The Value of Video in Government to Public Engagement

Why Video Is The Next Big Thing For Public Engagement

Government communications have undergone a significant transformation, one where the information expectations of the public are central to the strategy. As part of this transformation, Government departments have transitioned their communications approach from ‘managing’ citizens and stakeholders to one of partnership, where engagement and collaboration are highly sought. With new digital technologies, every government department and agency can now create useful, relevant, and consistent communications with the intent to inform, engage and collaborate with stakeholders about policy, programs, services, and regulations.

A recent review conducted by the Australian Public Service revealed that Australians now expect the same level of personalisation and information integrated across departments in the same manner as they receive from private-sector businesses. Public sector communications professionals need to prioritise the right communication channels, formats, and the public’s preferences on when and where they want to be reached to encourage responsiveness and build trust, while delivering information in an open, timely, and meaningful way.

And this is where a video content strategy and an online video platform make a compelling case for engagement. A communications strategy with video can be useful in:

• Building trust - Deliver an authentic, transparent, and consistent communications experience using video. Connect and engage with constituents in more meaningful ways, and provide live and on-demand interactions with the public about their expectations, needs, and concerns. 
• Driving engagement
  • Nothing cuts through general noise and delivers an engaged audience like video, especially when content and messages can be streamed securely, at any time and across any device, in a format that the public will be likely to be responsive to.
• Communicating at scale
  • Whether you’re targeting selected stakeholders or an entire community, you can reach audiences of any size reliably and securely using an online video platform. Enhanced accessibility using captions, subtitles, and audio descriptions can be added to enhance the video experience. 
• Manage identity and reputation
  • An online video platform lets you control both the content and context of your communications across websites, social media networks, and mobile apps so that communications can be delivered with a unified vision and voice.

For government agencies and departments, using a secure and reliable video hosting and streaming platform is essential to ensure security, quality, and scalability of communications. Key metrics such as time watched, video completion rates, and engagement level can also help you better understand which messages are resonating with the public and other stakeholders and help inform future communication strategies.

While many government departments are already capitalising on video communications, not all agencies are quick to adopt video as part of their communications strategy. Video is a much more effective tool for engagement than any other forms of government communication, such as lengthy written public statements or policy documents. For an increasingly digital-savvy public, who want information in just a few clicks and who demand trust and authenticity, the opportunity for government departments to embrace video is now.