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Key takeaways:

• ‍‍Preparation is key to success in pre- and post-production
• A checklist can help tech checks go smoothly
• Confidence breeds confidence — try to comfort thought leaders

‍If you’ve ever been tasked with getting a thought leader on camera, you know it can be a tricky proposition.

Subject-matter experts, busy executives, employees, and just about anyone else who might feature in your content likely have something in common — they aren’t on-camera talent by trade.

That’s OK. Your job is to coach them up and get the best out of them.

Nerves, camera shyness, and a general lack of time can make it seem like getting someone who isn’t perfect on camera isn’t worth it.

But it is. Video is a powerful way to position thought leaders. No one can replicate their expertise, experience, and shining face. Of course, getting the best out of them isn’t easy.

And it's important to nail the take because thought leadership is massively important in B2B marketing. In a recent report by LinkedIn and Edelman, 61% of decision-makers considered thought leadership more influential than product marketing, and 55% said that thought leadership is important to driving business.

Yet, only 33% of thought leaders believe they're putting out high-quality material. We can help fix that by making your video of the highest quality possible.

We’ve compiled some quick tips to help you make your thought leaders comfortable and confident on camera.

Preparation saves time and headaches

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Advice by Benjamin Franklin worth way more than $100.

Each and every time you ask someone to go on camera, you need to make the experience as easy as possible for them.

You’d never expect an actor to go take the stage without knowing her lines — and even the best improv artists have a framework to work with.

Doing the heavy lifting ahead of time will boost your speaker’s confidence and increase buy-in. And it’s noticeable in the final video.

Send a rundown and script ahead of time

The first step for any wise producer is to prepare a quick information packet for your speaker with a script and production rundown. It’s crucial to get the right information to your thought leader. Not too much, or too little, just right.

You don’t want your thought leader to simply read from a script and have to think about every production note. Nor do you want them to show up and wing it. Rather, you want your presenter to comfortably speak through their information.

So think in bullet points.

Distill the production information down to who, what, where, and why. If the audience doesn’t need to know it, likely neither does your thought leader.

As for the script, if your thought leader isn’t used to creating their own talk track, you can help guide them. Simply ask that they provide a short summary of what they will cover, including any supporting information or graphics, and boil them down to 5-10 bullet points.

You’re in it together, so you can share the burden on the talk track. Just remind them to “help me help you.”

Use a checklist for your tech checks

You shouldn’t expect your thought leader to have the perfect setup. Even if you’ve sent camera equipment and a microphone for them to use, video isn’t their primary role. It’s yours.

It’s helpful to have a checklist ready to go, and perhaps include it with the information packet you send in advance.

Just remember to remind them of:

• Framing, lighting, and camera level
• Closing unnecessary browser windows and background apps
• Ensure the correct camera and audio device are connected
• Logistics like the Internet, silencing computer apps and their phone, and finding a quiet environment with a nice background

Many of these things are second nature for anyone who creates video regularly. But for your brilliant SME who doesn’t make content for a living, it’s best to help them out by giving them tips for their setup. Make sure all your bases are covered by having a checklist handy.

Add time for a practice run and warmups

It’s a little thing, but scope out 5–10 minutes to do a practice run.

Your thought leader may have done tons of warmups on their own, but it’s always different when the cameras are rolling. It doesn’t matter if it’s a short promo video or an hour-long panel, give your speakers space to get out any hiccups.

Instill confidence in your thought leader

Your thought leader is looking to you to be the professional during the session. They may know finance, healthcare, DEI, or artificial intelligence. But they might not know video.

If you come to the table calm, cool, collected, and confident, they will follow your lead. Confidence breeds confidence, so do your best to prepare to win, and your thought leader will bring their A-game, too.

Use a teleprompter

Don't be a hero. No matter how well-versed someone is on camera, it's always better to have support. A built-in teleprompter can help your speaker do their best work.

