Why more CEO are in front of videos

In a relaxed sweater, holding his long -term mobile phone, Alex Mahon, executive director of Cannel Four, recorded his resignation last month. She published the sincere video in LinkedIn, By telling his 84,000 followers, the decision “I break my heart slightly.”

Mahon is a growing number of business leaders who make brief, usually without script, social networks Videos as a way of communicating directly with viewers. In the last two years, the number of publications shared by executive directors in LinkedIn has increased by 52 percent, according to the platform statistics themselves and, among users in general, the video is growing twice the rate of other formats.

While the social video on Tiktok and other sites has been booming for many years, it has recently begun to take off among corporate users. Executives see the format as a way to reach shareholders and clients in their own terms. Often filmed on their phones, short clips can be a low cost form of building their personal brand and achieving a level of informality and even intimacy with interested parties that can help project a warmer and more “human” image.

William Peake, a global managing partner of the Harneys law firm and a regular video poster, contrasts the trend of self -demanded recordings, often imperfect, from 60 to 90 seconds with the polished corporate messages typical of the executive directors. The latter allows the bosses “hiding behind a very cured copy that people who are good with words write in their name,” says Peake. “The video content has a real honesty, because there is no place to run and there is no place to hide.”

Talk to your followers about topics such as Work/life balance (Admits that it has none) and problems of the legal sector. A recent video about how lawyers need to think more than one customer service The perspective accumulated 250,000 views.

Some executive directors are using videos to update and reassure customers during a crisis, for example, when British Airways Executive Director are Doyle talk about The power cut at Heathrow airport in March.

Others are focusing on the performance of their company. Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan Chase, published her First short video last monthin which he summed up the key messages in his annual letter to the shareholders. Dimon did not hold his phone, but the feeling was still surprisingly informal: he was casually dressed and left a couple of stumbling.

There are, of course, many bosses for those who talk to the camera do not come naturally. Communications coach Jonathan Blake, a former BBC journalist who is now a director of PRSECY Headland, says that corporate customer requests to get help with video skills are increasingly frequent. “They are seeing their teammates publish on LinkedIn, and they want to try it,” he says.

Your advice for the curious video leader It is to find a way to “project that is appropriate for the business it carries, but also shows a bit of your personality and that makes people see.”

Jon GrayPresident and Operations Director of Blackstone, has made “his characteristic video format, while LinkedIn’s director Daniel Shapero, often records while walking through his lush neighborhood of California.

Those who prefer something more professional could choose an approach that is between the informality of a staggering video for iPhone and corporate foothold. An example comes from Sainsbury’s, which marked its results 2024/2025 with a agile video in the style of a news report. The executive director of the supermarket, Simon Roberts, acts as a presenter, visits a store to talk to staff about new products and innovations. It is a tendency to show it as an informal and realistic boss, but the production values ​​are high.

Blake tells executives that they wish to obtain on the screen that consistency is important: they will have to publish regularly to build a monitoring, which takes a long time and requires commitment. He also suggests that video arrivals take into account a new ‘3CS’: “Clarity, trust and connection”.

Blake adds that leaders should think about how their messages will land with “the audience in general.” But the real value, for many bosses, is that the video gives a direct line to their staff. “You don’t have to go through login layers, or write an email that nobody will read,” he says.

Shapero on LinkedIn says: “I usually discover the key message I mean, and I could even choose a motto, a couple of words that I want to make sure I get well … Beyond that, I am really doing it from a basic structure in my mind. It is not written.”

He says he has discovered that “somewhere [around] Two or three shots, I understand it well. It feels natural, but not too rehearsed. ”

An advantage of making video has been a change in their relationship with colleagues. “People interact with me differently,” he says. “They open a little more for me. They speak to me as if they knew me.”

The CEOs are updated with younger employees, who have been sharing their working life through the Tiktok videos “removing” and “come to work with me”, and even elaborated dance routines Riffing on “performance -based” salaries.

The social video centered on the life of the most mature professionals has taken longer to get going, but that is now changing rapidly. “You have to be out there,” says Daniel Roth, editor in chief of LinkedIn and vice president of content development. “CEO’s work has always been in front, and the video is an easier way to connect with employees, customers, investors.”

Dancing, however, does not seem to have yet captured.