say.

How to position your in-house subject-matter experts

The best way to present your data, research, insights, and positions is with your people. Your in-house SME might not have the same level of media training as a professional influencer or a paid consultant, but they know the material better than anyone.

Authenticity, storytelling, and a genuine approach to your content allow your audience to resonate with it. This person-to-person connection is tough to replicate in a high-budget production.

Take a critical look internally, think through who is right to speak to the material, and take the time to flesh out content with your people. Your audience will thank you.

Once you’ve identified your thought leader, you need to figure out what kind of content you want to create with them. We previously put together a quick guide on positioning thought leaders. While the post focuses on DEI thought leaders, the types of videos and sample content work across many thought leadership campaigns — particularly summarizing industry research and creating educational content.

Zoom RTMP (real-time messaging protocol) ingest allows you to securely stream video content directly into a Zoom webinar or event from an external source.

‍This feature is handy for professional broadcasts, as it enables you to use Socialive to produce, stream directly into a Zoom session, and then repurpose it into other content.

Here are the steps to setting up your preferred third-party video production tool with Zoom so you can upgrade the quality of your webinars and virtual events in Zoom.

Enable RTMP ingest in Zoom

• You must have a Zoom Sessions or Zoom Events account (these are paid plans that also require Zoom Workplace).
  • Note: Zoom Webinars not included
• Go to your Zoom account settings.
• Click into the "Livestream" tab
• Toggle on the "Incoming livestream RTMP" option.

Setup view for single sessions

Set up RTMP ingest

• Select the "Choose saved stream key" to accept an established RTMP stream.
• You’ll need to provide an RTMP URL and a stream key. These are typically provided by your video production software.

Setup view for multiple sessions

Connect Socialive to Zoom

• Open the Socialive Studio and navigate to your livestream settings.
• In the streaming settings, enter the RTMP URL and stream key that Zoom provides.
• Start the stream from your software, and it will send the video feed to Zoom.
• In Socialive, you can create and save an RTMP distribution channel.

Go live on Zoom

• Once the RTMP connection is established and the stream is active, you can start your Zoom webinar.
• The video from your external streaming software will appear in Zoom, allowing you to broadcast high-quality video to your participants.

Managing the RTMP livestream

• Once the livestream starts, the stream will appear in the “Livestream panel” in Zoom. Click “Start stream” to bring the livestream into the webinar.
• The stream will appear as a feed within the webinar. Click “Start webinar” to broadcast — attendees will NOT see it until the webinar has started.
• RTMP can be managed from within Zoom itself, or within Socialive.
• The “livestream” panel within Zoom allows you to preview the incoming livestream, view the quality of the connection feed, control the volume of the incoming livestream, and stop the stream from sending to the webinar.

Use cases for Zoom RTMP ingest

• Professional webinars: Enhance the quality of your webinars with advanced graphics, lower thirds, and pre-recorded video.
• Virtual events: Stream multi-camera events or incorporate external content like interviews and panel discussions.
• Corporate communications: Broadcast high-quality, professionally produced content for internal or external communications.

Advantages of using Zoom RTMP ingest

• High-quality video: Allows for TV-broadcast style production value with the use of professional video production tools.
• Flexibility: You can integrate a variety of multimedia content, including overlays, pre-recorded videos, and multiple camera angles right from your browser.
• Wider audience reach: Stream to larger audiences who might not all be on the Zoom platform by simulcasting to other platforms like YouTube or Facebook.

Zoom’s recommended stream settings

• Audio quality: Stereo, 192Kbps, 48Khz, AAC Encoding
• Video quality: Maximum 1080p30 resolution, Strict Constant Bitrate; Zoom recommends sending a Key frame every 30 frames (or every 2 seconds)
• Internet connection: Minimum 6 Mbps for 1080p30 quality (4 Mbps OK for 720p30)
  • RTMP ingest requires TCP 443 Outbound traffic, as outlined by Zoom’s server settings

Getting more value out of each broadcast

In addition to producing a webinar, you can use Socialive to create additional rich content needed to promote each event. It's also easy and straightforward to repurpose clips from each webinar into new content.

• Promotional video clips: Socialive provides flexible recording options to record each individual in standalone sessions or as a group ahead of the event. You can send presenters recording links, which automatically uploads their content into the platform. Or, you can ask panelists to record a short message to promote the webinar during a practice session.
• Post-event video content: Socialive makes it easy to edit snackable clips for social media, as well as any moments that can help promote the on-demand webinar and drive additional leads.
• Spin-off content: Socialive's editing tools, combined with its publishing integrations and content library make it easy to chop up webinars and create additional pieces of content, such as:
  • Blog posts
  • Testimonials
  • Thought leadership videos
  • Soundbites and social clips
  • Promotional content and hype videos

Creating a campaign from each Zoom event and webinar

Webinars and live events provide ample video content that can be repurposed into new pieces — many of which can be the basis of an entire content campaign.

Check out our post on driving a demand-generation campaign from live content for more tips on how to get the most out of each live event.

Key takeaway

• Short-form content aligns with battle for audience attention

• Algorithm favoritism, employee advocacy, and executive social boost visibility, trust, and reach

• Businesses creating video content at scale are already winning in the attention economy

We’re not just fighting for attention — we're living in an attention economy, where our time is a truly precious commodity. Whether you lead learning and development, video services, corporate communications, field sales, or marketing in a highly-regulated industry, one challenge unites both the employee and customer lifecycle: how do we break through the noise and earn trust at scale?

Snackable video is the clear answer.

Challenges leaders across the enterprise want to solve

In regulated industries — from financial services to consulting to law firms — it's not just about being heard. It's about being trusted, being current, and being everywhere your audience is, all while staying compliant and on-message.

Snackable video across the customer lifecycle

Snackable video across the employee lifecycle

Capturing attention & breaking through

You have just 8 seconds to hook someone’s attention.

People skim or skip past text-heavy emails or 30-minute webinars. We’re being inundated with so much content, how could we possibly commit that amount of time sight unseen? Audiences need to know that their time will be well-spent engaging with long-form content before they commit.

Snackable video offers a fast, engaging, and digestible format that gives a quick preview (or can be the distilled points), matching how people consume content today.

Keeping pace with peers & audiences

Your competitors are moving fast. Your employees and customers expect modern, video-forward experiences. If your communications still rely on PDFs or long-form training, you're falling behind in both engagement and innovation.

Building trust at scale

Trust can’t be forced, but it can be fostered through consistent, authentic content from voices that matter. That’s where employee- and executive-led video comes in.

Why snackable video wins in the attention economy

Attention earned. Trust built. Results scaled. Snackable video isn’t just about being trendy — it’s about delivering results across the enterprise. Short-form, authentic video aligns with how people consume, share, and trust content.

Audiences are shifting

Digital habits have changed. The average social media session is now under 2 minutes, and nearly 80% of mobile traffic is video.

People want quick-hit content that informs or inspires fast:

• 63% of B2B buyers use social video from industry experts to inform buying decisions
• 80% of job seekers would prefer to see a video to better understand the opportunity
• 94% of employees prefer video microlearning over long training sessions

People prefer short, authentic, and actionable

Forget the polished, over-produced promos. People gravitate toward authentic moments, especially from colleagues and leaders they know. Short videos are easier to create and more likely to be watched in full.

Scale brings the payoff

Rolling out video at scale — especially when it’s decentralized and includes employees and executives — generates compounding returns. Whether it’s for training, updates, or thought leadership, consistency builds visibility and credibility. Platforms boost short-form, frequent video content, meaning organic visibility and impressions grow exponentially. Visibility and impressions mean more top talent, more new customers, faster onboarding, higher retention, and more expansion opportunities.

Your peers are winning with snackable video

You don’t have to go far to find examples of companies that are “doing short-form video right.” Just do a quick Google search on “law firm experts” or “financial service tips,” and you’ll see the “short video” tab populate with a number of businesses tapping into the social-style of thought leadership.

Again, this hits all parts of the customer and employee lifecycle — from talent acquisition and onboarding to customer engagement and expansion.

• Geico Insurance puts out quick “Insurance Demystified” videos on social media, answering common questions about insurance to drive customer retention and growth
• Zebra Technologies uses snackable video on LinkedIn to promote long-form thought leadership using executives as SMEs
• Akamai empowers employees to remotely contribute to larger video projects, significantly increasing engagement by showcasing their people in the brand

Snackable video best practices

To get the most from snackable video, focus on three core concepts: algorithm favoritism, employee advocacy, and executive social.

Algorithm favoritism

Search engines and social platforms reward short-form, frequent video content.Enhanced discoverability

• Websites with video are 50x more likely to rank on page one
• Adding video leads to 41%+ increase in organic search traffic

Increased visibility

• Video drives 1.4x more engagement on social

Amplified reach

• On LinkedIn, users are 20x more likely to share video content

👉 Read more on algorithm favoritism here

Employee advocacy

When employees are empowered to distribute your content, your message spreads further, faster, and with more trust.

• Vastly expanded reach
  • Employee advocacy increases your message’s reach by 561%
• Exponentially higher engagement
  • Content shared by employees receives 8X more engagement
• Unmatched trust & credibility
  • People are 3X more likely to trust information about your company when shared by staff

👉 Read more on employee advocacy here

Executive social

Snackable video helps put a trustworthy face on regular interactions with a company. Combined with employee advocacy and algorithm favoritism, you can see how trust, expertise, and differentiation are all scaled by creating short-form video content.

• “Social CEO” viewed as more open and honest
  • 86% of executives say a “social CEO” (active on social media) is viewed as more open and honest​
• Visibility scales trust
  • In the finance realm, readers trust a CEO who regularly posts on social up to 9× more than one who isn’t online​

👉 Read more on executive social here

How your peers are getting results by scaling snackable video

The real magic happens when snackable video becomes part of your organization's DNA. It’s not just a content strategy — it’s a trust strategy. One that scales with you, adapts to changing platforms, and empowers everyone from the frontlines to the C-suite to share the story.