And we know — the last thing you want is for your thought leader to look like they are obviously reading a script. But reading through a script once or twice can help nail the material. Even professional actors do table reads!

Then for the main event, your SME can just use their teleprompter for the bullet points to make sure they nail their talking points.

Record when possible, practice ahead of livestreams

One of our other tips is to opt for the safety of recording when possible. Sure, this might mean an extra step, but if you’re using Socialive, recording and then sending out your livestream in a live-to-tape workflow is seamless.

Unless your content absolutely needs to be live, such as if it’s a Q&A session or has some other digital audience interaction, recording can reduce your presenter's stress. It gives your thought leader peace of mind, knowing that they don’t have to be perfect.

But if you do choose to go live with an inexperienced or nervous speaker, make sure you schedule that practice run.

It doesn’t need to be a full walkthrough, just enough time to get loose, get the stumbles out of the way, and hone in on the talk track. This is especially helpful for any busy individual who is pulled from meeting to meeting.

Always do an extra take

If this isn’t a livestream and you have the benefit of recording, always ask for one more take. Note: this is just a recommendation for a quick segment or statement. We’re not saying you should ask a thought leader to redo their hour-long panel!

Time is valuable, of course, but it’s much easier to get everything you need and have redundant footage than to have to try and fix something in post-production.

You might find in the final take that your presenter has more energy. They’re more comfortable. Maybe the lighting coming from their window is just better. Either way, it’s great to have options for editing.

Things your thought leader can do

Now that we’ve given you, the producer, plenty to think about, here are just a few tricks that your thought leader can do to feel more comfortable.

Force a laugh

Laughing releases endorphins. People feel better and more comfortable when they laugh, so it’s a decent warmup to get in a few chuckles before going on camera.

This can easily be paired with doing a vocal exercise. Who can resist a grin after doing a few Ron Burgundy–style “unique New Yorks” or a Peyton Manning-eque “Omaha” cadence?

Pick a comfortable area

The benefit of working in a platform that is remote and captures video from anywhere is that it can be done, well, from anywhere.

So before hitting record or going live, consider letting your presenter pick a place that is their physical “happy place.” Of course, it still has to be a quiet area with a good background and nice lighting.

You’d be amazed the boost in performance when people are in their element. Not everyone is cut out to have the bright lights of a studio on them. Rather than forcing a sterile environment on them, let your thought leader pick a spot where they feel at their best.

Sit tall, smile, and power pose

OK, we understand how ridiculous it sounds, but hear us out.

There’s a reason every self-help guru under the sun talks about “power posing” — it works. Body language has an impact on how a person feels. It might sound like “fake it till you make it,” but anyone who has worked as talent on stage or on camera knows how important posture is.

Yes, smiling also factors in.

For our radio producers and podcasters out there, you understand there is an audible difference when you smile. You project your voice, you’re more upbeat.

If nothing else, if your thought leader appears to be in a cheerful mood, it lifts the spirits of everyone around them. It makes for a much more hospitable work environment, making it easier to get the best out of everyone.

Always coach up your thought leaders

The better you prepare yourself and your thought leader, the easier it will be to get great content out of them.

End-to-end video platforms like Socialive make it easy to record, edit, and publish your videos or to run a livestream, but your presenters will be the ones to truly make content great. Clearing the way for them to be at their best doesn’t have to be difficult, it just requires a bit of coaching and attention to detail.

For those who might not be seasoned producers but want to get started, be sure to download our guide on how to make video a part of your strategy. It contains additional tips and tricks to transform your video comms.

Key takeaways

• ‍‍Technology providing enterprise on-brand, compliant workflows
• Video services will take on a more “production enablement” role
• Growing video use cases for compliance-based industries
• ‍L&D use cases like peer-to-peer learning to thrive

It seems like every year has been “the year of video” for the past decade or so, but there’s a truly different energy this go around.

For too long, video has been seen as “too expensive,” “too time-consuming,” “too complicated,” — or, in the case of the enterprise — “too risky to the brand and compliance regulations.”

