“Could you show me how to do that again?” How many times have you heard something like that? Or is there a product or service for your customers that always needs to be explained? How many people in the company can do the explaining? What happens if they’re all home sick? Maybe screencasting is the way to go.
As
ScreenCast.be explains, screencasting is capturing a series of screenshots and putting them together in a movie with audio overlaid. Some common uses of screencasting are walking through the steps of an installation, or demonstrating product features. Basically, it’s a simple way to teach, inform, or entertain once, but use it again and again.
So what’s the difference between a screencast and say, a tutorial video? Well, typically a screencast would be more of a component of a presentation, or even that tutorial video. When it came time in the tutorial to get specific and demonstrate a particular process or feature, that’s when a screencast would be used.
A screencast is perfect for a web conference as a video embedded into a PowerPoint. And especially when the people who know a particular process aren’t there, the screencast in the presentation can fill in for them. As an added bonus, if a customer—or an employee in training—didn’t understand things the first time, you can send them the same screencast they saw, or make it available for download.
Do you already use screencasting in your business? Leave a comment and tell us about it.