It's how businesses are standing out in today's attention economy.‍

Want to see what results look like? Check out the scaled results in Winning in the Attention Economy with Snackable Video.

Socialive to provide Brightcove customers with more robust video creation capabilities

‍LOS ANGELES – November 7, 2023 – Socialive and Brightcove, an industry leader in streaming technology for businesses, have announced an expanded partnership to bolster Brightcove’s video content management platform.

Socialive, the enterprise’s go-to LinkedIn Live preferred partner, will supply Brightcove customers with a more comprehensive video creation platform, improving the end-to-end video creation and measurement experience.

"We are excited to announce our livestreaming partnership with Brightcove," said David Moricca, founder and CEO of Socialive. "Together, we offer an unparalleled solution, making it incredibly easy for businesses to remotely create and distribute high-quality, scalable live video in today's digital world."

The partnership opens up new capabilities to Brightcove customers, including:

• Create better video, faster, and at scale
• Security and compliance end-to-end
• Flexible remote recording options
• Fast, easy text-based video editing powered by AI
• Robust live studio and Virtual Green room for livestreaming

Additional resources:

• Learn more about Brightcove and the partnership in Brightcove’s press release
• See why video matters for internal communications on Brightcove's blog
• Learn more about Socialive in our platform tour
• Follow Socialive on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
• Schedule a demo to see Socialive in action

About Socialive

Socialive’s end-to-end video creation platform is the fastest and most cost-effective way for anyone to record, edit, publish, or livestream professional-quality video. The platform provides an intuitive experience for everyone, transforming people without formal video training into full-fledged content creators while reducing production time and costs for video experts. The platform unlocks limitless internal and external communication use cases by democratizing the ability to make video content.

Media contact

Jennifer Burak

press@socialive.us

Key takeaways:

• ‍‍Start by understanding the power of video
• Focus on your tech and your setup before creating
• It’s easy to record, edit, and publish in one workflow

‍One of the main reasons people don’t create as much video content as they like — is that they think it is too costly and time-consuming. But creating tons of snackable video content doesn’t have to be hard, and it’s well worth the effort.

A steady stream of video in social and communications channels is a huge value-add for businesses.

Over the past few months, I’ve spoken with our Socialive customers and pulled research to put together a guide for anyone just wading into short video creation.

Don’t worry, this info. is packaged into videos so you can watch along — it is the TL;DR, after all!

The type of video we will focus on in this guide is all authentic, snackable thought leadership in remote setups. We’ll show you how to transform your home office and laptop into a recording studio.

The power of short video is unmatched

Before we get to the practical creation tips, let’s start with the value of the short-form video content you’re going to create.

Companies of all sizes use snackable video for all kinds of communications, marketing, and learning purposes. Our Socialive customers all recognize that video allows them to differentiate their brand and stay ahead of the competition.

‍Zebra Technologies is a solid example of a business that focuses their video on external communications through their social media channels. They use video for product announcements, to drive attendance to their trade shows, to tell customer stories.

People just prefer video to other forms of media. Video marketing creates more leads, higher click-through rates, and higher conversion rates. Social engagement jumps through the roof when you use video content.

If you’re not using video across channels, you risk going the way of the dinosaur.

Video trend: micro-videos and snackable content dominate

The first thing you need to know about video is to be concise. Yes, a lengthy guide (like this) is handy when you need it — but the ideal video should nail a topic in a short timeframe.

We’ve seen the success of TikTok from its short-form content, and other platforms are working in snackable formats. For example, Instagram Reels pick up 22% more engagement than other Instagram posts.

Aim for about a 1-to-2-minute video. Anything longer than that is best served as a deep dive or explainer video. Be sure to call it out in your title and with your intro that you’re here to give a few quick tips — or that you’re going further in-depth on a topic.

Mobile video trend: consider vertical videos (9:16 portrait)

Part of creating for social media includes baking in a mobile-first approach. Creating for mobile is nothing new. Google has prioritized mobile indexing since 2016. It’s all about designing content for the devices most people use — our phones. We do everything on our phones now, from reading articles to buying plane tickets, so of course we need to have mobile in mind.

It’s always good to at least consider, if not to create content in 9:16, portrait format. That vertical orientation makes the most of the entire space on mobile screens.

The last thing you want is for your widescreen content to get cut off because you didn’t record in 9:16 and never planned for it to be edited into a vertical video.

Always provide captions on your content

Verizon Media reported years ago that 92% of people watch video without sound.

Think about it, how often do you find yourself scrolling through a social media timeline and quickly peek at a video before continuing to scroll? Captions help tell the story, even if the viewer has the volume off. If it’s great content, captions give people a reason to stop and unmute your video.

Captions also make your content more accessible. Closed captions make it easier for those who are deaf or hard of hearing to understand your content.

So, be sure to include a caption file whenever you put together a video package, and consider burning captions into the video file itself.

The importance of video SEO (and how to do it)

Video SEO actually isn’t as hard as it might sound. Think of video SEO less as something magical and more as a checklist you need to address when publishing a video.

• Create helpful, meaningful content that your audience wants
  • Leverage fresh perspectives and speak to your brand’s authority. Follow Google’s “E-E-A-T” recommendation and create reliable, people-first content.
• Pick a relevant, punchy title that’s descriptive and easy to understand
  • The title will largely determine whether or not your audience is going to watch. There’s a reason why YouTubers change their video titles and video thumbnails so often!
• Include a thoughtful description and video chapters
  • Take your time and write up a succinct summary of the video. Be sure to put timecodes at the bottom of the video description so viewers can easily navigate through sections of the video — sites like YouTube will automatically break the video into chapters.
  • Here’s an example of how you can write the timecodes:
    • 00:00 - 00:05 Intro
    • 00:05 - 00:30 Main topic
    • 00:30 - 00:45 Secondary points
    • 00:45 - 00:50 Outro

It goes without saying, but quality over quantity. Always. Rather than regurgitating old information or spamming the universe with meaningless content, focus on keeping it fresh and trying to help someone with your content!

Run a tech check before recording

Preparation will save you so many headaches. Always plan out your content and your talent’s setup before hitting “record.”

This may seem small, but it will go a long way to getting the most of your recording session. Always have a quick reference guide handy.

Focus on your framing

Think in three dimensions when setting up your shot. Your camera should be at eye level or just above your eye line so you can look into the camera. You are speaking directly to your audience, after all.

Try to stay centered in your shot or just off-center. Keep your head and torso in the shot, with enough space above your head to the edge of the screen. You don’t want to appear just as a floating head!

If you’re using your laptop camera, try propping it up on some books. Position external cameras like DSLRs above your laptop so you can reference your screen and still keep your eyes on the prize.

Find great lighting

Get as much lighting into your space as possible. There’s a reason why Hollywood sets, and studios have all that extra lighting around!

Even an average camera can make you look great if the lighting is good. The strongest light source should ALWAYS be in front of you, not behind you — unless you want a stylish silhouette shot.

Do your best to find soft lighting, like a desk lamp or natural lighting, to avoid creating harsh shadows. You might have to play around with your setup to get it just right.

Experiment with cameras and microphones

As I mentioned earlier, you don’t always need the latest and greatest equipment. Newer laptops have solid webcams. And don’t forget — your smartphone has one of the best cameras you can find.

But for any other external hardware, like a DSLR camera or desktop microphone, you can easily set them up as device inputs for your recording session.

‍Here are some of our recommendations for a desktop setup ($50-$250):

• Any kind of USB camera should do well, especially if it doesn’t need a separate power source
• Tripods are an easy way to make the shot look nice and level
• Lapel microphones and desktop mics will cut down on the echoey, distant sound and get you closer to podcast quality
• Headphones and headsets are usually a great idea to cut down on audio feedback and are usually necessary when using external microphones
• An audio mixer might not always be necessary, but you’ll need it for a lapel mic or other XLR mic — this way, you can easily connect multiple mics in the same room

Check out our support guide for a full overview of compatible devices. We name names and have some specific brands you can choose from there.

Recording best practices

When it comes to the actual recording, you should approach it similarly, whether you’re the talent or if you’re guiding someone else. Feel free to dive deeper into our guide on making thought leaders comfortable on camera if you need a bit more information.

Here are some quick tips for both talent and producers.

Recording yourself as on-camera talent

Once the tech check is out of the way, focus on your surroundings. Make sure you have a quiet(ish) environment with few distractions behind you. When in doubt, blur it out!

Your confidence is the most important piece of the puzzle. You should practice what you want to say before going on camera. Rehearse and breathe through any nerves. Remember that mistakes are OK and totally natural — that’s what makes us human.

Just remember that no matter if you choose to use a teleprompter or go from notes, you want to sound confident and natural, not like you’re reading. Plus, you’ll always get better with practice.

You’ve got this!

Recording others as a producer

Now for perhaps the toughest challenge when creating content — convincing and guiding others. I’m usually on the talent end of this exchange, but a lot of the same things apply to producers.

Run through your tech check. Calm your talent if they’re nervous. Help guide them during the recording session.

But the best thing you can do as a producer is to be prepared. Never let your talent show up without the messaging, an outline, and the final video already determined.

Your goal is to make it a light lift so they can just show up and focus on nailing what they want to say.

‍Here are some steps to take ahead of the recording session:

• Determine your topic and map out the final content
• Meet with your talent before the recording in an intake session to get their opinions and feedback on the topic
• Build their notes into an outline or script
• Provide a cheat sheet with preferred setup and equipment
• Schedule a practice session ahead of the actual recording
• If working with multiple speakers, be sure to follow these steps with everyone and ensure their visuals and audio are all consistent

You’re the expert in the room! It might seem intimidating to give constructive feedback to your VIP talent, but be confident and direct, and they’ll follow your lead.

Yes, they are busy, so asking for another take might feel uncomfortable. But remember, they made time for this recording and are highly motivated to look and sound their best.

Check out a few more of our tips on how to prep thought leaders for a recording session.

Putting it all together: record, edit, and publish your content

Aiming for a short-form video with social media in mind is always a great starting point when you plan your video. Pick a place that gives you some peace and quiet, make sure your equipment is working, get into frame, and you’re ready to record.