That’s where 2025 promises to be different.

Video technology is continuing to evolve, making it faster and easier to create content. You already knew that. What you might not know is the latest innovations are enabling workflows that support on-brand and compliant video creation at a scale never seen before.

Here’s how Socialive’s leadership team sees it playing out in 2025.

1. Technology making video more self-serve

The trendline across the enterprise continues to push toward a more streamlined, self-serve model for video creation. Powerful video technology continues to democratize video creation, which makes it easier for people without a background in video to create high-quality content.

It might sound frightening to brand and compliance-focused teams, but newer tools have accounted for those concerns. Everything from compliance, security measures, and best practices are built into enterprise-ready toolkits.

Simply put, video technology developers know that simply making it easy to create a video isn’t enough. There have to be safeguards and workflows in place to ensure those end-users are only creating content that meets brand and compliance standards.

It’s the only way the self-service model scales. Expect to see technology vendors continue to stress that point in 2025.

2. Centralized teams democratizing video creation across the field

The push for video often comes from the field. Reps want video to engage prospects and showcase their services. Video is a great way to train and enable employees. Video is a perfect way to send internal communications across the organization.

But the traditional approach has been to wait until production services can get to a request or marketing brings in an agency for a project.

In 2025, the new approach will be led by those production and marketing teams to instead provide the field with the tools to create the content they need.

This democratized approach to video creation has a massive impact on the business, as video leaders at Best Buy, Akamai, and KPMG revealed during our webinar late in 2024.

3. Video services enabling on-brand, compliant workflows

The traditional approaches are further exposed as the demand for video from all parts of an organization continues to rise. 2025 is the year when video services teams flip the model.

Technology is allowing video services to focus less on producing content for a myriad of specific single-use cases for the field and instead on training and enabling the field to create its own content.

This strategic “production enablement” approach will continue to grow this year. Video services teams will see their role shift to where they set up on-brand, compliant workflows and templates in a video creation tool, set the uses and applications for the field, and are able to take more of a hands-off approach for those video requests.

This will allow video teams to focus on the more high-stakes, highly-produced video needs. Those always-on requests are pushed to the self-service model — powered by technology that promises on-brand, compliant content.

4. Financial services, law firms, L&D video to take off

A number of fields will be the biggest beneficiaries of the new “production enablement” approach.

Financial services video creation

Wealth managers and equity research analysts, in particular, will see 2025 as their “year of video.” These groups are always looking for innovative ways to promote their services to prospects and engage current clients.

Thought leadership video content, industry insights, and a number of other financial video marketing use cases will continue to help drive massive growth for institutions this year.

Law firm and accounting video creation

These professional services industries have always valued streamlined ways to promote thought leaders across the firm. Video democratization promises to get thought leaders in front of a larger audience, quicker, and at scale.

L&D and peer-to-peer learning video creation

Video is a natural fit for large-scale organizations that need an elegant way to develop field employees. Employee-generated content cuts through to co-workers. It starts by empowering SMEs themselves to create that content.

Why watch a training video from someone who has never worked in that position before? Instead, an emphasis on authentic micro-learning content will revolutionize the way the enterprise handles learning, enablement, and training.

Compliant, on-brand video creation for the enterprise

2025 is the year when “video is too complicated” will no longer be a viable excuse.

The same technology that makes content creation more efficient will give organizations a turnkey solution for on-brand, compliant video. Enterprise video creation will be an essential way for businesses to run.

B2B marketing thrives on LinkedIn. So it stands to reason that if livestreaming is a part of your media mix, LinkedIn Live is a valuable resource.

But you already knew that.What you might not have considered is that your livestream on LinkedIn doesn’t have to be a one-and-done marketing play.

Sure, it’s great to put together a video panel for thought leadership. Hearing from customers and prospects alike in real time is valuable. And each piece of content impacts brand awareness.

‍But what about driving high-quality leads and generating business?

