One of the great things about social media is its informal nature. Unlike so many other forms of communication, social media is far less structured. It encourages short, concise, informal engagements. It doesn’t like long, structured, formal interviews or videos. I am not saying those don’t have a place in the area of politics and social media, but they should be limited.
On his trip to China, John Key posted a video on Facebook about his trip, shot on a cell phone on the plane on his way there. I blogged about it here. Well his page have gone and posted another one, this one a bit longer. The latest one was shot at the airport in Amsterdam while waiting for the flight home.
I think this is a good idea, it helps to play to John’s strengths, of being relaxed and easy going. It also has a much shorter turn around time compared to the other video blogs he does. Add in the advantage of it being short, and you have something that could develop into a really engaging format.
However, the photographer/videographer side of me still has issues with the image quality. Now it may be a case that these first two were just an idea that they decided to try while on the road, but if they are going to do it long term, they need to lift the image quality.
