You already know that Facebook Live lets any nonprofit live-stream fundraising events, breaking news, impact stories, and more, directly from their Facebook Page.

But did you know that Facebook lets nonprofits add a donate button to their Facebook Live broadcast?

How to Use Facebook Live to Raise Money

If your nonprofit is based in the US, and your Facebook Page is verified, you can fundraise within a Facebook Live broadcast.

For example, in this screenshot from Facebook, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals adds the donate button feature to their Live broadcast.

Two things to remember about fundraising with Facebook Live:

1. Your Page needs to be verified. This feature is still gradually rolling out on iOS to admins of verified Pages in the US.
2. Your nonprofit must be approved to accept Facebook payments. You can apply here.

To add the donate button, click on more options at the bottom of the screen (“…”). Next, select your nonprofit from the options (as shown above).

Viewers can donate to your cause during the live broadcast, and supporters who missed the live broadcast can always donate from the broadcast recording.

But is just having a donate button enough? Of course not! Fundraising is about building trust, sharing stories of impact, and growing a community of supporters.

Here are a few pointers as you fold Facebook Live into your fundraising plans.

Use Facebook Live to tell donors about the impact THEY made

More often than not, donors hear about impact second-hand (through your newsletter, website, etc). Rarely do they get to witness, first-hand, the impact of their support.

Facebook Live is a super effective way to bring the impact to your supporters.

For example, Best Friends Animal Society introduces their cutest residents to supporters from all over the world. Without Facebook live (and other live broadcasting tools), supporters would have to travel all the way to Utah to witness, first-hand, BFAS’s impact.

Make donors the heroes

If you want your donors to give over and over again, you need to tell them the truth: that for your nonprofit, they are the true heroes.

Feature donor stories in your broadcast. Tell your viewers the impact that one donor made. Recognize and praise this donor sincerely. Viewers will no doubt want the same praise and recognition.

For example, Stand Up To Cancer broadcasted news about a high school raised money during a “Sports Day For Charity”.

Don’t ask people to “Donate”

This one sounds a bit unintuitive, but let’s face it, asking people to donate money to your nonprofit is a buzzkill.

The reason why is that the word “donate” doesn’t place the donor in the role of the hero.

Instead, ask viewers to make an impact that’s meaningful. For example, ask them to “Give clean water”, “Feed hungry children”, “Stop human trafficking, etc. Each of these asks is associated with a problem that donors ultimately want to solve.

Tell donors when you’re going live

Facebook live isn’t that exciting if no one shows up. Make sure your core supporters show up when you go live.

• Post an update on your page the week before and the day before
• Send an email to your email list
• Share your broadcast date / time in your email newsletter
• Tweet about it immediately before you go live
• Facebook Live Tip #6: Make an outline for your broadcast

Call out commenters by name

The cool thing about Facebook live is that you can see comments as they’re posted real time during your broadcast. Engaging commenters real-time increases engagement even further, creating massive reach for your broadcast.

• Call out commenters by name
• Read their comment
• Reply to their comment
• Say thank you

Ask for action

As your broadcast reaches more users, your viewer count will increase. This is your captured audience. Seize the moment to ask for action!

• Ask participants to follow
• Ask supporters to support an issue
• Ask supporters to sign a petition

Share the recording with your supporters

You’ve put a lot of time and effort into your first Facebook a live broadcast. Congratulations! Make sure this investment goes further by sharing it with your supporters.

• Send a follow-up email to subscribers
• Link to your recent broadcast in your newsletter
• Reshare the broadcast on other social channels
• Embed the broadcast in a blog post

Remember, if you have added the donate button to your broadcast, it will exist in the broadcast recording. As you continue to broadcast stories of impact, you’ll accumulate a whole series of fundraising videos on your Facebook Page.

Repurpose the recording

When you finish a live broadcast, save it to your mobile device. Then open the file in your favorite video editing software and create several videos to be used on other social networks.

Select key moments that are less than 60 seconds but still convey a powerful story. These short videos can be used on Instagram (which requires videos to be less than 1 minute), YouTube, Facebook, etc.

Get inspired by these creative ideas for Facebook Live

If you’re not sure what topics or events you should broadcast, check out this list of 35 Facebook Live ideas for museums, animal shelters, youth organizations, and more.

The post How to use Facebook Live to raise money for your nonprofit appeared first on Socialbrite.

How 15-second videos are taking advocacy campaigning to the next level

This is the third part of a series on how nonprofits can use video. Also see:
• Part 1: What to consider when investing in video
• Part 2: 7 top video editing tools for nonprofits

Guest post by Mike Kondratick
Director of Strategy, See3 Communications

Nothing tells the real, impactful human stories of actual constituents like video. In the years that I spent as an advocacy program director, collecting user-generated video from our supporters – advocate stories, testimonials, and messages to legislators – was always high on the priority list.