‍The beauty of livestreaming on the leading B2B social site is that you’re already creating video content where your ICP is. Here’s how you can take your LinkedIn Live and transform it into demand-generation gold — without running up your marketing budget.

Maximize the ROI of your livestream

Nearly 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.

Livestreams supercharge the level of engagement by creating an urgency and immediacy that don’t exist in evergreen content. They're a huge driver of brand awareness, bolstered by natural opportunities to promote the event in the run-up.

But once the livestream is over, savvy marketers understand that they’ve only scratched the surface of their video content’s potential.

If you’ve heard the mantra of content marketing guru Ross Simmonds, “Create once, distribute forever,” you know where we’re going here.

You can take the transcript of a livestream and chop it into a blog post. Take that blog post and share it in your newsletter. Clip out portions of your livestream and share them as video social posts.

For the demand gen team, this means that each livestream presents endless potential to fuel the content engine.

You immediately have a starting point for a video advertisement.

Video ads are high-performing assets. More than 90% of marketers say video increases brand awareness, better educates their audience, drives higher web traffic, and generates more leads than other forms of media.

You can’t afford not to use video for demand generation.

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

This saves time, money, and effort in your content creation. There are plenty of ways to keep costs down while generating new assets, but repurposing existing content is a key way to maximize your content ROI.

Socialive: the LinkedIn Live partner for the enterprise

So why LinkedIn Live? Why not just livestream on YouTube, host a livestream on your own site, or take advantage of a number of other social sites and then share those spin-off pieces on LinkedIn?

‍Easy. Because LinkedIn Live outperforms the vast majority of content on LinkedIn. Compared with a standard video post, LinkedIn Live broadcasts receive seven times more reactions and 24 times more comments. There are plenty of opportunities to post to LinkedIn to promote the event ahead of time, and then your followers are notified when you go live.

With each livestream 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 a custom RTMP ingest?

‍Well, if you ask LinkedIn, they would suggest a broadcast partner — with Socialive quite literally being at the top of the list.

As a preferred LinkedIn Live partner, Socialive makes it easy to deliver an enterprise-grade livestream without the need for complex equipment or tons of people to produce the live show. We’re happy to walk you through all the steps, but TL;DR — we put the power of a TV studio in your browser and connect it straight to LinkedIn.

‍Wait, is this the same as a LinkedIn Event?

‍No, LinkedIn Live isn't the same as a LinkedIn Event, though a LinkedIn Event can also be a great lead generation tool.

Think of a LinkedIn Live as a massive billboard in Times Square, while a LinkedIn Event is a Broadway show. LinkedIn Live is meant to maximize reach, while LinkedIn Events are best at getting sign-ups — but don't forget, this is limited to LinkedIn users.

Check out our previous pieces on the differences between LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Events to learn more.

Cloud video production: high production value with fewer costs

Imagine your team produces a one-hour livestream once a month. It’s shot from a physical production studio, and each presenter needs to come in-studio. Your crew is about a dozen people. The final product: a beautiful, dynamic show that cost thousands of dollars to produce.

Now imagine that same show, that same look and feel, but it doesn’t require any guests to travel to the studio, and only two people are needed to produce it.That’s the difference with the Socialive ProducerSuite, powered by cloud video production.

Socialive’s ProducerSuite an intuitive production suite right at your fingertips. This powers faster, easier video production with an intuitive, drag-and-drop studio that lets you build the perfect livestream.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a quick video you want to play ahead of a live segment, lower thirds for your presenter, custom graphics on screen — whatever you need for your livestream, you can easily produce it in Socialive.

The platform is built so you can manage your content in Socialive’s browser-based live studio, manage your talent behind the scenes in a Virtual Green Room, and instantly repurpose the livestream into new content with ease.

Record, edit, publish, and livestream with Socialive

So how easy is it to create new content with Socialive?

‍Just record, edit, publish, livestream, and repeat.

Socialive is set up so that your content creation flows from one stage to the next — and you can go back to refine or repurpose as needed.

