Social enterprise seems to be getting more and more mainstream coverage in 2010. This series of films by business guru Alvin Hall makes very interesting viewing for anyone looking to use online video to promote their social enterprise.
In programme one Alvin visited Riders for Health in Zambia to learn how they’re using motorbikes to transform Africa’s health system. This week he focused on IDE-India’s work on sustainable agriculture in Maharashtra.
In coming weeks Alvin’s travels take him to organisations such as Kiva, Camfed and Apopo, a social enterprise that uses detection rat technology for humanitarian purposes!
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.
“Clowns in Suits”, our new web video for Oddsocks Productions, is finally finished: check it out >>
We really enjoyed shooting this so here are a few snaps that show how we did it all. It wasn’t easy replicating the look of the three clown figures in the Oddsocks’ logo - we had to use tubes of theatrical grease paint!
We shot the film in Oddsocks’ greenscreen studio using a JVC HDV camera. Jordan then comped the whole thing together in After Effects. We used the same technique to create the clown animations on the Oddsocks website.
