With Storykit, SKF have been able to enable several employees to become video producers, even some who weren’t used to creating videos and people with limited technical knowledge.
– I am a great example: I had never created videos previously, but I have probably made over 100 films in Storykit over the last year.
Have you increased the production of videos for social media channels overall?
– Haha, to say the least. We made about 300 films last year, and that’s probably 290 more than we would have done without Storykit.
What do you see as a result of this work?
– Since we started using Storykit, we have seen good growth in our social channels, even in the local markets. As mentioned, we also create a lot more videos than previously.
What do you personally like most about the tool?
– I love the format adaptation and how easy it is to work with templates in Storykit. It increases productivity tremendously. The fact that the tool also offers pictures, clips, and sounds, creates a freer form of storytelling. A video isn’t going to fail just because you don’t have the best picture in the world.
Sarah is also using Storykit in other areas, in addition to social media.
– To me, Storykit is a tool with which you can create video content for platforms and purposes way beyond social channels. We use it to create videos for all types of screens, such as internal screens, for exhibition showcases, we include a video with each press release… Yes, everything.
– I also think that we have one of the nicest looking corporate Twitter accounts available today!
SKF is the world's largest bearing manufacturer. They are proud to offer prove tools for their customers to to explore, improve and rethink the performance of their rotating equipment.
Since they started using Storykit, SKF has been able to increase their content production, as well as create content for several of the organization’s markets.
– With Storykit we have definitely increased the number of videos we create for the local markets. Partly because it is so easy to create templates and masters and send them out to the organization. I create masters here at the head office, send them out to the local offices, and say ‘go translate’.
– Thanks to this, we can for the first time see that the different markets are communicating the same thing and that the brand is more coherent.
– We are always aiming to move beyond traditional, linear storytelling, and towards dynamic and social storytelling in our videos.
What is the difference?
– One thing is that the storytelling sequence is reversed, with the most important part in the beginning, and then it’s about really keeping it simple. Many content producers aren’t used to this, but we have to create videos in which there is something new happening each the time viewer is about to scroll away from the video, which happens around every third second.
Even if SKF is the world’s largest bearing manufacturer, it is easy to think that they might not be overly interested in being active on social platforms. Come on, a 100-year-old company that wants to talk about ball-bearings and seals? They can’t possibly have anything to share on social media?
– Haha, are you kidding? Social media presence is incredibly important for all types of companies, says Sarah Larsson Bernhardt, Head of Social at SKF. She continues:
– Partly for brand building purposes, to maintain the relationship with the customers and users and to attract new workforce. But it’s also an important way to reach out to new potential customers. It’s simply crucial to be present in your customers’ daily lives.
SKF has been active on social media since 2013, and Sarah joined the company a few years later. The fact that she can work with social media in a focused way has made a big difference for the company’s presence on social channels.
– We are much more consistent, with a proper tonality. Everyone who works with social media has undergone training, which means that everyone has the same basic prerequisites and understanding of why and how we work in social channels.
– I am absolutely convinced that if a company wants to grow in social channels, it needs to be both an internal and an external journey.
Content has been a strong trend in social media over the last few years. Is it still as important?
– Oh, yes! Content is what the audience is looking for, and I mean content that is created based on the recipient’s needs, not the organisation’s needs. People still forget about this. We are often really good at talking about how we need to focus on the customer, but I still find that, for example, LinkedIn is full of people shouting about themselves.
And why is it so important to work with video?
– That’s how we all prefer to consume content today. Why should I read a text when I can watch a video instead? We know that the viewers have a short attention span on social media, and moving images capture us much quicker than text.
Although they wanted to work with video content, the team at SKF found it challenging to get started. It has, for example, been more or less impossible to create videos for over 130 markets in 10-12 languages.
– It used to be hard to localize our video content. It was just too difficult and tedious. We tried using agencies for translations, mainly for subtitles in different languages. It was both expensive and time-consuming, and therefore we only produced a few videos that could be used in several markets.
– Each market has been responsible for its own video production, which has resulted in a variety of designs and storytelling formats.
But is it really that important to localize content?