Cost-effective way to include talent

Socialive’s remote recording capabilities are a cost-effective way to create content. With self-recording tools easy enough for anyone to use but that also maintain picture quality in up to 4K, every live-to-tape recording is crystal-clear.

The same is true during a livestream — having guests “dial in” won’t kill your production.

We all know the look of a meeting platform. We've seen Zoom or ON24 used for remote capture in a broadcast. Socialive provides that same flexibility without sacrificing quality.

Fast, easy editing and clipping

Since everything is created and livestreamed from one platform, all recordings from before the show are available in a secure content library.

Whatever you have in the library is instantly available to edit. You can easily clip out the best segments and use them as is or use Socialive to quickly add branding. Those quick edits are immediately simplified.

These are then available to use whenever, and however you see fit. By editing in the same platform where you record, plus a touch of automation, creating each video becomes even more cost-effective.

Easily simulcast and instantly transfer recordings

Once your video clip from the livestream has been edited, you can easily send it to the masses. Or you can send that clip into your next livestream or video project. Or both.

While LinkedIn is an ideal endpoint for your livestream, you can use one of the many integrations to easily simulcast or publish. Your recordings are instantly sent to other social media sites and scale the size of your audience in a click. This is how you go from “create once, distribute forever” to sending everything you create everywhere all at once.

End-to-end livestreaming with ProducerSuite

For any company investing in livestreaming, it’s important that everything — from recording to livestreaming — is maintained on the same platform. Rather than bringing in four vendors for recording, editing, content storage, and livestreaming, Socialive’s secure platform does it all.

This speeds up the creation process, saving time and money while creating more content at scale. For creators at companies like Akamai, this removes many of the bottlenecks that previously stood in the way.

A complete revenue-driving content strategy

Socialive is the enterprise’s go-to platform for LinkedIn Live — and the one-stop shop many video teams need to create content at scale.

Each livestream is sent to the recording library, where content can be edited into more videos, which can be used in video ads and livestreams, which are all sent to the recording library, where content can be edited into more videos …

It’s a virtuous cycle of content creation (cue the Lion King theme). Seriously, this is how one concept can fill your funnel with highly relevant, high-performing content. All without the need to outsource to a content farm, you can create content into perpetuity.

This is just a taste of how LinkedIn Live is 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 livestreaming can boost your bottom line.guide on driving ROI with LinkedIn Live to learn more about how this type of livestreaming can boost your bottom line.

Key takeaways:

• ‍‍AI makes it faster and easier for anyone to edit video
• Automated editing replaces mundane tasks
• AI can save dozens of hours and thousands of dollars per project‍

Artificial intelligence makes for fast, easy video editing. If you’ve been paying attention to the newer uses of AI in video creation, this doesn’t come as a surprise.

In fact, we’ve gone deep on the topic of AI video editing in previous pieces of content. But the big question on the mind of video teams and business executives alike is, “How much of an ROI can we get from AI?”

‍Fast and easy video editing using Socialive's CreatorSuite has certainly made a major impact on the entire creative process for Socialive customers.

Since editing is often the long pole in the tent of video creation, less time on editing often means teams can create more content — and there’s a cost-saving associated with those efficiency gains.

Video teams will produce an ROI by leveraging automation in video editing.

Fast, easy video editing with AI

The fact that AI makes video editing faster and easier is huge for businesses looking to make more video.

Many companies in recent years have stated that video content takes too long and too much money to create. Often editing stands in the way of executing a video-first strategy.

Traditional editing is too expensive and takes too much time.

You could throw people at the problem, either by hiring extra hands or outsourcing editing.

Well, as we’ve covered in other pieces, agency fees alone can add thousands to the cost of creating each video.

If you could add to your team without increasing costs, then you’d see some time savings. Therefore, your cost per video produced would drop. That’s pretty easy to understand.

But that doesn’t really solve the time problem. With increased demand, it becomes harder to maintain the same pace of output.

