Case Studies
(Successful Video Messages)
How does video help connect you to your community?
Your goal is to share your story with as many people in your community as possible. So your messages need to be where nearly everyone is interacting. For better or worse, VIDEO and SOCIAL MEDIA have become the focus of people’s attention. IF YOU ARE ABSENT FROM THIS SPACE, YOU ARE MISSING YOUR CORE AUDIENCE. Further, the cell phone is the primary device for connecting with this audience. According to Pew Research Center, 97% of Americans own a cell phone of some kind while 85% of them own a smartphone. So the vast majority of your audience can see and hear video, live streaming, and social media. And 80% of them would rather watch live video than read a blog, website, or newsletter.
Communicating through video will reach more of your audience than any other medium.
Successful Video Messages
Live Streaming Official Events
There is perhaps no better way to engage your community in policy decisions while enhancing transparency than to live stream official meetings and work sessions. Further, making those meetings available to your community on-demand not only demonstrates understanding for the diversity of your community but a willingness to interact with them where and when they’re available.
Promoting Programs
Your organization works hard to deliver its programs and services to the community. Naturally you want people to know what you’re doing well and how they can get involved. Video programs featuring your work in the community encourage engagement with your organization and increase participation.
Sports Coverage
Sporting activities are an important part of nearly every community. This is especially true of school-age communities and their parents or guardians. Live streaming and on-demand coverage of sporting events increases community exposure to these activities and encourages nearly everyone to be supportive and involved. Not only that, it’s fun to produce and watch!
Direct Messaging
Direct messaging is perhaps the best method of delivering content to your audience in order to minimize misunderstanding and maximize clarity. Live and recorded video messages provide your organization’s communicators with a more personal presence than written messages. They also allow you to connect to your audience in a more conversational tone.
Live Streaming Special Events
Not everyone in your audience is able to be present when and where your organization sponsors a special event. Live streaming is not only the “next best thing” to attending a special event, it can also guarantee your remote patrons the best seat in the house. Further, archived special events can be made available on-demand for those who can’t attend the actual event.
Promotional Videos
Promotional videos give you direct control over your messaging in a way that many forms of communication do not. And that’s because promotional videos are highly scripted and orchestrated. Of course, that kind of control takes time, careful planning, and effective use of talent. But the result can often be some of the clearest messaging your audience receives from your organization.
Live Streaming Virtual Events
Prior to the COVID pandemic of 2020, few if any of us gave much thought to sponsoring virtual events. But today, the virtual event has become practically commonplace. Whether an interoffice conference call, an online job interview, webinar, or full-blown ceremony, virtual events offer you a convenient method of hosting without the hassles of securing and scheduling a venue. Coupled with an online delivery portal like a streaming television channel, there’s practically no limit to the scope of events you can host.
Online Television
Streaming television delivery services have increased by 8% in the United States since 2016. Cable television delivery services have decreased by 15% over the same time period. Audiences are increasingly watching television online. Part of the reason for this is that online television is becoming less technically demanding to produce while delivery platforms like the cell phone are more universally available. Streaming your own online channel is not only feasible but provides your audience with a reliable portal for your messaging.
Video Features and Profiles
Video features and profiles are a great way to highlight the achievements of your organization and its people. Whether occasional or regular, these types of videos give you control over the messaging because, like all offline video production, they are planned and intentional. Further, they can express varying degrees of formality, from live-to-tape interviews to fully scripted and post-produced short features.
About the owner
Community-minded and broadly experienced.
William Leap
Owner/Manager
Bill has a long history both in public education and television production. He’s devoted 35 years to educating students in the central Virginia regional area in theater, broadcast journalism, and television production, 33 of those years in Stafford County. He has created two award-winning high school broadcasting programs in addition to serving as the television production liaison for the central administration of the Stafford County Public Schools. While there, he built, managed, and promoted the SCPS PEG television channel for the system for 12 years while producing thousands of hours of live and on-demand television programming. He’s also been a local business owner during many of those years as well. He has served as the Managing & Artistic Director for First Light for the Arts, Inc., a 501(c)3 theater organization based in Falmouth during the 1990’s. He’s also the founder of River’s Edge Media, which began as an event photography and videography company in 2001 and has evolved into the video production operation you’re visiting today. Bill brings a particular understanding of the needs and challenges of school organizations in providing media services to their communities and enjoys working with them to develop those services in a high quality but cost effective manner.