Times they are a changing. Once upon a time a CIO only had to worry about making sure the email servers stayed up and everyone thought that he / she was doing a great job. That’s no longer enough. Now CIOs are viewed as being the hub of a company’s new media activities – generating, transmitting, storing, and ultimately archiving more and more information. Do you know what you need to be doing?
You Don’t Get To Pick And Choose Anymore
Although there are lots of types of new media, the one that seems to cause the biggest headaches for CIOs is the arrival of corporate video. It’s so cheap to create that now everyone is doing it.
As CIO you’re going to be responsible for assigning various parts of the IT department to both do and manage the whole video production process. This could quickly turn into a staffing nightmare for you if you’re not careful.
The one thing that you need to keep in mind is that new media video is still a very dynamic area and you can’t actually hire someone with a very rigid set of skills. Basically everyone is going to need to be able to do everything when it comes to creating new media. They don’t have to be perfect at it, they just need to be willing to jump in and give it a try.
It’s Not All About Pretty People
Talk about non-technical decisions! As CIO you’re going to find yourself in the somewhat awkward situation where you’re going to have to pick people to appear in internal corporate videos. Who to pick?
Your gut reaction may be to go with the good looking ones. Well, you might have some slim pickings there (sorry IT staffers, you know that I love you), but the good news is that physical attractiveness is really the wrong criteria to use for this job.
What should you be looking for? What you really want is to find staffers who have the ability to be dynamic on camera. You don’t want them to be squirming the whole time, instead you’re going to be looking for people who can be comfortable on camera and who will be able to communicate clearly.
So Are We Talking About Hours Of Video Here?
Nope, the experts out there such as Amada Congdon of ABC News video fame say that when it comes to new media, shorter is actually better. Remember, most of the people who will be watching the corporate video will be consuming it on their PCs or laptops (or maybe even on cell phones) – not the most comfortable place to watch video.
The experts recommend that you keep your videos short – I mean really short. Your target should be in the 2-3 minute range. Any longer and you risk losing your audience and they won’t be willing to watch your next video creation.
In The End, What’s Really Important?
There are a lot of unique aspects to creating and dealing with new media that any CIO can find themselves getting caught up in. However, the key is to find out what’s really important and spend your time making sure that the IT staff gets that part right – everything else will just be window dressing.
Just about everyone agrees that when it comes to videos, the quality of your sound is what your viewers will remember. All of those millions of videos that you can find on YouTube generally have really poor audio quality and that’s what we have all come to associate with cheap, homemade videos.
Since you want your company’s productions to come across as professional, take the time to do it right and hire people who know something about sound to get you set up correctly from the start.
What Does All Of This Mean For You
When you become CIO, you are probably not expecting to become the next Rupert Murdoch, but you will face many of the same issues that he does. The era of corporate video has arrived and as CIO you are going to be living at its epicenter.
This means that you’re going to find yourself staffing the team that is responsible for creating, distributing, and storing much of that video. You’ll need to understand how to choose the right people to run the show as well as to appear on the show itself.
In the end, if you do all of this right, the company will be able to harness this powerful new communication tool. Who knows, your corporate videos might be so good that you’ll get invited to walk the red-carpet at some world premier events…
- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Department Leadership Skills™
Question For You: How big of a role in the actual production of corporate video do you think that a CIO should play?
Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Successful CIO Blog is updated.
P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Successful CIO Newsletter are now available. Learn what you need to know to do the job. Subscribe now: Click Here!
What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
If you’ve spent any time being in a leadership role on a firm, you know that there is one annual task that nobody likes to do – budgeting. It’s a pain in the butt, you’re pretty much just guessing, and the final results never seem to have anything to do with reality. Hey, if everyone thinks this, then is it possible that this is an area where a CIO could step in and make a difference?