So this is where speeding up the editing process trumps throwing extra hands at the problem.

How automated video editing saves time

AI makes a true difference in its scalability. Powerful AI-driven platforms work the same, no matter if you need to edit five videos or 500.

AI does many of the redundant, mundane tasks of editing, so no person has to. Things like captioning, creating video descriptions, color correcting, and removing those “umms” and long pauses from recordings are done in an instant.

This means your video team can focus on ideating and overseeing projects, not sitting in a dark room trying to catch the subtle differences between each camera source.

Professional-quality video made scalable

The easiest way to make video creation scalable is to raise the floor.

Make it so that everyone is capable of recording and editing content, rather than having a small group of video creators. This places an entire organization at your disposal — even though video creation isn’t their day job.

The goal is to make the entire process more efficient and make it so that everyone, from a veteran financial advisor to a thought leader proficient in new media, is self-sufficient.

The video experts in the room are elevated to content managers rather than content producers. The video experts set up a framework and provide guidance; your self-sufficient creators contribute their portion, and then the AI does the dirty work. Plus, the video team maintains control throughout to ensure every video is pristine every time.

It’s a much more efficient way forward.

Automated editing vs. traditional editing: a cost breakdown

The opaque “fast and easy” video editing moniker doesn’t mean much without an understanding of how a given platform produces those time savings and the associated costs.

Here’s a breakdown of how different components of an AI-powered video editing platform compare to the traditional editing process.

Captions and transcripts

Traditional editing: It’s generally accepted that manually creating captions and transcripts takes about five minutes per minute of video.

‍AI video editor: AI can automatically generate caption and transcript files. Realistically, you’ll want to double-check the V1 to make sure brand names, people's names, and the like are accurate. A conservative estimate is about one minute per minute of video.

Text-based editing vs. timeline editing

Traditional editing: A traditional timeline video editor, depending on who is using it, ranges between 30 minutes and one hour to edit one minute of video. We’ll split the difference at 45 minutes to edit each minute of video.

‍AI video editor: A text-based editor, where you alter the transcript and move words around rather than looking at still images and an audio wavelength, is an estimated five to 10 times faster than a timeline editor. To make it a round number on the more conservative side, that’s about 10 minutes per minute of video.

Video summaries and chapters

Traditional editing: While it may not take as much time to create a description of the video as a transcript, it still requires you to watch the full video. Even if the editor is quick, this is at least one minute per minute of video.

‍AI video editor: The AI uses the same automatically generated transcript to create a video description. We’ll leave a little time for a quality check, but to edit less than 100 words, this is about one minute total.

Disfluency removal

Traditional editing: This is heavily dependent on the content of the video. There’s about a 50% chance for disfluency in a sentence of 10-15 words. Meaning, about five to seven edits per minute of video. At 30 seconds per edit to remove the stumble and patch the video together, this is about 2.5X per minute of video.‍

AI video editor: Most AI video tools will automatically remove those “umms” and “likes” in an instant. You may choose to leave it up to the machine to apply each edit. Many video pros won’t like that. One minute per minute of video to review all the changes.

Color correction

Traditional editing: Inexperienced editors might not even think to look for inconsistent color profiles or assess how cold or warm the picture is. Unfortunately, this is tedious work that freelancers estimate takes two hours per minute of video.‍

AI video editor: AI will read the color profiles and match them across clips or provide a few options for the “look” you desire. Everything will be applied at the click of a button, which requires no time at all.

Adding graphics, branding, and logos

Traditional video editing: It might seem like a small addition, but adding a logo, a branded frame, a pre-roll, an outro, and lower thirds all take time. These are very quick edits that require no more than 30 seconds per minute of video.‍

AI video editor: Automated video editing tools make this incredibly easy. If you have a template set up with name tags and appropriate branding enabled, everything is applied in an instant.

Final tally

To get to a final figure, let’s provide a quick sample scenario. The project is to create a five-minute video. The recordings were already created and organized, and branding elements were provided. So, the only thing being outsourced is the hands-on editing.

