The async worker's guide to audio and video
Summary
Audio and video can add a new dimension to asynchronous communication. However, creating such media is an effortful activity. Here’s how we can get better at it.
Identify the right use-cases for audio and video. Audio is great for podcasting. Videos are effective for demos and recorded presentations, explainers and stories.
When doing internal podcasts, plan for a longish run and dive deep into a theme.
Recorded video benefits from storyboarding, a simple message and a tight script. The shorter the better.
If you want to communicate using audio in video think about investing in a personal broadcasting setup.
Much as I hate to admit it, our attention spans and capacity for reading have shrunk in the last decade and a half. The reasons for this aside, the phenomenon poses a challenge for asynchronous work. After all, writing is the primary way to communicate asynchronously. And why write, if no one will read? To help us through this conundrum, I’ve posted two articles earlier that readers of this blog have found useful.
While we all must reconnect with our writing and reading skills, there are some topics where the written word may be inadequate. You may prefer the flexibility of asynchronous communication, but you may also want a rich narrative, replete with emotion. This is where asynchronous audio and video come into play. So in today’s post, I want to share some advice on how to make asynchronous audio-visual communication effective.
Recognise where audio and video are effective
First, let’s get the basics out of the way. You don’t want to reach for audio or video for every piece of communication. Writing is far easier to consume, update and interact with, so make that your first go-to. When do you use audio and video then? I thought you’d never ask. 😀
Use cases for audio
The biggest benefit of audio is that you can consume it passively while driving, shopping or even when working out. In the enterprise context, there are two major use cases I see for asynchronous audio.
Internal podcasts. These are a great way to share long-form content, such as interviews, debates, storytelling or curated conversations. If you intend to dive deep into a topic over a few weeks and months, podcasts can help you build an audience.
Short messaging. When you’re in a rush and can’t bother typing, communicating using voice memos can work. Voice messages can be especially effective if you want to share a more emotive message with your colleagues that captures your tone of voice effectively. The payoff for this use case isn’t huge though.
Use cases for video
In 2023, I’m perhaps preaching to the choir if I advocate for video. The popularity of online video is hardly surprising given that vision trumps all other senses. There are many situations at work, where asynchronous video can be effective.
Demos and how-tos. Describing a software process in writing is painful. Imagine taking dozens of screenshots, annotating them and then describing the steps in writing. Now imagine a screencast instead. The video is often easier to consume and sometimes easier to produce.
Quick show and tell. Instead of telling your colleague over a few dozen chat messages how to perform a certain task, you could simply record a video or even a GIF and share the instructions visually. The more common this task, the more reusable the video becomes.
Storytelling and personal connection. Unlike the dry, journalistic style of professional writing, videos give you the ability to tell a story or explain an idea while bringing your personality into the mix. For the right kinds of topics, such videos can engage your audience far better than a document.
Reusable presentations. In companies, there are many topics that we explain using presentations. The narrative doesn’t change from one session to the next. Often, we need specific people, with a specific background to make these presentations. To unhinge these presentations from people’s availability and schedules, you can record them once and play them many times.
Now that I’ve listed my preferred use cases for audio and video, let me share some tips for making such recorded communication effective. Let’s start with audio.
Make your audio recordings effective
Since I’m not the biggest fan of async, short-form audio, let me address that first. Slack supports voice memos, so you could use that. You can also use the Voice Memos app on the Mac, and share that audio if you like. The trouble is that neither of these will generate transcripts. And that makes audio less useful as a daily communication tool because you’ll struggle to find a recording by searching for inline text. Yac was the only specialised tool I knew, that did transcripts. However, I don’t believe the tool is under active development at this stage. So that’s that.
This brings us to my favourite use case for audio recordings - podcasts. Before I list all my advice for such content, let me share an overarching recommendation. If you want to create an internal podcast, sign up for a long run. I recommend planning at least 12 episodes which you spread out over a season of say six months or even a year. This gives you three key benefits.
You get to dive deep into a particular theme for the podcast.
By bringing on different guests or by engaging with different aspects of your theme, you can build a comprehensive collection of content.
The audience can engage with your content beyond a one-off recording.
Once you’ve sorted out your season plan, the branding for your internal podcast and its theme, here’s what you can do to make it effective.
Keep it short and fast-paced. 30 minutes is the ideal length.
All speakers must have a personal broadcasting setup.
Create predictable segments. E.g. “my unsung hero”.
Be funny! Don’t be uptight and formal all the time.
Publish episodes on a predictable schedule.
Create drama through pauses and breaks.
Prepare, but don’t script the whole thing.
Nominate or be a charismatic host.
Use music to enliven the shows.
Don’t sacrifice depth.
With modern tools, you can produce pretty decent podcast recordings at low production costs. All you must do is focus on those basics I listed above and with experience, you should have some success.
Make recorded videos effective
The most popular asynchronous video tool that I know of, is Loom. For those quick and dirty demos and show-and-tells, you needn’t look further. In recent months, they’ve also added a bunch of AI features that clean up your audio for you. The AI also adds chapter markers, titles and summaries to polish your video communication.
While Loom is brilliant for impromptu recordings that are easy to create and share, don’t lose sight of other ways to do demos. Scribe, for example, records your screen and automatically generates written documents to explain the process. All your annotations and redactions are automatic. Nifty, eh?
Unlike demos, which are easy to do with modern tools, recorded presentations need a lot of work. They’re much harder to produce than a written document. Especially if you want to make them effective. If you don’t have the time, don’t even bother creating a recorded presentation. The best videos are short, and as Blaise Pascal famously alluded, it takes time to make things short.