Now that you know the basics, the next step is to move on to editing and then publishing your content! Of course, don’t forget those video SEO best practices we went over once you’re ready to publish.

Here’s a post that can help you familiarize yourself with the editing process. In full transparency, I’m not a professional video editor, but I can tell you that organizing and planning your edits makes it a lot easier to get started.

Of course, we want you to use Socialive, but this workflow holds as the best way to create content — so long as your platform can keep up.

Key takeaways:

• ‍‍Zoom RTMP ingest allows third-party tools to stream into Zoom
• Socialive makes it easy to create campaign content from webinars
• Zoom clients boost the ROI of each webinar

‍Zoom and Socialive’s new integration is the gift that keeps on giving.

We’ve covered how it’s now faster and easier for Zoom Sessions and Zoom Events clients to upgrade the quality of their live content. It’s easy (and cost-effective) for any Zoom Workplace client to tap into this new functionality for webinars.

But better-looking live content is only the tip of the iceberg. Now that Zoom allows you to produce studio-quality content from Socialive and stream directly into Zoom, you can fuel an entire demand generation campaign with much less effort.

Your webinar should never be one-and-done. Each live event is a content goldmine and provides ample opportunity to drive high-quality leads, generate business, and continually repurpose each piece of your webinar.

Here’s how you can take your Zoom webinar and transform it into demand-generation gold — without running up your marketing budget.

Maxing out the ROI of your Zoom webinars

Around 90% of marketers say video content produces a good return on investment. This mostly comes down to the fact that video is a highly engaging medium — and live video is the most engaging form of it.

We’ve seen in recent years how Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and LinkedIn Live have all presented businesses with massive opportunities to grow and engage their audiences.

‍LinkedIn Live outperforms most content on LinkedIn, with seven times more reactions and 24 times more comments. Zoom presents a similar opportunity with webinars.

Like other forms of live video, webinars provide an urgency and immediacy that don’t exist in evergreen content.

Extending value after the live event

Savvy marketers understand that the live component is only one piece of the equation. You have the potential to turn that pillar piece into several content rocks, such as written copy for blogs, video clips for social media, infographics, soundbites for thought leadership, and so much more.

For the demand generation team, each new piece of content not only turns into a way to promote the webinar but becomes a branch that can feed into an entirely new campaign.

Your clips from the webinar can be soundbites in a digital ad. The transcript from the webinar is easy to spin into a guide you can gate on your website. A question asked during the webinar can be the basis of a survey that kicks off a thought leadership campaign.

One webinar can take you down the content rabbit hole — in the best way possible.

With an end-to-end video creation platform such as Socialive, you don’t need separate teams, freelancers, or other tools to produce the webinar and generate all that rich spin-off content. You can produce, go live, and repurpose the webinar into snackable clips, full videos, and more — all in one platform.

This saves time, money, and effort when piecing together campaign content. There are plenty of ways to keep costs down while creating video content, but repurposing existing pieces is a key way to maximize your content ROI.

Socialive: the perfect platform to maximize Zoom

So why Socialive and Zoom? Why not just go live on social media or embed a livestream on your own site? And why use Socialive to make those spin-off pieces?

‍You want this to be a gated experience, and your workflow is already set to funnel down leads that register for your Zoom webinars. Plus, your audience is already familiar with Zoom. You’ve been using Zoom for webinars for a while now (and if you haven’t, you really should get started).

With live content, you are vastly expanding your reach and marketing to a much wider audience that represents your ICP. This means messaging directly to a higher-quality audience, which translates to higher-quality leads.

‍Why use Socialive and not just any other third-party?

‍Well, let’s take LinkedIn as an example. For their LinkedIn Live solution, they suggest a broadcast partner, with Socialive at the top of the list. Socialive earned that spot with its end-to-end video creation tools to record, edit, and publish content. Those features are paired with the security and compliance tools needed for the enterprise.

Socialive makes it easy to deliver an enterprise-grade webinar without the need for complex equipment or tons of people to produce the live broadcast.

The platform has all the enterprise-ready integrations to help deliver the repurposed content to the next stage of the process.

Plus, editing a recorded webinar, or even recording supplementary bits, is a snap with Socialive. You can also automatically generate a transcript that helps transform each video into written copy.

TL;DR — we put the power of a broadcast production suite paired with a content team right in your browser.

Building promotional content around each webinar

At this point, we’ve mostly outlined how to spin the webinar recording into other pieces of content. Everyone who’s run a webinar knows the pre-event and post-event promotional materials can really make or break how many leads you bring.

If your webinar looks great and fuels evergreen content, that’s awesome. But you’ll still be held accountable if no one attends your event.

Promoting your event with video

Demand generation folks know that “if you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply to marketing. You have to promote the event constantly on the right channels to grow your audience. This applies to each event.

Video is so versatile because it can stand on its own as a YouTube Short or Instagram Reel. You can share it with social copy and a registration link on LinkedIn or Facebook. You can embed video in landing pages and emails.

Our recommendation is that each promotional touchpoint should contain a video clip. Let your webinar panelists become your biggest promoters.

With Socialive, it’s incredibly easy to send your presenters a recording link, ask them to breeze through a script, their recording is uploaded directly to your team, you do some light edits, and then get the video out the door.

You should send the social post from your global account and from the profiles of each of your panelists so they can activate their audiences.

That’s just one winning workflow. If you’re building a run of show that contains pre-produced content, you can always use those elements as teasers to give the audience a taste of what’s to come during the webinar.

Capturing more on-demand leads

After the webinar is over, you can continue to drive leads with the on-demand recording. Socialive records each piece of your webinar, from the main mix to each speaker’s individual clean feed. You can edit and reconfigure the show as you like.

Those soundbites and edited-down pieces are the perfect way to generate interest. You can use a snackable moment to promote the webinar on social media. You can hand off clips to each speaker and ask them to drive people to the on-demand page.

With Socialive, it’s easy to mirror that same pre-event workflow to promote the recorded webinar.

Driving demand with content from Zoom webinars

Socialive is the enterprise’s go-to platform for webinars — and the one-stop shop for marketers to create video content at scale. Zoom provides the webinar experience, and Socialive provides the tools needed to produce engaging content and scale that webinar into an entire campaign.

Socialive uploads each webinar and its individual components into one central location, where you can easily repurpose it into richer content.

Plus, it’s a virtuous cycle of content creation. One webinar can fill your funnel with highly relevant, high-performing content without the need to outsource and create net new assets.

This is just a taste of how Socialive and Zoom together are a massive value-add for video marketing and demand generation. Check out our guide on driving ROI with LinkedIn Live to learn more about how this type of webinar-to-campaign workflow can boost your bottom line.‍

LOS ANGELES – March 15, 2022 – Inc. Magazine revealed that Socialive has placed No. 25 out of 150 on its third annual Inc. 5000 Regionals: Pacific list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies based in Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington. Born of the annual Inc. 5000 franchise, this regional list represents a unique look at the most successful private companies generating sustainable growth and jobs in the Pacific region economy.

Due to increased company-wide demand, 88% of enterprises expect their video content output to increase within the next year. But companies often lack the budget, team capacity, and internal expertise to produce high-quality videos at scale. Therefore, companies have turned to Socialive’s self-serve video content creation platform to enable their teams to easily create, broadcast, and distribute studio-quality live and on-demand videos.

“Socialive’s growth is evidence of the growing demand for more dynamic enterprise video content. As companies move from reactive to proactive video strategies, solutions like our self-serve video content creation platform can help them tell better stories, engage with unique audiences, and enhance internal communications,” said David Moricca, founder and CEO of Socialive. “Being named in the 2022 Inc. 5000 Regional is a testament to the drive and commitment of our entire team to help businesses achieve their goals and create authentic relationships through video content.”

The companies on this list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Pacific. Between 2018 and 2020, these 150 private companies had an average growth rate of 195% percent and, in 2020 alone, they added 10,252 jobs and $5.1 billion to the Pacific region’s economy. Companies based in the Irvine, Santa Monica, and Venice, California, areas had the highest growth rate overall.

“This year’s Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of America’s off-the-charts growth companies. They’re disruptors and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies you’ll be hearing about for years to come,” says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc.

To learn more about Socialive, visit socialive.us.

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Regionals

Methodology

The 2022 Inc. 5000 Regionals are ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2018 and 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2018. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent — not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies — as of December 31, 2019. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2018 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $1 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

About Inc. Media

‍The world’s most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels, including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent.The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc.

For more information, visit www.inc.com.

About Socialive

Socialive powers self-service video content creation for the enterprise. It’s the fastest, easiest way to create, broadcast, and distribute unlimited live and on-demand videos with studio quality. The Socialive platform puts intuitive, professional-grade video production workflows into the hands of content producers and everyday business users, lowering the barrier to entry and increasing employee-created video output. Videos enable brands to connect with people in fresh, dynamic ways, but it’s hard to produce great videos at scale while maintaining brand standards — budget, team capacity, and internal expertise can be in short supply. Just-in-time production with Socialive unlocks use cases for video that build human connections through relatable content, turning video into a powerful engagement channel for employee, customer, and partner communities to strengthen brand loyalty and company culture. Socialive’s Studio in the Cloud™ and integrated Virtual Green Room preserve the authenticity of live video while streamlining the end-to-end process from creation to delivery, consolidating the number of tools traditionally required for video production. Mobile-friendly and simple to use, Socialive helps bring together diverse people and perspectives to amplify voices distributed across organizations and geographies. The platform’s industry-first remote recording capability captures high-quality video anywhere from any device with full enterprise-grade control. Leading enterprises and high-growth companies, including Charles Schwab, Deloitte, Nike, Oracle, TikTok, The New York Times, Walmart, and Zendesk, use Socialive to drive business value through better, more frequent video creation. Meet the Moment With Video.™

Media contact

‍Jennifer Burak

VP, Marketing

press@socialive.us

Key takeaways:

• ‍Videos with speakers and attendees help promote each event
• Social media is a powerful way to drive awareness and registrations
• Socialive makes it easy to record or go live from each event

‍Everyone who runs events knows that the “Field of Dreams” logic of “build it, and they will come” doesn’t apply to their trade.