Freelancer fees range from as cheap as $5 per hour for a novice to well over $150 per hour for a professional. Assuming you want an experienced editor who will give you great quality without the need for revisions, let’s set the figure at $100 per hour of video editing work.

‍Traditional editing: (5 x 5 mins captioning) + (5 x 45 mins editing) + (5 x 1 min descriptions) + (5 x 2.5 mins disfluency removal) + (5 x 120 mins color correction) + (5 x 0.5 mins branding) = 14.5 hours, $1,450 per project

AI video editor: (5 x 1 min caption review) + (5 x 10 mins editing) + (1 min description review) + (5 x 1 min disfluency review) + (0 mins color correction) + (0 mins branding) = 61 minutes

‍Of course, this is just to give you an idea of what's possible with AI. Outsourced video editing can take around 15 hours and cost nearly $1,500 per video in this scenario, while AI powers an in-house team to get to the same result in about an hour.

If you’re a large company with enterprise demands like VMware, which compiles hundreds of videos in each project, you can see how streamlining the creation process can produce more than $100,000 in cost savings.

Automated video editing creates massive ROI

Automated video editing streamlines a labor-intensive process, keeps costs down, and empowers teams to create more video content without an additional spend.

These time and cost savings are only multiplied by creating video in a seamless, end-to-end workflow from recording to editing and then sending content to its endpoint through Socialive's CreatorSuite.

Even if your team isn’t ready to completely automate the editing process, at Socialive, we’re more than happy to help guide creators of all levels of experience through the shifting landscape.

Key takeaways:

• ‍‍Video marketing is key for client acquisition and retention
• Industry leaders are investing in advisor video programs
• Video allows advisors to grow their brand and reach a wider audience‍

Why did more than 90% of surveyed financial advisors kick off video campaigns in 2022?

Video drives deep connections and authentic engagements, both of which increase wealth advisors' marketing and client retention opportunities. With it, wealth managers can create personalized experiences (and messaging) at scale!

Wealth advisors migrated to video in droves during the pandemic and discovered immense value in the ability to meet with clients and prospects — regardless of location.

Video is no longer a nice-to-have, but a vital part of driving personalized experiences for clients. That’s why Merrill invested in a virtual video studio. It's why PGIM uses snackable video at the heart of its communication strategy, providing immense value for clients.

Both approaches show that the financial industry is in the middle of an arms race to build out the best client experiences with video.

Here’s how to gain an edge on the competition in that battle.

Digital marketing for financial advisors

Wealth advisors know how to help people reach their financial goals. If you’re reading this, you probably have that part covered.

But digital marketing might not be as intuitive.

There are tons of tools pitched to advisors, promising more meetings via a multichannel approach. Agencies and tech platforms will sell their social media or email strategy and complex campaigns to help advisors connect with prospects and clients.

None of it replaces face-to-face communication.

Relationship-building at scale through video

Any digital strategy for a financial advisor has to include a personalized approach. Clients desperately want advisors to provide clear guidance, tailored to their needs, and video is the way to scale up that human touch.

Socialive CEO David Moricca went in-depth on the power of building relationships at scale in a 2022 Forbes article. The main takeaway — advisors have to focus on delivering tailored client experiences at scale.

“Clients want personalized analysis, insights, and suggestions that actually make their data useful. They want a wealth manager who anticipates their needs. Loyalty is achieved through a combination of personalization and frequency.”
- David Moricca, CEO, Socialive

Video expands an advisor’s reach without draining budget

Meeting with every client, prospect, and potential lead in-person isn’t realistic, particularly for ambitious advisors. Mass messaging lacks personalization and can be expensive to maintain.

Video provides the best of both worlds. It’s a way to be in the room at scale.

Besides, clients and prospects prefer video interactions. There’s no travel time or logistics to worry about, just log on and craft your message.

‍Advisors are using video to send market updates, pushing out time-bound communications, sending personalized birthday or congratulatory messages, thought leadership, and so much more.