These programs, no matter how well conceived or how good our intentions, were always difficult to manage. Folks would use a variety of ways to capture the video: Flip cams, their laptop’s camera, their smartphone, etc. The video got back to us in different ways: email, links to YouTube pages, posted to our Facebook fan page, etc. Organizing the footage to make the desired impression on potential advocates and/or legislators was a time suck. And, regardless of how well we crafted message points for our supporters to simplify the process and make it less stressful, the video that came back had varying levels of usability. In short, these programs were a hot mess.

Enter Viddy, the latest mobile-based, social video collection/sharing app. Viddy has created a platform that streamlines and simplifies video production, collection, and display. And, in my opinion, it’s the best available tool right now for advocacy organizations to make user-generated video campaigns at once easier to manage and more impactful.

This post won’t focus on the laundry list of Viddy’s features. You can find good feature-based reviews and comparisons of Viddy vs. Socialcam elsewhere. I’ll note only the features that I think make this app unique for use in the nonprofit and advocacy space.

A focus is on keeping mobile video short & simple

Viddy’s focus is on keeping mobile video short and simple — in other words, perfect for users with varying levels of experience and comfort with video. In fact, it’s been described as “the Instagram of video.” Setting up your organization’s presence couldn’t be easier. Just go to Viddy.com or download the app from the AppStore, enter a username and password, and upload your logo. (Viddy video can only be collected via mobile device, so regardless of where you sign up, you will need to download the app.) The main drawback, as of now, is the lack of an Android version, but that’s coming soon. The sign-up process for your supporters will be just as easy. Finding and following other organizations and friends requires a simple search.

The video collection process is where Viddy really shines. Response rates from advocates on video asks are low for lots of reasons — the biggest being that people are just going to be nervous capturing themselves on camera. Though Viddy can’t change this aspect of human nature, it does smash many of the other barriers.

First, it limits the length of any video to 15 seconds — a limit that does not exist on Socialcam. Some are going to look at this as a drawback, but to me it’s a key differentiator. After you spend some time looking at the video on the Viddy platform, you start to realize just how long 15 seconds really is and how much you can communicate.

Returning to my advocacy program experiences, no matter how few message points we gave people for their videos or how well-written those points were, our supporters always stressed over ‘performance’ aspects—how to combine the points, how long they needed to talk, etc. Because the video ask was still so amorphous in their minds, few attempted it. A 15-second limit provides all the structure you need. There’s only time for a name, key message points, and an ask for a legislator (or a one or two sentence story). A short time limit reduces the level of effort and stress.

Do you really need more than 15 seconds from an advocacy video?

This also got me thinking about just how many times I needed more than 15 seconds from an advocacy video. I couldn’t really think of any. Whether it was a testimonial for our program or one of our events, a message urging a legislator to support our issues, or a thank you message for a legislator, pretty much all of them could be accomplished in 15 seconds or less. And, invariably, I’d find myself having to edit down the longer videos I did get to combine them with other clips or to fit with typical short attention spans that people have with most online platforms.

Second, Viddy provides just enough in the way of production effects to improve the overall video quality without overwhelming the user. As you get ready to shoot, it gives you tools to track your audio and light levels —just enough to make sure the video looks good. After the video is completed, you have only three options (should you want them): choosing a thumbnail image, adding a visual effects package, and choosing a soundtrack.

The troubles I described above with collecting and managing the video I received? Viddy solves these as well. Each Viddy production can be tagged. So, you can give your supporters specific instructions to tag their video with your organization’s name, an issue name and/or a legislator’s name. As these videos are completed, they’ll show up in your feed (assuming you’re following your supporters). You can also search by tag to see your videos nicely grouped. The quality of the videos will also be consistent since they’ll all be generated by the higher-quality video cams available on iPhones and, soon enough, Android-powered phones.

Social sharing with Viddy, as you’d expect, is also very user-friendly. You can quickly share your advocates’ videos on your organization’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Google+ page. (The one caveat I noted is sharing through your organization’s fan page. You can do this through Viddy.com using your page admin’s Facebook accounts but, from what I see, you can’t do this through the mobile app. Let me know if this is possible in the comments below.) You can also grab the embed code for your website or blog. Through the mobile interface, you can also quickly post the video to your Tumblr or share it via SMS.