– Yes, even if I didn’t think so in the beginning. It would be so much easier to just do it all in English, but we have realized that it’s important for many markets to work in their own language. In Latin America, for example, the audience is mainly Hispanic, and therefore the content needs to be in Spanish. The same goes for countries like France and the Czech Republic because they want videos in their native languages.
– It’s not just about language, but it’s also necessary to include a local person who makes a statement, or about representation and recognition. One example is when we created a Christmas greeting for all markets. Then I saw that the office in Brazil had switched out all the photos with snow because they don’t have any snow at Christmas in Brazil!
Have you seen any results of this work?
– Absolutely. When using video, it’s simply a lot easier to showcase our vacancies and also to show people how it is to work with us!
Dun & Bradstreet is a leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics. They have more than 6,000 employees around the world and are trusted by organizations around the world for their end-to-end solutions that guide winning strategies.
– It was our marketing department that brought in Storykit, but when we heard them talk about it we decided to try it out as well.
Currently, it’s primarily Marie who makes Dun & Bradstreet's recruitment videos at HR.
– I’ve tried using video before in job ads, but I haven’t been able to produce the material myself. Storykit was very easy to get started with and it is so user-friendly. I appreciate that I can choose the content I want, edit it with ease and even recycle old content without any hassle.
By using templates and tailor-made slide types, Dun & Bradstreet is now able to create videos very efficiently.
– We can easily make videos with a Dun & Bradstreet look, regardless of whether it’s made in Stockholm or Germany. It’s very cool that it becomes so uniform across the entire company, while we’re still able to be creative in the video creation process.
Close to 2 300 experts within 19 markets work at Dun & Bradstreet, dedicated to interpreting, analysing, refining and understanding data that form the foundation of their customers’ business decisions. Despite its large workforce, the company’s internal recruiting process in Sweden is fairly new.
– We started building that process last year, says Marie Holmberg, Talent Acquisition Lead at Dun & Bradstreet.
With the competence in-house, they’re now able to focus more on developing their employer branding.
– We simply weren’t as well-known as employers before. It has become more obvious now, as we keep receiving an increased amount of applications. Therefore, we are now using a more focused and holistic approach to our employer branding, which among other things, means that we’re using the same set of processes and communication strategies across our 19 countries.
It’s extremely important for a recruiter to make the available positions visible on social media channels.
– These days it’s simply a hygiene factor; you just have to be visible there as an employer.
Why is that?
– Job-seekers operate in new ways. These days, we want to find jobs where we already spend our time. Today, it needs to be simple and quick to search for jobs. And where do people spend their time, if not on social media?
– It’s also relatively easy to reach a wide range of candidates via social channels. You can reach people who just happen to come across an ad, but you can also work with more targeted campaigns.
And you work a lot with video for recruitment purposes. How come?
– It’s also necessary. In part, it’s trendy right now, but above all, it’s an efficient way to stand out and you can be more personal. It clearly provides added value in social media, compared to a plain text or just a picture.
– Another benefit is that videos are easy to share. We see that our employees like sharing them and let others know about our video ads. It’s engaging!
It is obvious to Ingrid that the tool's simplicity benefits the entire organisation, not just the user.
– When a larger number of people can make videos, the organisation is less vulnerable. What are you supposed to do if you only have one video expert on the team and that person decides to quit?
Storykit's community, including the Facebook group Video for Social Media, has been of great help for Ingrid.
– I find inspirations and ideas, and I can use some of the things on there for my own videos.
When Ingrid explains to her industry colleagues how helpful Storykit has been, she talks about how important it is to be able to create video content single-handedly.
– Sometimes, I am surprised by how much some people are willing to pay an external agency for video content. I always say that we can take care of it ourselves. It's beneficial in every way to be able to create the video content in-house, and with Storykit, we really can.
Cappelen Damm is Norway's largest publishing house, with a team of 350 employees dedicated to creating, communicating, selling, and distributing knowledge, culture, and reading experiences for both adults and children. Each year, they produce more than 3,000 new publications, showcasing their commitment to providing readers with diverse and engaging content.