Promotional content made easy

There are tons of ways advisors can leverage video for marketing and client retention, but perhaps the most important is that any video created looks professional, is compliant, and is branded appropriately.

Socialive makes it easier than ever to create professional-looking video.

It shouldn’t take a degree in video production or years of experience to create the perfect video for prospects. Advisors have all the knowledge they need to get out their message, they just need a video platform to quickly get it in front of prospects.By using Socialive, advisors can record on their own and create video within minutes. Take an introduction to a prospect, for example. Rather than requesting a videographer come help shoot tons of generic messages, an advisor can record for “Jane Smith” on the spot.

‍Here’s a quick example of the process using Socialive's CreatorSuite:

• The creative team sets up a template and invites the advisor to record
• An advisor records their message
• The creative team makes a quick edit
• The central team reviews the content
• The advisor sends the approved video to the prospect

Think of how long it takes to get a full campaign together, how many moving parts are involved, and how much work goes into personalizing messaging.

Advisors already know what they want to say, and how to say it. The quick workflow in Socialive’s CreatorSuite saves time and recipients will be thrilled with the results.

A big key with this workflow — by enabling advisors to handle multiple steps of the creation process, it becomes more cost-effective to create each piece of content. This is a massive ROI boost for institutions looking to create more video content.

Adding value for clients and prospects at scale

We’ve mentioned a few times now that clients and prospects crave digital interactions. It’s vital to meet them where they are and create content they want to consume.

Relax, we’re not advocating you create a TikTok account.

Once advisors identify how to create video, the next step is to make sure to focus on the right types of video. Fidelity’s quick “smart money” posts gain traction on social media and are a great example of how to provide helpful tips for clients and prospects alike.

As Millennials are aging into their peak earning years and Gen Z enters the workforce in greater numbers, the largest pool of potential clients has lived online for the majority of their lives. So it only makes sense to reach them where they are, powered by snackable video. It’s not just social media, either, as Google is making changes to feature more short-form video to serve its users.

That type of snackable content keeps the firm, and the advisor, top of mind for existing clients. Of course, those interactions also help expose expertise to new audiences.

With the power of cloud video creation, it takes only minutes to create top-funnel content that also serves existing clients.

Controlling the narrative with snackable thought leadership

Getting your institutional knowledge in front of clients and prospects in a digestible format should always be a goal.

If the audience isn’t served the information they crave in a snackable format, they will go and find it somewhere else — whether it be a popular podcast or a competitor’s video feed.

Instead, make sure your audience views you as a go-to resource.

PGIM has crafted an entire library of commentary-driven content to make sure their clients don’t have to go anywhere else. When there’s a shift in the market, advisors are able to quickly craft messaging for their clients and get the video to them within hours, rather than days or weeks.

Speed to market is vital to keeping clients informed and coming back for more knowledge.

Providing peace of mind with data security

On the subject of customization, we recognize that it can’t come at the expense of information security.

Prospects might be a bit wary of discussing financial information with strangers. Likewise, advisors might want to ensure that while discussions are confidential, they can be reviewed at a later date.

From the home office or just at home, it’s crucial to use a secure platform that protects users’ data. Socialive’s end-to-end encryption ensures any financial or sensitive information within the content will only go to the intended recipient.

While the ability to create a personalized financial plan video is great, clients and advisors alike will find comfort that their information isn’t accessible to other users in the system.

Efficient, effective advisor marketing with video

Financial advisors looking to grow their business need to nail their video strategy — it’s a way to stand out from the competition. Video is no longer a luxury, it’s a key part of any financial advisor’s marketing and retention strategy.

Whether it’s a promotional video for lead generation, a personalized introduction to a prospective client, or providing answers to questions that prospects have about the market, video is a powerful tool for financial professionals.

To learn the six crucial things your financial institution needs to implement a video strategy successfully, download the wealth advisor video program strategic guide.

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.