To be sure, I’d like to see additional features added over time, most notably the ability to include overlays to drive additional advocacy actions. And, for Viddy to be a feasible mobilization platform the Android version will need to be reality. But once that happens, issue campaigners will have a widely available platform that:

1. Limits the stress of video collection by providing a short time limit
2. Provides for a higher level of quality by using higher-quality video cams and basic production effects
3. Makes video collection and organization drop-dead simple
4. Facilitates social media campaigns around user-generated video by making social sharing quick and easy

How can Viddy help your cause?

Think about how Viddy can build your video library and how you can roll this user-generated content into your future video projects and production. Mashups of constituent messages? Check. A wall of advocate message videos on your website? Check. A quick solution to create video contests? Check. A constant stream of simple and direct advocate testimonials? Check.

Has your organization tried Viddy for an advocacy campaign? What do you think of the overall feature set? Share your thoughts with us below!

The post Video for your cause: Get giddy over Viddy appeared first on Socialbrite.

How to edit video in house with tools that fit your expertise

This is the second of a three-part series on nonprofits’ use of video. Also see:
• Part 1: What to consider when investing in video
• Part 3: Video for your cause: Getting giddy over Viddy

Guest post by Kyle Henri Andrei
Idealware

Before the digital revolution, videos — like still photographs — were actually shot on film. Editing them involved cutting out individual frames and splicing the filmstrip back together, a tedious and expensive process that resulted in lots of little plastic squares on the cutting room floor. You also had to move through all previous footage to reach the scenes you wanted to edit, more or less requiring you to edit the film in the order in which you shot it.

Today, software makes editing digital footage faster, easier and much more affordable, and puts it within reach of anyone with a personal computer. Even better, digital video editing is “nonlinear,” which means you can access the scenes you want to edit directly. This helps speed up the process, especially for a short, Internet-ready video for which you just need to trim off the ends and add a title screen or two.

Video editing: Tailor your video to your audience

You’ll never shoot a perfect video from start to finish in one take. A phone might ring, the wind could pick up, the sun could cause glare, or a dog might start barking. Editing lets you cull the best parts from several takes and combine them into one — or, more simply, cut the bad parts out of a single take.

How much do you need to edit your footage? It depends on what type of video you’re making, or who your audience will be. A video to show your donors at a fundraising gala may require a professional touch, but a guerrilla- or documentary-style video — a quick and simple one designed for the Internet that forgos high production values in favor of a spontaneous look and feel — doesn’t need to be polished and perfect. You might just add some titles or credits and trim out unnecessary bits, like when your talent forgot a line or stuttered while speaking.

It is possible to over-edit your video. All of the software options we discuss come with special effects that can enhance your video. Don’t overuse them — a little goes a long way. Some effects look cheap and gimmicky and will distract the audience from your message, while others — like dissolves, which let you transition between clips, and fades to black — can be used safely with some regularity.

Different tools offer different approaches to editing and degrees of usability. Let’s look at them one at a time.

The free tools: Free video hosting and remixing

There are several free or very low-cost solutions that let you make short videos or slideshows with minimal edits.

Animoto: Quick, easy & slick slide show

1Free for nonprofits, Animoto is not technically video-editing software but a website that allows you to create professional-looking slide shows quickly and easily by uploading and arranging your photos. The site also includes a library of licensed, rights-cleared music you can add to your slideshow, as well as a variety of themes and backgrounds. Although Animoto won’t solve all your video needs, a polished slideshow can be a great way to thank donors, volunteers and other supporters online or at a gala or other event.

YouTube: Basic editing features do the job

2YouTube, the popular streaming video site, now provides a handful of editing features. You can add up to seven of your previously uploaded videos into a basic timeline, trim them and add transitions, titles and other effects to create a new video. These features probably won’t be the best choice for those planning on creating a lot of videos but are a compelling option for organizations that need to edit videos infrequently.

In addition, mobile devices that shoot video, like smartphones and tablets, have started to offer basic editing functionality, and mobile apps can add more features. However, the built-in microphones are designed for phone calls, not videos, and the audio quality suffers as a result. Some small cameras also allow you edit videos on-screen and offer higher audio and video quality than smartphones. They might be attractive low-cost options for beginners looking to make a few short videos.

Beginner tools: Free & pre-installed? Go for it!

These are generally free or low-cost options that may already be installed on your computer. They’re good ways to get your feet wet with video editing.

Windows Movie Maker: A good introduction to editing features

3Windows Movie Maker (pre-installed on all Windows PCs, or a free download from Microsoft) is a good tool for people just getting started with editing, and the prevalence of Windows computers means you may already have it in your home. Movie Maker handles basic tasks well, like trimming clips and adding titles, transitions and soundtracks but offers limited file options for exporting edited videos or converting clips and files from one format to another.

iMovie: Get in the serious lane

4Apple computers have a long history of being used for creative purposes, including editing video. iMovie (pre-installed on Apple computers, or $50 as part of iLife), pre-installed on all recent Macs, is a surprisingly powerful and easy-to-use editing program designed for beginners. While Apple computers have grown in popularity, they are still uncommon in nonprofit offices. If your organization has one, this is a logical choice for editing your videos.