As a result, Cappelen Damm became one of Storykit's first Norwegian customers, and Ingrid instantly took it to the tool.
– Many people think that you need an expensive camera and complex software programs to create video. They believe that it's necessary to film outside and spend weeks on each video. Storykit makes it possible for amateurs like me to get started and make videos instantly.
Hadn't you made any videos previously?
– Haha – no, no, no! And I feel like this: if there is a tool that allows people in my age (and I'm 50+) to get started with video production quickly, then there's hope for all of us! It's essential in my profession to be able to create videos; I think you might lag behind otherwise.
Ingrid also thinks that it's a bit odd that many people are still under the impression that it's costly and time-consuming to make videos.
– In that case, it's challenging to motivate people to create video content. I can't spend two weeks on a video that flows through the Facebook feed in a few seconds. Storykit makes it possible for me to create more videos and also more frequently.
Ingrid Pran, marketeer at Cappelen Damm, Norway's largest publishing company, had never used video before but knew that it was essential for her profession to be able to create videos.
After attending a lecture, she ended up as one of Storykit's first users. Storykit launched during the spring of 2018, and Ingrid heard about the tool the same year.
– I went to a lecture where you were discussing video and informing the audience about Storykit. I thought that it sounded like a good solution and decided to try the tool in our organisation.
2 million connected individuals is a huge audience, how do you create content that appeals to all of them?
– Firstly, we create comprehensive content that will appeal to the whole audience, for example, telling them about the support we offer. Then we also make sure to create content that is specifically aimed at individual professionals, for example. We do this simply by replacing images and videos.
– When a video is aimed at professionals in the hospitality industry, we might choose images of people in a commercial kitchen, and when we are targeting industrial workers, for example, we use images of people operating large machines or vehicles. Whatever your line of work, we can help you with conversion support, so we can easily reuse lots of videos.
How do you think Storykit differs from other video production platforms?
– The knowledge to create video in more complex production tools was there before, but the resources and ability to do it quickly were lacking. Making animations in that kind of video software just takes too long, says Sofia.
– Storykit also makes it easy to use templates for different types of videos. We never have to start from scratch when we want to produce a new video. The fact that it's also easy to use your own branding all the time adds enormous value for us. It's easy to keep a common thread in the graphic profile in Storykit.
Tell us how you work with templates in Storykit.
– The templates give me a head start in the creative process, because I never have to start over with a design. To make it easy for our audience to recognise us as a sender, we always try to keep a consistent graphic profile in our videos. We can seamlessly insert the text and images we want to use.
Do you think more organisations should use Storykit?
– I can definitely advise other organisations and companies to use Storykit! As well as being able to make a lot of videos in a short space of time as a communications professional, I also get great creative support from the support team, who always offer help and solutions!
Trygghetsfonden TSL, a foundation owned by Swedish business and industry, offers insurance to over 2 million employees and 80,000 companies. They offer support for those who are dismissed due to lack of work, illness or termination of a limited-term employment.
To scale up their video creation and reach more people, Sofia and her team started making videos in Storykit. By posing more videos on social channels, they've seen a significant increase in their reach.
– Our motion-based content has helped us get a wider reach. Since we started making videos, we have a range of almost half a million people, and doubled our audience on several social platforms. Thanks to video, we're able to capture audiences in the important first few seconds of their feeds.
Do you have any tips for those who are considering making a lot of videos themselves?
– First of all, it's about getting to know your audience: what value can we bring? This is where Storykit is a perfect tool to use to get your message across in an appealing way. Aim for short, simple messages to maintain a constant presence on social platforms.
At TSL, a small but ambitious team manages their social media. That means creating a lot of content to communicate quickly to their million-strong audience, and sharing the knowledge they possess about transition support and industry news.
– In total, 70,000 companies and 2,000,000 professionals in commerce, hospitality and catering, manufacturing, transport and more are covered by our transition support. When the pandemic broke out, we were not able to visit everyone, so it was important that we had an extra presence where they were, which was on social media. In this way, we were able to spread our message in a quick and accessible way, says Sofia Lund.
– We already knew that video is an effective format to use on social media to reach and engage an audience, statistics also show that video has a greater impact than static images.