A significant marketing motion is usually needed to get people to register for a conference, sign up for a digital event, or promote a webinar. Setting up and running an entire campaign — emails, social posts, advertising, and everything in between — can be complicated.

What if the organizers themselves had a way to boost attendance?

While the dedicated marketers and promotional teams have the resources and ability to boost attendance, there’s a simple way the organizers can help get people through the door. Plus, it can be an additional arrow in the promotional quiver.

Let the people organizing the event and attendees speak for themselves in short, authentic videos straight from the event itself.

How video helps promote events

People love to hear from people. Novel concept, we know.

The people who will participate in the event — whether a speaker or fellow attendees — can help sell the event to others.

The look and feel of the tradeshow floor, the location, and the explanation of “what attendees get” are great to know, but the people make each event truly special. Getting those people on camera goes the extra mile by allowing them to tell their own stories.

Promoting keynotes and sessions to drive registrations

Your speakers are your strongest advocates for your event. Especially if you’ve procured a notable person or an influencer to give the keynote, you want their network to know about the event.

An easy way to tap into their audience is to have your speakers record a quick promotional video ahead of the event. Here’s a quick sample script you can use:

“Hi there! I’m [Name And Title], and excited to be here at [Name Of The Event And Location]! We’re going to have a great time highlighting [Main Points To Get Across About The Event]. Make sure you’re there for my session [Title Of Session, Date And Time, And Location Of Session]. I can’t wait to see you there!”

It not only works for self-promotion, but a quick video like this also encourages presenters to meet with one another and create some teaser content for panel discussions.

Jo Reynolds of the Royal Society of Chemistry did exactly that with a quick greeting on location from a conference. She quickly introduced herself and Dr. Zuriati Zakaria, who treated Reynolds’ audience to a preview of their upcoming roundtable on her social channels.

Showcasing highlights from previous events

A recap of previous events can be just as powerful as a teaser of what’s to come.

We know many marketing teams will head to events to create slick highlight videos, but there’s room for more authentic, audience-driven content. It doesn’t need to be the best-produced video; it can be a few interviews with some B-roll mixed in.

Again, turning to the Royal Society of Chemistry, their man-on-the-street interviews with participants in the Broadening Horizons program highlighted the event on their social media. The participants spoke about the event's value and provided a perspective few others can give.

Engaging your audience for each event

It’s well understood that each promotional asset helps grow awareness for the event and increases the likelihood that you reach new people.

It’s also beneficial to bring back people familiar with your events. You may need to remind your existing audience of the value of your event. With shrinking budgets, each bit of travel is under further scrutiny.

These promo videos and highlights are a great way to reach attendees from previous years and give them a reason to return. Video can also help build and maintain a tight-knit community around your events.

How to quickly create event promo content

OK, now for the practical part — how do we create a promo video? With Socialive, it’s simple.

Record, edit, and share snackable social clips

Socialive presents several easy-to-use, flexible recording options, regardless of where your speaker or event team is. It doesn’t matter if your speaker is on the road, in their home office, hanging around the office’s recording studio, or straight from their booth at the event.

You can guide a speaker in a recording session, where you are in a virtual studio setup, and they join from the field. Or you can meet them where they are and use your device to film on location. Or you can have them record their piece, which automatically uploads to your recordings library and then removes it from their device.

It’s all up to your preferred workflow.

After recording the take, it’s instantly ready to edit within the platform. The great thing about Socialive’s Editor — you don’t need to be skilled in video editing to use it. The AI-powered editor automatically creates a transcript, you edit the words like you would a document, add some branding, and your video is ready to go. It’s really that easy to edit a video!

After editing, you can instantly transfer the content wherever you need it. LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Hootsuite, Brightcove, Google Drive, you name it!

It’s straightforward to record a speaker, add some polish, and get it where it needs to be in just a few easy steps.

Going live from the event floor

While a recorded video is a nice way to get viewers to interact with your event content, a livestream is an even more powerful engagement tool.

Rather than finding a quiet space for a sit-down interview or editing together a piece, you can just pull in a few prominent people from the tradeshow floor to give their take on some of the big themes from the event. After all, it is the most authentic way to showcase your event.

Socialive also makes it easy to pull off a quick, studio-quality livestream. You can connect a camera and external microphone to a laptop or just use a mobile device as your input feed. Either way, the entire production sits in Socialive rather than feeding into a full video production suite.

Without any clunky hardware, you can livestream straight to your audience on YouTube, LinkedIn, or a number of other channels.

How Zebra Technologies uses social media for events

Zebra Technologies has made this their bread and butter for event promotions.

During in-person events, their social media team works with the event teams to livestream directly from the event. Their event coordinator serves as host, grabs a couple of presenters live from the event, and livestreams directly to LinkedIn.

While this does include coordination with the social team, Zebra’s approach is straightforward and easy to implement for all event teams. If you have people at your event and at least a mobile device, you can create high-quality video content from your event with Socialive.

Driving leads and registrations from events

Creating promotional materials — whether for an in-person conference or a digital event — can be a bit of a pain. But with Socialive, making a promo video that helps drive attendance is easy and straightforward.

It’s not enough to put out a static graphic on social media or to send a few emails. Your speakers are your best advocates for the event, so let them do the talking.

This playbook has worked well for a number of Socialive customers, such as JLL, which saw more than 13,000 people sign up for a single webinar in the fall of 2023.

Putting together an event is hard, but Socialive makes sure the promotional cycle doesn’t have to be. Once your speaker records their piece, it’s easy to edit the video down into additional pieces of content, such as blog posts and even promotional copy. You can even use the automated transcriptions as a rough “first draft” for your copy.

Key takeaways:

• ‍‍Video amplifies diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts
• DEI professionals can easily create their own video content in-house
• Content ranges from livestreams to snackable recorded videos‍

Empowering diverse voices is one of our primary values at Socialive. It’s at the heart of what we do.

We’re proud of how the platform is used by professionals in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), corporate communications, and by an array of content teams to showcase their people.

When done right, companies provide a framework to ensure people of all identities are fairly represented and provided equal opportunities. From a video perspective, we think it’s important that businesses likewise make content that reflects and provides a voice to those people.

Of course, there’s so much more to DEI than asking people of color or women to sit in front of the camera. Video can be used to build community, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. There’s tons of thankless work that goes on behind the scenes. There has to be to ensure that commitments made by leadership are reflected in the workplace.

Once the hard work is done, we think it makes sense to celebrate and amplify that work.

From panels featuring thought leaders and experts, to highlight videos at community events, profiles of employees’ daily experiences, and everything in between, here’s how companies promote diversity and inclusion with video content made in Socialive.

Why video matters in HR and PeopleOps

Seasoned professionals in the HR space understand the power of video. Just like any other part of a business, video is a visual product that has the ability to enhance the employer's brand.But simply showing people in content isn’t a cure-all, as noted by David Rice, senior editor at People Managing People. There needs to be substance and truth behind the content companies put out, no matter how diverse it may seem. You have to be able to back it up.When done correctly, video simply reinforces a company’s commitment to DEI and drives that message home to a larger audience.From Rice’s vantage point, video makes a difference in several ways:

• A mix of content types creates memorable experiences and more digestible comms
• Learning and development courses are boosted by having bite-sized video
• Authentic video featuring employees shows a window into daily life at a company and boosts recruitment
• An authentic representation of a company is vital to creating transparency throughout the employee lifecycle
• Video enhances collaboration and the sharing of peer-to-peer expertise
• Employees who are given a platform through video can use it to position themselves as a leader in their space

All in all, video is a strategic tool that can help people in HR meet their objectives in an efficient and scalable fashion.

When it comes to DEI, video is a way to communicate what the company is all about and to showcase its values. Authentic video can increase transparency, trust, and shine a light on the hidden work done to promote diversity.

The Royal Society of Chemistry gives a platform to the Global South

For the Royal Society of Chemistry, a professional association dedicated to advancing the scientific community, video was always seen as a way to socialize scientific breakthroughs. The organization has used livestreams and recorded video from in-person events to cover innovations in the field of chemistry.

But before Socialive, the RSC was restricted in whose research would be publicized in video. There was an unconscious bias toward proximity.

Budget and travel restrictions meant that content mostly focused on a smaller group of people. Members who could travel to marquee events, such as COP28, or those who lived near the RSC’s London headquarters were disproportionately included in video productions.

Now, the RSC has replicated their in-person production studio with Socialive. The media team has the ability to remotely record, edit, and publish anyone from any part of the world.

“We can't necessarily send a video specialist to every event. Being able to do something remotely, whether it's using a laptop camera or a smartphone, it's a good opportunity for us to not miss out when there's somebody we want to hear from.”
- Edwin Silvester, Global Integrated Media Manager, Royal Society of Chemistry

Featuring diverse thought leaders across the globe

Featuring more people from underrepresented groups is a massive initiative for the RSC. By eliminating the need for presenters to travel to their in-office studio in the UK, the RSC has increased the number of diverse voices in the content they create.

Additionally, the media team has taken a remote producer role, so they don’t have to decide which in-person events are covered. Without having to travel or hire a local camera crew and talent, they seamlessly record interviews everywhere their members are.

During a regional event in Malaysia and an in-person conference in Trinidad, the RSC media team equipped one of their directors with camera equipment and empowered her to conduct interviews and record B-roll from the event. The media team could choose to coach presenters behind the scenes or have them record on their own.

Either way, all footage was automatically uploaded to the RSC’s recording library. Everything was instantly ready for the RSC to edit into fresh content — without any restrictions on who could be featured in these videos.

Blue Shield of California’s commitment to DEI

While some organizations choose to use Socialive to include a wider array of people in their content, the Blue Shield of California chose to empower their DEI team to create on their own.

