Engaging, informative content is only one element of what makes a successful online video - how you get that video seen is just as important. Getting your videos up on your website is a great start, but video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo have much greater traffic and better search functions than your own website is likely to have, so why not take advantage of these free-to-use distribution channels too?
They run a YouTube channel with over 70 videos covering many different aspects of social enterprise, all of which support them in their main mission to invest in, celebrate and connect social entrepreneurs across the world. They have had nearly 50,000 channel views since they launched in 2007, with some individual clips being watched by almost 20,000 people. Content is divided into different categories to tie in with the many initiatives the Foundation is involved in, so users can select to view only films related to the Skoll World Forum, or the Skoll Awards, for example.
The films are well promoted on the main Skoll Foundation website, either as embedded YouTube videos or with links back to the YouTube channel. It seems they haven’t posted any videos to their Facebook group page and I couldn’t see any updates promoting new content on their Twitter channel, but otherwise, this is a great example of how non-profits can use video-sharing sites to spread their messages.
If you are a US or UK-based charity, you might want to take advantage of YouTube’s free Non-profit Programme which helps charities set up web TV channels to promote themselves and raise funds. This video explains a bit more about it all.
Look out for number four in the series soon when we’ll be looking at a video by the World Wildlife Fund and how they’ve used GreenTV to share it with their audience.
Divine are a social enterprise rather than a strict nonprofit, but I love this simple animation so it’s made it onto the list anyway. It’s charming, fits in nicely with Divine’s branding and tells their story in only 32 seconds - perfect for web TV! I’ve seen Divine’s CEO Sophi Tranchell speaking in public a few times and she uses this video to kick off her presentation to great effect.
Animation is a great way to communicate your key offering quickly and imaginatively. It can also help in getting statistical information across to people, as an engaging alternative to dry print reports or Powerpoint presentations.
Divine’s film has been viewed over 10,000 times on their YouTube channel. They promote the channel from the “get involved” page of their website and they also have Twitter and Facebook pages. They’ve missed a trick by not putting the video up on their Facebook page, but otherwise this is a really good example of how to communicate the story behind a social enterprise through video.
Next up in our nonprofitwebtelly series I’ll be looking at how the Skoll Foundation is using YouTube as an online social enterprise video library..
2009 has seen massive growth in online video, and with production kit now more consumer-friendly than ever, there’s never been a better time for nonprofits to experiment with video.
Having spent the last couple of months working on these two videos to promote Tower Hamlets-based charity City Gateway (Bringing hope to Tower Hamlets and Volunteering at City Gateway) I thought I’d take a look at what else is out there in the world of nonprofit webtelly.
Next month, we’ll be creating a guide to online video production for nonprofits, but to get your creative juices flowing, here’s part one of our roundup of some of the best videos on the net from charities and social enterprises.
First up, this promo film from Social Enterprise London. It’s creative, says exactly what SEL is about, and they’ve done a good job of getting it seen by putting it up on a dedicated SEL YouTube channel. My only criticisms are that at 6 mins long, it’s verging on an epic in webtelly terms, and the YouTube version is in the wrong aspect ratio so it appears a wee bit squished..
Are you a nonprofit with an interesting video that you think should be in my list? Have you seen a good nonprofit video on your travels around the net? I’d love to hear about it so drop me a line.
Outside the Inbox is now alive and kicking: the web has a new home for all things email marketing.
We’ve just finished creating this new online community for email marketing agency, Email Ladder. If you want to talk deliverability, design or email marketing strategy, this is the place to do it! The community allows users to access white paper resources, polls, videos and discussion forums all focused on email marketing. Sign up at Outside the Inbox.
There’s more info on the community in our case study here.
Last week I was at the Trade Association Forum Best Practice Exchange running a session on the benefits of social media for membership organisations.
As I sat down to write my workshop, it struck me that with technology now enabling people to organise themselves, trade associations and other membership bodies have got a real challenge on their hands to prove their continued value to members.
If I can network online with thousands of people interested in the same things as me, for free, why do I need to pay a membership fee to someone to do this for me? In fact, maybe the whole concept of a membership organisation is now a bit outdated.
But perhaps this is slightly missing the point?
While social media undoubtedly enables crowds of people to organise themselves in ways not possible before the current digital era, online communities still need to be shaped and energised in the same way as debates are shaped in the traditional media world.
Within any online community there are some members who are more active than others: there are those who generate content, those who are always commenting and shaping the direction the community grows in, as well as those who just lurk in the background and watch.
Furthermore, as the sheer volume of content we are all trying to wade through continues to grow, there is a real value to organisations who can review, sift and aggregate the best content for its members.
Trade associations, with their collective insight and experiences, are perfectly positioned to play these leading roles within social networking sites. By harnessing their existing grasp of industry issues and translating their offline relationships into online partnerships, trade associations can become facilitators of online conversations and aggregators of information that members can continue to benefit from.
We’re barely into November but already next year’s predictions are being made. Here’s an early round-up of what’s in the crystal ball.
First up, the ”Top 6 Trends” from Harvard Business Review’s Conversation Starter. Will 2010 be the year that we get fed up with clutter and start contact culling? What will the impact be of new local/mobile social media sites like Foursquare?
Personally, I think we’re going to see crowdsourcing on a much wider scale in social media next year. It will be interesting to see how businesses take on what has so far been largely a grassroots/underground trend. Starbucks ran with it last year with their “My Starbucks Idea” microsite - what will be next?
Over at Social Media Today, 2010 is predicted to be the start of “the era of social context” - the year that social networks start to aggregate our personal experiences in order to provide “collective intelligence systems” that will improve our experience of social networking.
For those of us working in social media marketing, 2010 seems set to bring a greater focus on strategy and integration with other digital channels. This NMA feature on the charity sector suggests that for social media to become a serious fundraising tool, marketers will need to play the long term strategy game much more than has been done to date [requires subscription].