Here’s the upside though. Good videos can attract a lot of eyeballs. People can also pause, slow down or speed up such media and consume it at their own pace. So let me share what I think are the characteristics and practices for effective video communication at work.
Simplicity. Your video should have an easy-to-understand, single, memorable takeaway.
Storyboarding. The way to achieve a simple narrative is to first build a storyboard. I’ve found it most effective to do this using simple tools - a virtual whiteboard with sticky notes. Since I build most visuals in my recorded videos, using slides, I like to get my storyboard to a point where I know exactly what visuals I must build, to support my narrative.
A storyboard should help you visualise your narrative and the imagery you’ll need
Keep it short. Yes, I’ve said this before. And I’ll repeat myself because it’s important. Back in 2009, John Medina told us about the 10-minute rule. We struggle to pay attention to anything for any longer. I argue that even 10 minutes is too long for online video. Bottom line - the most effective video for your topic is a few minutes shorter than the one you last produced.
Engage your audience. John Medina also tells us we don’t pay attention to boring things. Surprise, surprise! Therefore, that storyboard is important. Pay attention to how you build up a narrative and capture the viewer’s attention. Otherwise don’t be surprised if they close the browser tab within a few seconds.
Sweat the visuals. A video is meant to be 30 frames per second of visuals. So you can’t have a static screen for too long. Whether you use a talking head, fast-changing imagery or a combination of both, be sure to keep things moving. Otherwise, you defeat the point of doing a video. I also suggest using high-quality, even custom images and illustrations. With modern tools like Visme, and Biteable and generative AI tools like Midjourney and Leonardo, there’s no excuse to be amateurish.
Write a script. Audio is an oft-neglected part of videos. Regardless of how charismatic a speaker you are, don’t count on yourself to wing it when recording. Write what you intend to say. Fine-tune it. Time it. This’ll not only help you sharpen your message, but it’ll also make it easy for you to create subtitles. If you don’t deviate from the script, a platform like YouTube can accept the script document and generate closed captions for you. We all speak English differently. Closed captions help your audience understand you even if they don’t identify your accent and pronunciation.
Record clear audio. Poor audio can be a letdown for even the best video presentations. You don’t need a studio to do this anymore, but be sure to eliminate background noise, pops and clicks, which lead to a poor listening experience.
Of course, this article doesn’t seek to be a training module on how to make great videos. I’ve mentioned the key considerations above, and I’ll leave you to learn the mechanics yourself. But skills aside, you’ll need a few tools to do audio and videos well. Let me tell you about those.
Invest in a personal broadcasting setup
If you want to use audio and video as regular communication tools, you must have a setup for it. The idea is to look and sound like a pro but not break the bank. Here’s some hardware and software that you should try out.
| Webcam | Use a dedicated webcam. The quality of onboard cameras on laptops is atrocious unless you use them with front lighting. Here are three recommended solutions.
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| Mic | A dedicated podcasting mic will make you sound like a broadcaster. It’s a gazillion times better than the onboard mic on the Mac and the tiny Bluetooth mics on your headsets. I have two recommendations. |
| Video lights | If you are likely to do talking head videos and if you have a poor indoor lighting setup, even the best camera will need some additional lighting. I have two recommendations.
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| Audio enhancement tools |
Krisp.ai kills all background noise when you record yourself. At the time of writing this doc, they’re unable to charge Indian credit cards, but you still get 90 free minutes every day, which is plenty for short videos. Adobe Enhance Speech helps you clean up audio that you’ve recorded in any setting and makes it sound like it came from a professional studio. Best of all, it’s free. Audacity is an open-source audio editing tool. You can do everything that Adobe Enhance Speech does, and more. Except you’ll have to do it all by hand. |
| Tools to create visual assets | If you want to create custom videos with polished animations using nothing but the skill to create slides, then Keynote and PowerPoint are your best friends. The good news? Most of you use these tools already. Keynote is free! Canva can help you create all kinds of visual assets. Once you customise the brand kit, all assets you create can look like they came from your company’s design studio. Use Canva apps to extend your designs in a myriad of ways. |
| Video tools | Timeline-based tools like Camtasia and Screenflow allow you to layer slides, images, videos, screen recordings and audio to create high-quality videos. iMovie is brilliant too. Oh, and it’s free! If you’re up for something more advanced, try Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve. For animated explainers tools like Biteable and Visme come in handy. If you like the RSA Animate style, you may want to give Doodly a spin. |
Of the above list, I consider the hardware to be the most important. Among the software, start with the free tools first. Once you feel you’re pushing these tools to the limit, you can upgrade to something new. With most tools, you can get a free trial to see if they float your boat.
While audio and video are enticing choices for communication, creating such artefacts is an effortful activity. It’s not a freebie. If there’s one thing you take away from this guide, I hope it’s that realisation. But hey! Look at the flip side. If you can figure out the right use cases for such communication, and employ some practices I’ve shared, you may enhance communication in your team, department or company, in a big way.
Creating high-quality audio and video will only get easier with time. Our shortening attention spans pose as much a challenge for communication as a new opportunity. But the basics of engaging scripts and storyboards won’t change. Focus on storytelling and brevity. Use the analytics your hosting platform provides, to understand who is watching and how they engage with your video content. That’ll also help you learn about your specific audience. Fine tune your style as you learn more. These are the fundamentals. The rest will follow as you build experience.