Since Socialive is a user-friendly platform, it was easy for the Blue Shield of California to enable people without much video experience. The director of DEI and one of their SVPs hosted a livestream on the topic of DEI without any hiccups. The social media team in charge of livestreams simply set up the run-of-show for the production, sent invite links to both speakers, and let them go forward with an engaging conversation.

“It really showcased who we are as a company and the messaging we're trying to promote on diversity and inclusion.”
- Larry Sepe, Senior Social Media Manager, Blue Shield of California

Akamai’s ability to tell more stories

While video is a game-changing content format, cost is one of the biggest barriers. Traditionally, video creation has been an expensive endeavor.

‍Akamai proved that creating more videos and telling more diverse stories doesn’t have to cost more.

The tech giant has scaled up their video production without any additional spend. In fact, Akamai has found that projects are done in half the time. Plus, they've saved thousands of dollars per year on agencies with Socialive.

Saying “yes” to more video projects

Since these additional video projects don’t run up the budget, Akamai’s content creators are free to tell more stories.

This has meant that stories that wouldn’t have been seen as a priority — particularly smaller stories that might only matter to a handful of people — are ones that Akamai can take on.

There’s always been a strong appetite for video storytelling at Akamai, but the high-impact ones were the ones that won out in the past. Now, with Socialive, there’s an ability to say “yes” to more of the stories that deserve to be given a platform.

“Our content is being shaped by more collaborators who perhaps would have been excluded from the process a couple of years ago. And that's been really, really exciting.”
- Simon Gerzina, Senior Global Events Manager, Digital & Production, Akamai

Amplifying diverse voices with video

We’ll be the first to tell you there's more to DEI than just showing people in content. The entire organization, particularly leadership, must prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion to attain true results.

Once those commitments have become formalized actions, we think showcasing those efforts is best. It’s a disservice to all of the hard work done behind the scenes if content contains the same few people.

‍Authentic storytelling strengthens community in the workplace, so say “yes” to as many of those diverse stories as possible.

With the Socialive platform, everyone can be heard. DEI teams can craft their own message, and content teams are now able to include more diverse voices.

Rather than needing to wait for permission, everyone is empowered to be bold and ensure that no story goes untold.

It’s what the Socialive platform does best.

Key takeaways:

• ‍‍Short-form content efficiently positions your SME
• Long-form video gives DEI leaders a platform to dive deep
• Video showcases your leader’s on-the-ground work

‍The biggest benefit of end-to-end video creation platforms — anyone can create and share video content.

For thought leaders, that means it's easier than ever to share their expertise. Video empowers individuals to be their own brand. Plus, it's much more powerful in our online world than other forms of publishing, with 75% of people more likely to watch a video than read text.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion leadership need to follow suit. There's potential to continue the positive momentum from increased attention to DEI. The beauty of self-serve video creation is that DEI leaders can control the narrative and don't need to wait for external media to raise their profile. Plus, there are plenty of ways producers can help those who are a little uneasy about going on camera.

The way Forbes puts it, personal branding humanizes strong leaders and their organizations to be trusted authorities. It’s a way to humanize the corporate brand while also establishing credibility with audiences.

Simply put, if you boost your DEI leader's brand, there's more attention on both their work and your company's commitment to DEI. Here's how you can strategically use video to increase a DEI leader's personal brand.

Snackable commentary videos

An efficient, effective way to get your thought leader in front of the camera is to have them record short-form videos. In most cases, a piece of thought leadership has less than a minute to get the point across, so shorter is often better. Purposefully creating short-form thought leadership in a seamless workflow ensures the audience gives the content a chance.

While a TED Talk or huge panel event might receive a big audience, there’s tons of power in creating consistent content. Taking a note from influencers, thought leaders who consistently create and share content have a larger and more energized following than someone who “went viral.”

Whether it’s via social media or a newsletter, it’s vital to stay top of mind and constantly deliver value. Shorter commentaries are a way to truly connect with and activate fellow advocates.

55% of audiences move on from thought leadership in the first minute if it doesn't pique their interest
- Edelman-LinkedIn 2021 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study

Reactions to news and policy updates

We’re all aware that DEI is constantly in the news, and policymakers have their opinions on the matter. But thought leaders are the ones who actually do the work, are well-informed, and are therefore well-positioned to provide an interpretation of the world for their audience.

People are interested in knowing about the day’s events and legislation through the lens of DEI, but might not know enough to have the proper framing. This is where a DEI thought leader can help provide context and provide an informed opinion for audiences.

Quick educational videos

Subject-matter experts have the unique ability to educate the masses about a specific topic. Though DEI may be a hot topic, it might not be fully understood by everyone.

This is where an expert can address knowledge gaps by creating educational content. Rather than recording an entire lecture or video essay, creating short videos that contribute to a larger lesson makes the content friendlier and more approachable for new audiences.

People want to know about DEI but might not know how to get started. A thought leader is the perfect voice to show someone seeking new knowledge the first few steps.

Summarize industry research

Traditionally, when new research and data were released, an industry expert would comment in a long-form write-up or perhaps a white paper. A much more approachable tactic is to make a video summarizing the findings.

A short explainer video supported by charts and data helps break down complex ideas for viewers. Plus, it’s that much easier for audiences to share short clips with others than with written reports.

Whether it’s summarizing the work of others or their own research, quick videos like the above example are easy to consume and easy for the SME to create.

Start a video podcast and share promos

Short-form content is an approachable way to connect with audiences. But there are often times when a subject or story warrants a deeper dive. A video podcast is a flexible way to give all the space needed for a complex topic, many of which are in the DEI space.

The approaches can vary — recording episodes or livestreaming and simulcasting social media — but either way, having a consistent series keeps SMEs in front of audiences who are interested in learning more about stories relevant to DEI.

Any long recording or livestream can easily be repurposed into shorter content, as well. It’s easy to take a podcast and create promotional clips or even snippets similar to our previous content suggestions. This means there isn’t a need to pick between shorter or longer content types.

Here are some themes for video podcasts that work in DEI.

Give a platform to community leaders

Podcasts that rotate in guests and introduce people in a given field tend to resonate with audiences hungry for fresh stories. For leaders in the DEI space who interact with community leaders, this is the perfect forum to give them a platform.

It’s a way to allow community leaders to speak directly to listeners and viewers. These types of long-form conversations help the audience get to know the guests more intimately, creating a more authentic connection.

Showcase employees and hidden figures

In addition to highlighting community leaders, a podcast is a perfect way to share the stories of employees and others who are often overlooked. It’s a chance for the host to showcase the stories that truly matter, but aren’t often told.

For thought leaders who stand on their own, audiences get to know them a bit better based on the company they keep. Likewise, companies and big brands are associated with the faces presented in content. It might only be one factor, but the people included in these types of stories are a representation of the entire company.

Engage with policymakers and leadership

Many thought leaders and industry experts in the DEI space are more than influencers, they’re also investigators. They look to understand what decisions are being made, how they impact people, and what audiences need to know. Again, long-form talking head videos provide the space to bring these conversations to the forefront.

DEI thought leaders are the perfect intermediary to help bridge the gap between decision-makers and the people who will be impacted. That relationship lends to a natural yet highly consequential conversation.

Simply put, they’re of great interest to just about everyone.

Journal conferences and in-person events

One powerful way to position your DEI thought leaders is to take audiences along for the ride with them. Rather than talking about the work being done, video is the perfect way to show what is happening.

Wherever the work is being done, there’s potential to bring audiences to the frontlines. Data, conversations, and stories about what’s happening in the world can all help paint a picture. But video can help place audiences directly in the middle of it all.

Take viewers behind the scenes

Influencers have perfected the point-of-view approach in their content. In general, audiences love to see how the magic is made and the reality of each day.

Likewise, for audiences interested in DEI, there’s tons of value in showing what a typical day or event looks like. Especially for those who can’t travel to conferences or events, a backstage view helps viewers feel more connected. Seeing a conference through the eyes of a thought leader makes it all tangible for the audience.

Highlight community work

Video is the perfect medium to show, rather than tell, about work being done in the community. While there may be cameras there to create marketing content, it’s a more intimate experience to get the perspective of the SME. Seeing and understanding their viewpoint allows the content to focus on the work rather than becoming a flashy hype video.

It’s all about building trust and establishing the thought leader. They're the person who can provide the context behind each event. The more they are seen as a go-to resource for information, the more impact they can deliver with their work.

Raise the profile of your DEI thought leader

Whatever content you choose to create, getting your thought leader on camera will boost the visibility of their work and spread their message. And we’ve only scratched the surface of some ways companies use Socialive to showcase their initiatives.

For those in DEI, video drastically improves their reach, all while highlighting their authentic selves.

A big way for thought leaders to boost their visibility is to do a livestream. For example, a LinkedIn Live generates seven times more reactions and 24 times as many comments as a native LinkedIn video.

Check out our guide on maximizing the value of LinkedIn Live to learn all about how livestreams drive massive audience engagement. They're the content gift that keeps on giving. For DEI thought leaders, LinkedIn Live proves to be a powerful way to raise their profile.

New AI-powered video tool reduces the cost of video creation by making it easier for creators of all abilities to edit video content.‍

LOS ANGELES – March 15, 2024 – Socialive, the cloud video creation platform for the enterprise, today announced the release of its new video editor — powered by innovative AI — which promises to transform video creation.

The browser-based Editor is the latest in a suite of products designed to be the fastest and most cost-effective way for enterprise teams to create professional video at scale. By providing an intuitive, end-to-end experience, individuals and creative teams can record, edit, publish, and livestream all from the same platform.

“Faster, more accessible video editing is the key to unlocking the potential for large-scale video creation across the enterprise,” says David Moricca, CEO and founder of Socialive. “With our AI-powered video editor, we not only reduce the complexity but also cut down on the cost and time traditionally associated with specialist-level editing, making video creation more attainable.”

About Socialive’s AI-powered editor

Whether you are making one video or hundreds, Socialive’s AI-powered video editor is fast and easy to use for both veteran video creators and those without any video editing experience.

Socialive is introducing text-based editing to the platform, so users can quickly edit video just like a doc. The Editor automatically generates a transcript for the video, and the intuitive interface allows anyone to quickly remove sections of video by simply selecting and removing unwanted text.

