If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine how powerful a video of your CEO passionately explaining the company mission can be for employees.

As blogging becomes more popular, so does video blogging (also know as v-blogging or vlogging). In internal communications, video blogs can give a face to top leadership in a more casual and friendly forum. A good example of this comes from eBay’s CEO John Donahoe. In a recent guest blog for the Wall Street Journal, Donahoe—flip cam in hand—interviews one of eBay’s merchants.

Donahoe’s video is a success because it comes across so genuinely. And rather than being a video about eBay’s CEO, it’s a video he made while interviewing a vendor. In fact, Donahoe only appears for a brief moment when he turns the camera on himself. You can also tell that there weren’t layers of approval behind the video—it’s just Donahoe behind the camera, interviewing this merchant about his business and his inventory. It’s much more interesting to see him make a star out of someone else than insist the focus be on him. Had this been a “big budget” film, it probably would have seemed very “put on” and much less sincere than what we see here.

While this video is very effective, it can be risky to approach video so casually. Simple things like using a tripod and choosing good lighting can go a long way towards making a video look more professional (and less shaky). For Donahoe, it works well in this context, but a different video with different messaging may lend itself to a more polished video.

Video can be a great tool for engaging employees because it truly gives leadership a face both quickly and candidly, and you can’t always get that through picture or text alone. If a CEO sets the example, it could even open the door to more active participation and encourage employees to use video more often in communications. And while we’ve heard employees voice before that they may feel uncomfortable watching video at work, the fact that the CEO is the one speaking can raise that comfort level.

For more on this topic, visit the “Professional vs. off-the-cuff videos for internal communications” discussion on our LinkedIn discussion group.