As a training tool, video has been right under our collective noses for a long time, but its power and potential impact are often underestimated. Today, video is gaining favor in corporate learning and sales training—thanks to the convergence of several factors.

Vimeo has been around since 2004 and the enormously popular YouTube since 2005. Instagram is also emerging as a popular platform for personal and promotional videos. With the rise of these and other video-sharing platforms, creating and sharing videos has become commonplace.

From a training standpoint, this means reps are used to viewing, sharing, and even creating and uploading video. So they are likely to welcome video as a training tool they know and understand.

The video capability of versatile smart phones and the popularity of sharing video on social media also make huge contributions to the idea that video training is a natural part of tech-enabled lifestyle.

Clearly, video is a mainstream tool within the reach and capability of companies of every size. Consider these facts and trends.

1.  By 2016, large companies streamed more than 16 hours of video per worker, per month (which is up from 10.8 hours in 2012 and 7.2 hours in 2010.) That works out to 45 minutes every day each of your employees will spend watching your business. (Gartner Research)
2.  Among larger businesses, nearly half have implemented technical support specifically for video. Among mid-size businesses, 40% report likewise. (Forrester Research)
3.  10% of business video viewership already takes place on mobile devices—and that figure is expected to rise to 25% or more in the near future. (Gartner Research)
4.  76% of executives watch business videos at least once a week, including 40% who view them daily. (Cisco)
5.  82% of executives record their own business videos, and 64% of these executives upload recorded videos to their company’s video-sharing portal. (Cisco)
6.  75% percent of executives who reported that they watch work-related videos do so at least once a week. (Gartner Research)
7.  59% of senior executives would rather watch a video than read text. (Video Brewery)
8.  Overall, employees are 75% more likely to watch a video than to read documents, emails or web articles. (Comprehensive Media)

If these stats aren’t enough to convince you, just think about you and your daily interactions with technology. How often are you interacting with video via work related courses, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or even SnapChat?

There are more reasons than ever to use video as a tool to cause change in your organization.