Accelerate your workflow by creating fully designed and on-brand templates you can apply to your videos to save time and eliminate repetitive tasks when creating large volumes of videos.

The timeline Editor provides the power to make microscopic adjustments to make sure you get the perfect clip. The drag-and-drop experience makes it simple to clip, add graphics, build in a storyboard, and is intuitive for users of all abilities.

The AI-powered video editor, paired with the platform’s recording and publishing capabilities, means that there is no need for external software at any stage of the video creation process. The Editor is the latest addition to Socialive’s end-to-end platform for recording, editing, publishing, and livestreaming professional video content.

Fast, cost-effective video creation for the enterprise

Socialive’s AI-powered editor is just the first of many planned innovations to make it easier for anyone to create studio-quality video content.

“Along with the power to create video content and produce a massive ROI, we want our customers to know that the platform is supported by enterprise-grade security,” says Socialive CTO Ben Davenport. “We’re fully committed to the ethical use of AI. Businesses can trust that their content is safe and won’t be used for training models.”

With Socialive set to include more AI-fueled enhancements to the platform, follow Socialive’s newsletter for future innovations in cloud video creation.

About Socialive

Socialive’s end-to-end video creation platform is the fastest and most cost-effective way for anyone to record, edit, publish, or livestream professional video. The AI-powered platform provides an intuitive experience for everyone, transforming people without formal video training into full-fledged content creators and reducing production time and costs for video experts. The platform unlocks the potential to scale strategic video creation across large organizations.

Additional resources for video creation

• Learn more about Socialive
• Dive deeper into the Editor
• Learn more about how AI-powered video creation drives business
• Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
• Subscribe to our newsletter for updates
• Schedule a demo

Socialive media contact

Jennifer Burak

Vice President of Marketing, Socialive

‍press@socialive.us

Key takeaways:

• ‍‍Socialive is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified
• The platform keeps content secure in transit and at rest
• Security and compliance are top priorities at Socialive

‍Tech buyers, stop us if you’ve heard this one before.

You’ve just seen a demo of a product that seems to address your every need — then your CISO gets involved. The deal dies on the vine because the vendor is deemed a security risk.

With Socialive’s SOC 2 Type II certification, this nightmare scenario isn’t a risk in corporate video creation.

Our commitment to data protection and our rigorous security measures are significant reasons Socialive is trusted across healthcare, financial services, insurance, and Fortune 1000 companies. Enterprise organizations must ensure all vendors meet high-security standards, and video is no exception.

Here’s how Socialive is able to meet those high standards.

What is SOC 2?

Becoming SOC 2 certified is no easy task and isn’t a self-declared or self-reported status. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) developed Systems and Organizations Controls (SOC) to outline “trust services criteria” service organizations (ie. tech vendors such as Socialive) must meet in the security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of information processed by their systems.

It’s up to the service organization to make sure their company meets the defined criteria. As stated within Socialive’s SOC 2 certification: “Socialive is responsible for its service commitments and system requirements and for designing, implementing, and operating effective controls.”

Whether or not an organization meets trust services criteria must be determined by a third-party reviewer.

Basically, becoming SOC 2 certified means a company has opened its digital ledger for review and is found to comply with strict data security standards.

SOC 2 Type I vs. SOC 2 Type II

Socialive’s SOC 2 certification is type II, and, yes, there is a difference between SOC 2 types I and II.

‍SOC 2 Type I evaluates how well the organization’s systems are structured, while SOC 2 Type II also evaluates how well the organization uses those systems and whether or not it is a sustainable model.

Meaning, Socialive’s SOC 2 Type II compliance shows that cloud video creation provides the ability to meet rigorous data security and privacy measures both now and in the future.

Why SOC 2 compliance matters for the enterprise

Data privacy is a must for any corporation. Plain and simple.

We're thrilled to report that we passed security audits with flying colors! We designed our cloud video creation platform to meet security and data protection standards that meet or exceed requirements typical for large organizations.

The platform, built for enterprise companies, provides the reliability and security to deliver video at scale — with SOC 2 compliance being that proof.

“If you want to focus on the enterprise, you have to have a really strong security profile. So early on, we decided to keep our footprint as small as possible by only collecting the data we need.”
- Ben Davenport, CTO, Socialive

What SOC 2 compliance means for your organization

Great! Socialive is SOC 2 Type II certified. So what does that mean for my company outside of the thumbs up from our security lead?

‍With security measures in place, we can focus on making life easier for users.

There’s no hardware required, and single sign-on (SSO) ensures users can access the platform easily without sacrificing security.

Since the platform only captures strictly necessary personal identifiable information (PII) and encrypts all content in transit and at rest, businesses can trust that only the users who can access content are ones with proper access.

“It's not just about how we handle data, but even some of the structure of the platform itself. For example, we have roles so that users can segment the product and only allow permissions for different types of users.”
- David Moricca, CEO, Socialive

Security may be seen as a bottom-line benefit, meaning it’s best when prevention works and you don’t notice any issues, but it can also mean freedom for top-line production. SOC 2 Type II compliance means you can reassure CISOs while scaling up your video creation output.

What SOC 2 compliance means for your customers

Tight security measures for tech vendors also have a huge effect on customers, too. Namely, they can continue to trust that their confidence and information won’t be compromised.

Whether it’s internal training material that features private individuals or asynchronous recordings that contain sensitive information, customers need to know that your vendors and your video platform won’t put them at risk.

“As Socialive becomes more and more critical within organizations and their use cases, it's crucial that we maintain a security-first mindset.”
- Ben Davenport, CTO, Socialive

Socialive’s dedication to data security

SOC 2 compliance is only one part of our commitment to data security and privacy.

Just as the decision to go for the tougher standard in SOC 2 Type II, Socialive has procured an ISO 27001 certification.

Socialive’s ISO 27001 certification

Yes, another set of letters and numbers, but for anyone unfamiliar, the ISO 27001 standard is a step beyond even SOC 2 certification. While SOC 2 focuses on the implementation and scope of organizational controls, ISO 27001 requires a proactive approach by providing a framework for constant monitoring and improvement of organizational controls.

To conform with ISO 27001, an organization must actively follow and maintain the best practices outlined by the International Organization for Standardization.

‍TL;DR — ISO 27001 helps organizations proactively identify and address potential weaknesses to manage cyber-risks.

Speed up compliance workflows in four steps

Of course, while Socialive secures data within the platform, cloud video creation itself can also help organizations meet their own compliance requirements.Here’s an example of how Socialive and video can streamline compliance reviews

• ‍Prepare
  
  • ‍Videos subject to compliance with brand and legal guidelines require preparation of details like video topic, script, and creative elements.
• Create
  
  • ‍The video is created in Socialive, recorded on a mobile device or a desktop camera, then clipped with creative elements added prior to review‍
• Review & Approve
  
  • ‍Content admins send completed videos for a compliance review using a review tool such as Proofpoint.‍
• Publish
  
  • ‍Once approved by brand and legal, the video can be distributed to audiences via Socialive’s various integrations.

This is just one example of a workflow, but this makes it easier to scale compliant video creation across all channels.

Socialive’s track record with Fortune 1000 companies

Commitment to data security is a huge piece to Socialive’s enterprise video creation.The ability to scale corporate video creation, making security a top priority, and best-in-class support are all reasons why Fortune 1000 companies such as Oracle trust Socialive.

Secure cloud video creation with Socialive

Back to the scenario we started with: your security lead has questions about the safety of cloud video creation. It’s an easy answer for your part — just point to our certifications. We’ve built our platform to stay ahead of the game when it comes to compliance.

Socialive makes video creation hassle-free, without sacrificing security. The platform captures only strictly necessary PII and encrypts all video content. With SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications, rest assured that the Socialive product team is dedicated to prioritizing security and privacy.

Key takeaways:

• ‍‍End-to-end video platforms make it easy for anyone to create
• Empowering teammates is more effective than outsourcing
• A templated approach makes video creation repeatable and scalable

‍So you’ve got this nifty new platform that’s supposed to help you create more video content at scale. Great! But how can you actually get the most out of the tool — especially since your time is still limited?

You could take the time to train a few other people across the company in video. Or spend a little money to bring in people who know what they’re doing. Maybe just leave it all to the AI magic within the platform?

If you’re using an intuitive end-to-end video platform, the answer is “none of the above.”

The way to get the most out of the platform and kick your video program into high gear is to set up guardrails and entrust people across the organization to become DIY content creators.

With your strategic oversight and the platform’s user-friendly configuration, creating a templated approach is a reality. It’s how you’ll achieve repeatable, scalable video creation.

Here’s what that looks like in action.

Democratizing video creation: the VMware story

Before we break down the tactical “how-to’s” of setting up a new creator for success, why even use a video platform at all?

Many companies know that taking on any SaaS platform can lead to greater costs if no one knows how to use it or if it just recreates the manual bottlenecks in a virtual environment. Video is no different.

A true solution must fundamentally improve the approach and make it scalable — without the need to rip and replace tech or retrain people. This is how VMware has produced six-figure savings across each video project.

“I don't wanna have somebody who's got an editing degree from Full Sail on every project. I want people to be able to get after it on their own in a controlled environment where they're given some guardrails.”
- Craig Chapman, VMware

Before using Socialive, each part of VMware’s creation process was done in stages. Long-form videos and livestreams required travel, lengthy file transfers, and post-production. But the real pain was that there had to be a video expert involved every step of the way.

Members of the video department found themselves as production assistants rather than content strategists.

With an intuitive setup that includes some automation, there’s much less of a need to have an expert in the weeds.

Let the platform do the training

While the main idea in software and UX design is to make it so anyone can use it, there should still be resources available for new video creators.

For someone who’s interacting with video for the first time, even seemingly simple things might be overwhelming. It could be the screen share vs. virtual background buttons in the recording interface or clipping tools vs. overlays in the editing bay.

This is where the SaaS model adds that extra value. Customer success and guidance are included, as well as a knowledge hub of best practices (like further how-to content for producers) and an LMS to guide anyone just starting out.

