6 reasons why videos are the future of business networking and how you can prepare for it
Many of us have probably experienced this before: you are searching for a job, sending out resumes and applying for countless positions with no replies from companies or recruiters. Finally, you do get a reply — but just as you are about to celebrate, you see the request to complete a video assessment. You start to panic because you have no experience recording videos for career purposes. However, assessments like these are just one of the many examples where videos are becoming more common in job search and career-building.
In this blog post, we will let you in on why you should start paying more attention to video formats and how you can prepare for the future of business networking.
1. Videos communicate non-verbal cues
Videos are the next best thing to face-to-face interaction. Through videos, we are better able to see a person’s body language than over a text or phone call and from there, get a better sense of a person’s personality which we would otherwise be unable to pick up through other means. This is especially useful for job recruitment or networking when we want to meet people and get to know them as a person.
2. Videos garner the most engagement
With both sound and visuals, videos engage viewers more than text or static images. According to statistics from Renderforest, videos have a whopping majority of 74% engagement compared to other media formats such as image and text. It is also the most preferred type of content on social media at 81% as compared to images, text posts, stories, quizzes and lives.
3. Videos communicate information quickly and are fast to consume
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video that is one minute long must be worth millions of words. While seemingly coming from a mere adage, this appears to hold true. In fact, according to Forrester Research, a video is indeed worth 1.8 million words. In this day and age, we also know just how hectic our lives can get — and if there is one format that can communicate information across swiftly and effectively, it is video. Our brains are naturally hardwired towards visual content and this explains why we engage faster with video format instead of ploughing through long chunks of text to find the information we need.
Interestingly, the average engagement of a person decreases as the video length increases. According to a report by Vidyard, average engagement is most optimal at video lengths of 0 to 1 minute. If you are looking to do up a simple video CV or record a video for your own personal branding, this might be worth taking note of if you want to be successful in the video space. More about that below ;)
4. Videos are the norm in social media
Videos have been around in social media for quite some time with short-form video hosting app Vine being launched back in 2013. Fast forward a couple of years and we now have TikTok, a China-based short-form video sharing platform with an estimated 800 million global monthly active users as of January 2020.
Other familiar social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram have also encouraged video consumption in people’s everyday lives through their Stories and IGTV feature. Not to mention that industries such as e-commerce and esports have ramped up livestreaming or video streaming efforts in recent years on platforms like Facebook Live and Twitch.
All in all, the future of video seems bright as online video consumption has increased steadily and is set to rise to 100 minutes per person per day globally in 2021. With videos a major part of social media, people have grown accustomed to watching videos, whether it is for education, entertainment or work.
5. Gen Z & Millennials love videos
It’s official; video content is the most popular amongst the Millennials and Gen Z. Gen Z, in particular, are a unique generation that consumes video content more than their older peers. In fact, while a US study showed that every generation (including Generation Xers and Baby Boomers) uses YouTube at least once a week, Gen Zers use YouTube for almost everything. TikTok has also become a hot favourite with Gen Zers as it emphasizes short-form video content and appeals to their desire to be creators.
As for millennials, they grew up with social media and have grown accustomed to watching videos on streaming platforms like Netflix. Interestingly, millennials watch video not just for entertainment but also to help them with purchasing decisions and finding out more about a company. It is no wonder then that they also like vlogs and watching unboxing videos (it gives them the same feeling of opening gifts) as they value product reviews a lot.
The bottom line? We can no longer ignore video formats. With Millennials and Gen Zers already making up more than half of the global workforce at 59% and this number is set to rise even further, the potential reach of your videos from these audiences is immense. You definitely wouldn’t want to miss out on networking opportunities with these two groups.
6. New trends brought about by COVID-19
Lastly, COVID-19 has thrown a curveball at everyone and we have had to adapt. With social distancing measures and travel restrictions still in place, people are getting used to showing their faces via videos in a business context as activities are moved online. Face-to-face job interviews have been replaced with Skype or Zoom videos while business conferences have largely gone virtual, although some are now trialling a hybrid format. Employees are increasingly working from home and meeting fellow colleagues on video conferencing platforms. Whatever it is, there is no denying that video communication is set to stick around post-COVID.
From the above, it’s clear that videos are going to be the medium of the future in both our everyday life as well as professional world. Thus, it becomes crucial for us to stay relevant digitally, or risk lagging behind our peers. So, where should you start? One intuitive and easy way is to use the app called Haloed, which offers a video-based professional networking and recruiting platform helping you to find and connect with other professionals easily as well as to apply for jobs and participate in first round video interviews with your application. In our previous blog post, we have already covered such topics including tips on how to increase your job profile visibility during COVID-19 and a brief glimpse into how you can benefit from Haloed. Nevertheless, there is still so much more that you can do with Haloed to start your video networking journey!
First, Haloed is focusing on the sweet spot of video engagement having a maximum video length of up to 60 seconds. Haloed has six video channels (People, Jobs, Gigs, Events, Collabs, Rants and Knowledge) to tag videos based on your goals that you may want to achieve. With a single video you can, for example, introduce yourself, apply for a job, promote an event, call for business partners, share knowledge or invite other Haloed members to a casual networking lunch.
If you’re not yet used to recording yourself, Haloed allows you to practise your video presentation skills and retake your video as many times as you want at your own convenience — particularly useful for fresh graduates who are just entering the workforce and may want to brush up on their presentation skills. To make things easier, Haloed has a teleprompter feature which lets you read off the screen during recording and various filters for you to look your best.
Once you have recorded your video, you can publish it for all Haloed members to view or alternatively. In addition, you can share the video link to other social media channels to reach an even wider network. The best part of Haloed? The app’s AI algorithm helps you to find and connect with other Haloed members of interest by recommending the most relevant video content to you. Moreover, it is easy to set up your video profile on Haloed with your skills, work experience, education and contact information to be found by recruiters and other professionals. If you want to get even more out of Haloed, you can leverage on our paid features (which are currently free for beta testers) such as promote your video to get it in front of more eyeballs.
Now that you know the importance of videos for career-building and networking, why not try Haloed? New users can sign up for the beta version of the Haloed app here. Alternatively, follow our social media channelsto be notified of the app’s official launch if you prefer to wait. In the meantime, feel free to leave comments or connect with us on social media!
P.S. Truffle Technologies is continuously looking for fresh talent and visionaries; extraordinary people who want to be part of our mission and are ready to catapult us to the next level. Sounds exciting?
If you think you have what it takes, apply now at: https://truffletech.com/careers
“Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them.” — William Arthur Ward