– In the beginning, I was the only one who made videos, but now I realize that everybody needs to be able to create videos. Now, our marketing coordinators and TA Partner are also working in Storykit. Just as I want everyone to be able to manage LinkedIn or Hubspot, everyone needs to be able to work in Storykit for us to work as efficiently as possible. I want video to be a go-to format, we must be able to have a short lead time. We do not have the time to bring in external help every time we want to make a video.
The goal is, of course, to make even more videos.
– Video works really well for both customer testimonials and employer branding, and our sales staff love to use videos. We have also started to explore using video to attract attention to our webinars, both before and after.
For tech companies selling their solutions with a subscription model, billing often quickly becomes a mess. This is where Swedish Younium comes in to solve the dilemma that subscriptions cause. "Traditional systems cannot handle SaaS companies' complex payment models. So our customers turn to us when this problem has become too big of an administrative burden," says Emelie Linheden, VP of Marketing at Younium.
When Emelie started working at Younium, she wanted to publish her customer testimonials in the feed quickly.
– I looked at various tools, and since Storykit is one of our clients, I wanted to try your solution. I immediately realised that "wow, I can do this all on my own"! This was during the pandemic when we couldn't visit and interview the clients, but with Storykit, I could make a video with only a picture and a quote.
That sounds like an efficient way of working!
– It is! I published several client videos in a very short time. After the pandemic, we can also go out and meet the clients, film them, and create videos using text, still images, and video clips.
According to Emelie Linheden, choosing Storykit had a lot to do with the simplicity of the tool.
– The bottom line is that I'm not really interested in creative tasks such as video creation and layout. I'd much rather work with text. Storykit is genuinely a simple tool, even for us who aren't creative masterminds.
– Additionally, getting started is super easy. I don't know how many times I have bought a new system, being promised that "it's so simple, it'll only take a couple of hours, and you'll be ready to go" when the system actually requires a lot of onboarding. But with Storykit, this was literally true. I was up and running in no time. I also have to say that your customer support is incredible. I always get a reply immediately, which is invaluable when I'm in the middle of creating a video and can't afford to wait for days without knowing how to solve the problem.
CFOs at SaaS companies are a relatively small audience; how do you reach out to them?
– Many people think that CFOs aren't the most progressive audience, but I have worked with this audience for a long time and know how to reach them through traditional social channels. We use LinkedIn as our main channel, but we also work actively through communities on the local job market.
An essential element of Younium's social media strategy is video.
– At my last job, we worked a lot with video, but this was at a huge, global company, and I seldom did anything hands-on. So instead, we hired an agency. This approach's problem was the long winded processes and clumsy machinery.
When Listgrove adopted Storykit, their strategy was to post videos consistently on LinkedIn to improve brand awareness and increase their followers. In just one year of regularly posting videos, the marketing team was able to earn 20,000 more followers to their LinkedIn account.
“When we started we had 58,000 followers and now we have 78,000,” says Airelle.
Being able to present themselves in a new way has made Listgrove more visible and they can see that they’re having an impact on their clients and candidates.
And what makes it even better, is that the marketing team at Listgrove loves doing them.
Listgrove is a global recruitment & HR specialist that specifically supports organisations operating in the plastics, packaging, recycling, chemical and petrochemical sectors.
When they discovered Storykit: "The timing was perfect," says Airelle.
Getting started with Storykit was a breeze for the Listgrove team because they didn’t need any prior knowledge of video creation. Listgrove received onboarding support right from the beginning to help them overcome any obstacles they might face.
"The customer service has been really helpful. From the start, every time we had a question, we had a reply within the hour — which is impressive,” says Airelle.
The video platform is used for the following:
Storykit has made it easier for them to post regularly on Twitter and Instagram too.
"Each video we create can be adapted to the right formats for the other channels in the platform. It's very easy to use and all ready to go," says Airelle.
As a small company working on a global scale, Listgrove recognized the need to improve their presence on social media.
The marketing team at Listgrove headed by Airelle Charra, Director of Marketing, understood the importance videos could play on social media and were interested in learning how they could incorporate it into their strategy.