With in-platform tutorials and AI virtual assistants (think the 2023 versions of Clippy or Siri) to guide the user within the platform, there are plenty of extra ways to help get new users comfortable. That’s how you’ll get those inexperienced creators making pro-quality content.

Setting up video templates

The trick to making stunning, brand-compliant video accessible to all is to work within a templated approach. From the printing press to the assembly line, it just makes sense to implement a repeatable process.

With Socialive and similar end-to-end video platforms, post-production capabilities are built with this approach in mind. In Socialive, every run of show from a livestream, scenes and layouts from a recording session, and editing configuration are saved to be reused.

Particularly for serial content, like a podcast series or a formatted webinar, this makes it easy to create new content without starting from scratch.

Within our own TL;DR series, we used a template to create it. The opening animation, music bed, background, layout, and outro are all ready to go. All we need to do is get the new recording, run it through the template, and we have our new video.

But don’t just take our word for it, think of the real-world use cases and the different approaches in play.

Video templates for financial advisors

Financial advisors are able to get their content to market faster by working within templates. Whenever news breaks or the market shifts, advisors quickly create their recordings, apply the approved branding for that type of video, and are ready for final content reviews and publishing. All within minutes.

Video templates for corporate comms

Corporate communications staff don’t need to put in a work order for every employee spotlight, CEO update, or video memo. They have the ability send the subject a script, the presenter’s recording is automatically made ready for editing, and the final video is ready in a few clicks.

Guardrails to create with approved branding

The more templated the approach, the easier it is to scale content creation. But perhaps most importantly — templates are a way to ensure each creation is on brand and has a consistent look and feel.

The concept of letting creators new to video run off on their own will rightfully scare the daylights out of many brand teams.

That’s why templates are so powerful. They remove the risk of someone erroneously adding an unapproved logo, a crunchy graphic, or playing unlicensed music.

Democratizing video creation doesn’t make sense if the person without training is given a blank canvas. They might be able to fill it and create a passable video, but it won’t hit your brand’s expectations. That’s why it’s key to set up a template to ensure the hands-on creator has no choice but to create on-brand content.

How new video creators benefit from AI

Now it’s time to talk about how artificial intelligence factors in.

AI isn’t here to replace the creatives, quite the contrary. It’s here to further enhance the abilities of those new to video. But make no mistake, the creatives are still the brains of the operation.

The whole point of AI is to make it faster and easier to bring a creative vision to life. But where does that vision come from? What sparks true inspiration?

It’s not in the machines.

With just a touch of guidance from the creative team, AI enables project owners, talent, and others to create the video. AI does the dirty work without losing the quality and creativity each project demands.

The biggest gains from AI come in editing and applying pre-set templates.

Automated video editing

Editing has traditionally been the trickiest piece of the puzzle for video. Anything that makes it faster and easier saves time, saves money, and makes video creation that much more accessible.

There are a number of ways AI makes a difference, most of which we’ve covered in previous pieces.

But the short of it is that AI can easily handle many of the mundane tasks professional editors shouldn’t need to worry about. Creating a caption file, removing obvious errors, color matching, and writing a video description can all be done by AI.

AI presents a way to shave dozens of hours and thousands of dollars from larger video projects. But more importantly, nearly anyone can perform some quick yet polished edits with the power of AI.

Automated video templates

More efficient than faster, easier editing? Skipping it altogether.

We already walked through the ways a templated approach makes video creation scalable and easy for creators of all abilities. But with AI, there will be some cases where no post-production or editing is needed.

With natural language processing (the same tech that powers our automated captions and transcripts), the backend AI can recognize things like topics, speakers, brand names, and the contents of the video.

This means the AI can match preset templates from the video team and pair them with the video. This takes the raw footage, pulls the desired take, adds a bit of automated polish, and has the video ready for final review moments after the recording session ends.

Transform everyone into video creators

At the end of the day, any platform that promises “faster, easier” video creation has to deliver. It’s not enough to focus on those who know all the tricks of the trade.

You’ll see the most value by focusing on those who aren’t as comfortable with video. That’s how you’ll truly scale your efforts.

After all, a rising tide lifts all ships, and Socialive is here to help you ride the wave. Book time with one of our video experts to set your path to transforming all of your new video creators into full-fledged experts in an instant.

Key takeaways:‍

• ‍Google's SGE prioritizes social-style video
• SGE ranks snackable, visual content higher
• Socialive makes it easy to create snackable, social video content

‍Google as we know it is changing. A typed query producing a page of links with occasional rich snippets or video mixed in will be a thing of the past.

During the keynote of Google I/O 2023, artificial intelligence and short-form video were front and center. Google expects AI and short-form content will make its search engine more “visual, snackable, personal, and human.” The new mantra — Search, supercharged.

What does this mean for enterprises and companies who rely on Google searches to drive business?

It’s time to invest in snackable video content.

Snackable video in Google’s AI-powered SGE

This new Search Generative Experience (SGE) prioritizes an AI-generated response as Google aims to provide thorough answers for users in an easy-to-digest format.

The shift is in line with Google’s determination to deliver better experiences for people. The biggest evidence of that is the new Perspectives filter within SGE.

When someone’s search might benefit from the experiences of others, say a recommendation about a service or experience, the Perspectives filter may appear at the top of the page. The filter exclusively serves up long- and short-form videos, images, and written posts from across the internet and social media.

“Even in a world where AI can provide insights, we know that people will always value the input of other people.”
- Cathy Edwards, VP of Engineering, Google

The point is — people are at the heart of Google’s redesign, and you’ll see them in snackable video clips.

How businesses can crack Google’s new code

Now, here’s the part where search marketers, businesses, and everyone who relies on Google search really want to pay attention.

For years the strategy behind search engine optimization (SEO) has been to create tons of written content. You just pay attention to trending topics and keywords, and answer the questions people are searching for. By the way, the new Generative Engine Optimiztion (GEO) follows the same principles, just with ChatGPT, Claude, or Google's Gemini as the "search engines."

With Google’s new AI-powered search results baked into its primary search experience, combined with the Perspectives filter pulling directly from forums, social media, and the thoughts of real people (and not just huge brands in a pay-to-play model), short-form content will play a more pronounced role in the new SEO.

One of the main ways to get content indexed could be through Instagram Reels. After all, Instagram and TikTok have popped up on the SERP for years.

People want to hear from other people — we crave clear and concise answers. Quite often the “show don’t tell” methodology will help tremendously here. A picture is worth 1000 words, and HD video is 30 frames per second.

Creating quality, snackable video at scale is the way to make sure your content stands out in the future of search. Easier said than done.

Creating all that content without breaking the bank or sacrificing quality is tough to execute.

Or is it?

Social content creation made easy for the enterprise

Creating video for Google’s SGE doesn’t have to require a separate video strategy. With Socialive it’s three easy steps: record, edit, and publish.

Sure, a creator can whip out their phone and create video in the native app. There’s also the option to create outside of the app and retrofit video into a vertical format, optimized for social media.

Or you could just record (or stream) in the desired format directly in Socialive. Whether it’s 16:9 landscape, 1:1 square, 4:5 portrait, or 9:16 portrait, you can create in any social-friendly format within Socialive.

Using Socialive to create social video combines the power of professional quality, browser-based video and screen recording — or, instead, mobile video capture — plus enterprise-friendly security and branding controls all in a ready-for-social format. Just publish. That’s it.

Remote recording with Socialive

The beauty of Socialive is that every team member can be a creator and content contributor in Socialive's CreatorSuite.

Is your human resources department looking to highlight what it’s like to work at your company?

They can create employee testimonials in minutes.

Need the CEO to deliver thought leadership to the masses?

They can easily create in a guided format.

Remote recording is the way to create professional video on the go.

A producer just needs to set up the branding, the layout, and then pick the desired channel from a plethora of options. The talent joins, records their piece from wherever they are in the world, and then the HD-quality video is ready to publish.

Publishing to Instagram Reels

One example of Socialive’s many publishing destinations is Instagram Reels. Rather than creating outside of Instagram, downloading the final video, and then uploading it to the platform, Socialive allows creators to send video straight to their Instagram Reels.

This is a game-changer because users can save time, can still repurpose longer content (using Socialive’s clipping tools), and deliver the snackable content their audiences crave.

Content sent to Instagram Reels, Instagram Live, LinkedIn Live, and so many more destinations can receive the high-production value treatment on the first pass, without needing to set up physical equipment — studio quality, sans studio.

The ROI of AI in cloud video creation

To this point, everything we’ve mentioned about AI has been about how it will optimize the delivery of video content within Google, similar to the experience in social media platforms.

Socialive makes video creation faster, easier, and more cost-effective by empowering non-video professionals to be able to contribute high-quality content. One example was how VMware saved $100,000 in a single video project.

Of course, the post-production end of it will almost always need to have a professional touch to it — which is why we’re making that level of editing magic accessible to all with the power of AI.

Saving time without sacrificing quality

As we’ve highlighted in previous pieces, there’s a higher demand for video than most in-house video teams can keep up with, creating a time cost. The option of outsourcing to a creative agency, of course, is a financial hit for each video project.

Socialive already makes it easy for non-creators to create professional video, so the sensible next step is to make editing easy for anyone in the organization to take on.

Think of how Canva allows people with limited design skills to create quality designs. In a similar vein, editing a video should be equally accessible. We’re enabling teams to automate parts of the editing process, such as captioning, trimming and adjusting clips, adding branding, and transferring media.

Democratizing video creation

Making it easier to edit video will save time by scaling the ability to do post-production. This shouldn’t be confused with completely entrusting any editing to the machines.

Rather, democratizing video editing will allow video teams to focus on big projects such as complex live events, setting up branding parameters, and coming up with the ideas behind winning content.

‍AI will empower creative teams to take a more strategic role in video creation rather than being pigeonholed into individual contributor roles.

It used to be that knowledgeable creator was the only one who could add polish to video.

Now creative teams can enable and entrust their talent and cross-functional partners to handle parts of editing. AI eliminates what was previously labor-intensive grunt work that could only be done in a traditional editing platform.

This is a much more scalable way forward, saving teams both time and money.

The not-so-distant future of AI in video creation

Google’s shift away from the yellow pages and investment into an AI-driven multimedia experience shows how vital it is for companies to create short-form videos. If recent decades proved video as a useful tool, the next few will show that snackable content is the new way of doing business.

As VMware’s Craig Chapman puts it, “Snackable content — regardless how you get there — is a really great future for people inside the video space, especially in the enterprise. Nobody wants to watch your 30-minute video. Ever. Even your biggest fan doesn’t want that!”

At Socialive, we’re here to make it easy for companies to meet that demand at scale.

Like Google, at Socialive we see an opportunity for companies to connect with customers through authentic, snackable video. AI will play a role in scaling up that personalized approach.

Key takeaways:

• ‍‍Travel and studio costs run up the budget on video projects
• Socialive makes it easy to record high-quality video from anywhere
• Presenters can seamlessly record on their own schedule‍

Video services teams are overtaxed — 95% of professionals said they were at or over capacity as recently as 2021 — draining content ROI. This means that increasing the capacity of each video team is a worthwhile investment — more video is needed to satisfy content-hungry audiences.

Content that features leaders, team members, and customers is often seen as too complex or too costly a project to take on.

The time, logistics, and travel involved to either get talent into a studio or send video crews across the country all impact the ROI of each piece of content created. And that’s if those are internal resources, never mind agencies and freelancers.

But what if it didn’t have to be that way?

With Socialive, video teams can easily set up their teammates in the field — who might not have as much technical expertise — to capture high-quality video of themselves and other subject matter experts.

Making a simple tweak to how teams record high-quality video makes a massive impact on the bottom line and boosts the content’s ROI. User-generated content like this goes a long way to scaling video output.

The camera crew and studio model drains budget

For widespread teams, the traditional route to creating high-quality content featuring their people doesn’t make sense. Traveling to and from a studio, sending people all over the country (or world), and pricing in a per diem for lunch means that there are associated costs with this method of content creation.

There are a number of factors that go into each approach, but the typical video that includes a company’s people could run between $1,000 and $25,000 per video if done the traditional, studio-bound way.

This lines up with the 7% of marketers who said they spend more than $10,000 per video in a 2023 Wyzowl report on video marketing costs. That’s the group on the premium end, but not much higher than the most widely-reported range of $1,000 – $5,000 per video.

Here are some of the underlying numbers.

Sending internal video teams into the field

Let’s say you have an internal video team. You have an office in a central location and plan to record employees attending a three-day conference. While you don’t have to pay your video team an additional fee for the project, you have to cover their travel.

Forbes has travel costs for a three-day business trip at $1400 per person. That covers round-trip flights, hotels, car rental, and food. Say you have a three-person crew — that’s $4200 in travel costs to record at the three-day event.

It’s great to be able to send a crew to events, but it’s limiting and isn’t scalable, eating into the ROI of each piece of content. The massive increase in demand for video means that recording all your content in one sitting isn't viable.

Shipping physical media, hardware, and equipment

The other, perhaps hidden costs of the travel-to-record model are shipping costs. A studio-style setup that requires cameras, hard drives or memory cards, mixing consoles, switchers, and other bulky equipment likely can't be broken down into someone's carry-on.

If the total weight of the equipment is under 150 pounds, then standard shipping can help keep the cost reasonable. But beyond that, you may be facing nearly $4 per pound just to ship equipment to its destination.

Hiring freelance camera crews

So, what about hiring a local crew close to where your employees are?

While that could be a lighter lift on your team, it’s a heavier impact on the bottom line. Business.com estimates the costs of a professional video crew amount to $10,000 per minute of video they create.

We don’t need to do much more math there, that figure speaks for itself.

Of course, you can mix and match the model by renting a studio at about $50 per hour and fly your crew there, or hire a more reasonably-priced freelance team in the ballpark of $2000 per minute of video — either way, you’re probably facing upwards of $25,000 to outsource a corporate video that requires talent be on site.

Bringing guests into a studio

The alternative to sending around an internal or third-party camera crew is to bring talent to you and then record them in studio. Of course, we already stated some of the drawbacks.

You have to take the travel of the individual into consideration, so right off the bat, there’s that average of $1400 per person in travel costs for your video content. Given the demand to create content, that becomes an inefficient solution unless you plan to record a year’s worth of content in each session.

Plus, it isn’t the most scalable approach for your video crew to churn through recording sessions conveyer belt–style.

If you choose to fly an executive or thought leader out to a freelance crew you hired for the day, then you have to balance the added flexibility with agency costs.

If it’s on the lower end of agency fees at about $1000 per minute of the final video, with travel costs included that’s just shy of $5000 for a three-minute video.

So, the in-studio approach isn’t cost-effective at scale.

What about meeting software?

Some might want to jump in and say, “Why not record virtually in Zoom?”

‍You’re on the right track — make sure you’re using the right tools.We’ve covered why Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and other meeting platforms fall short. The main reason is that those platforms force video crews to sacrifice the professional look and feel of the output.

It’s not just a matter of lighting and camera quality, either. It’s down to the fact that it takes a lot of post-production to polish up those recordings before they’re ready to go to the masses.

That doesn’t even take into account that those platforms will almost always guarantee a producer is needed to guide executives, employees, or talent during the recording to avoid technical issues. So there’s a time cost, too.

What if it were easy for anyone to record a professional video, all on their own?

Boost video content ROI by empowering contributors

The easiest way to keep those costs down is to have people record on their own in an easy-to-use setup. User-generated content is far more cost-effective than asking a professional to babysit them during a recording session.

This is where Socialive's CreatorSuite is incredibly valuable to video teams. Just create a link for the talent, leave them with a set of instructions, and let them get after it on their own.

High-quality recordings straight from the field

With Socialive, there’s no need for your talent to log into a platform or learn a new piece of tech. Guests can use any mobile or browser-based device, set up a virtual background, and they’re ready to record crisp video.

Sure, they can still go into a well-lit studio or a nearby office, but the point is that the video crew doesn’t need to be in the room or online while talent records.

Another huge difference between Socialive and other recording platforms is that recordings are instantly available to edit. Once the video is recorded, it’s automatically sent to a secure content library, where editors can take over. No more downloading and transferring files or asking people to scour their desktops for the right file.

Teams can then finesse the clips in Socialive, do additional editing, or transfer it to a number of collaboration tools in just a few clicks.

This type of workflow, gathering video straight from the field with Socialive, saved VMware $100,000 in a 150-video project based on time savings alone. Of course, they also didn’t need to worry about paying agency fees or flying talent or crews across the country.

Scalable, cost-effective content creation

Aside from the time and cost savings in the logistics of studio-based recording, the remote recording workflow also allows video teams to set up a repeatable process to create video content — outsourcing content creation to teammates rather than agencies.

Set up a template, give instructions for what you need from talent, they record, and then whoever is tasked with editing jumps into Socialive and then adds branding, graphics, and anything else needed in an instant. It’s so simple that anyone in any line of work can apply those edits, from a veteran financial advisor to a professional video editor.

Enabling talent to record asynchronously also pushes the entire timeline up. Removing the need to sync up busy schedules means that in-house video teams can now make anyone, anywhere, the subject of their video content. This increases the number of internal content creators exponentially, making it easier for teams to create more video, increasing each piece of content’s ROI.

Less time worried about recording people means your video experts can spend more time focused on editing and polishing high-quality recordings.

Create more video content, grow top-line revenue

Long gone are the days when business was done completely offline and video was a nice-to-have. Video content drives business. Brand videos, product videos, educational content, employee introductions, sales assets — you name it. There are countless ways to find value through video marketing.

That’s why more than 90% of marketers in Wyzowl’s 2023 survey said video marketing increases both leads and sales. Video is a huge revenue generator, it's not optional.

With Statista putting the figure at about $8 of video marketing revenue per internet user, digital marketing is at the core of any business strategy — not just for marketers. That means a rising amount of content is needed to help fill the funnel, and it’s more important than ever to keep costs down while creating it.

The IKEA effect: the benefit of democratizing video creation

One question that will surely come up for savvy creators is, “Why not just hire an actor to be in videos? AI-generated avatars are a thing, too!”‍

Well, aside from the fixed costs, the main reason we advocate against going down that route is because we believe there’s an inherent value in featuring your own people in your videos.

It’s not just about another way to cut corners and costs. People love authentic content. Your people make the video both authentic and dazzling — generic talent misses the point.

Videos with famous actors or spokespeople can see spikes in engagement, sure, but if that was the only way to do business we wouldn’t need case studies or testimonials. Yelp, TikTok, Twitter, and G2 all have that in common — everyday people have the loudest say in the content.

Plus, there’s also the fact that people featured in videos or who personally know someone in the video will be the biggest advocates for that content. It’s why professional creators will joke about a video with millions of views received almost all of them from a loved one.

‍The IKEA effect is real.

Studies show that people involved in creating an item or putting labor into it tend to have a stronger sentiment toward it. Yes, there’s science behind the pride felt from a DIY project!

The beauty of Socialive is that video teams can put the IKEA effect to work by featuring their teammates in content and keep costs down while doing so.

The ROI of crowdsourcing video content creation

Having to rely on in-person shoots for each and every piece of content drains budget. Putting the power to record high-quality video content into the hands of the talent — no matter where they are — cuts out massive costs from the video creation process, boosting the ROI of your video content.

Empowering contributors and crowdsourcing that first piece of the puzzle not only allows in-house teams to create more video but also has an impact on top-line revenue for teams as an asset in a video marketing strategy. This type of user-generated content is both cost-effective and way more authentic than anything else that can be done at scale.

Of course, videos that feature your internal subject matter experts not only drive engagement within your own sphere of influence, but it’s also content that others are likelier to engage with, as well.

The pride and joy that comes from seeing yourself or people you know in professional-grade video is palpable, and it’s a great way to truly humanize your content.