Adobe Premiere Elements: A step up from Movie Maker

5With an interface similar to iMovie’s, Adobe Premiere Elements ($99 retail, $15 on TechSoup) is an affordable and beginner-friendly editing tool. It’s a step up from Windows Movie Maker that offers more advanced functions and allows for importing and exporting many more different video file types. While iMovie users should have little trouble adjusting, Premiere Elements requires a longer learning curve than Movie Maker.

More advanced tools

While more expensive and technically demanding than the beginner tools, these options also provide more powerful features and greater flexibility for experienced and power users.

Adobe Premiere Pro: A good choice for professionals
6A significant step up in price and features, Adobe Premiere Pro ($799, $60 on TechSoup as a component of Adobe CS5) has little in common with Premiere Elements and uses a substantially different interface. It works well with other Adobe products, including the Creative Suite and After Effects, which, if used correctly, can create high-quality special effects for your video. Several blockbuster Hollywood films have been edited using this software, which means it’s certainly feature-rich enough for most nonprofits.

Final Cut Pro X: Top of class

7Final Cut Pro X ($300 for Apple computers) has long been the leading alternative to more expensive editing software like Avid, and a logical progression from introductory software like iMovie. With the release of Final Cut Pro X, Apple has geared the professional-level software to a wider consumer base, simplifying the interface, which will be familiar to iMovie users, and making it more accessible to the average nonprofit user. (The previous consumer-level, discounted version, Final Cut Express, has been discontinued by Apple, but can still be found for under $200 on some websites and continues to be supported.)

Other high-end solutions

If you’re skilled or savvy enough and have high-end video production needs — and a budget to support them — there are numerous video solutions available on the market. Avid Technology makes the most well-known, including the core of its product suite, Media Composer, which costs several thousand dollars and requires a powerful computer to run it properly. Avid also has a range of lower-priced solutions, but if your need for video editing is sufficient enough to need such tools, you’re likely better off contracting a professional video editor.

This article originally appeared on Idealware and is republished under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial No Derivatives license.

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Hardware & software for telling your organization’s story through video

This is the first of a three-part series on nonprofits’ use of video. Also see:
• Part 2: 7 top video editing tools for nonprofits
• Part 3: Video for your cause: Getting giddy over Viddy

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, educators, journalists, video producers.

Guest post by Stacy Laiderman
Senior Producer, See3 Communications

I‘m going to let you in on a little secret: Producing video in-house at your organization isn’t as scary as it sounds. More than ever before, organizations are using video as their primary vehicle for communicating their issues and telling the stories of their cause while the tech becomes easier for laymen to use. That’s not to say that you don’t need at least one professionally produced video. You do.

But organizations rarely have the budgets to hire pros to create every piece of video content. Creating your second-tier video content in-house is within reach. First, you need to know how to navigate the galaxy of good, bad and in-between products that is the video marketplace.

Here’s a roundup of gear and other things to think about from a seasoned producer’s point of view.

Before you think of buying gear

Before delving deeply into the best type of gear for organizational video, let’s play devil’s advocate. This is a question that applies mostly to small and medium-sized organizations that may be hesitant to shell out $3,000 to $4,000 for a decent professional video production system: Does your organization have the human resources to create videos?

I’m not talking about tacking on video production tasks on to your communications department’s already hectic steep list of to-dos. Does your organization have an individual or team that is motivated to produce videos? If not, that should be your first investment.

One of my production associates at See3 also teaches photography. He told me, “I meet a lot of hobbyists and amateur photographers in class, but one of the largest groups of people who come in are folks who wanted to help their company with their photography skills.” As an employer, one of the most empowering things you can do before buying a killer camera kit is to first see who in your organization is interested in helping to produce videos — then motivate that individual or team by investing in training and classes for them. Empower your people with the fundamentals to create good video stories and help them learn the production process. The right gear is only as good as the people who are confident enough to use it.

That said, let’s talk about the equipment.

Audio

Audio is key. In fact, it’s often more important than visuals. Remember one thing: People will watch bad video with good audio but won’t watch even the best-looking video if the audio sucks. If you went to see “Transformers” in the theater and couldn’t hear the dialogue (and clearly, the amazing dialogue is the best part of any Michael Bay movie) or the explosions, you’d walk out, right?

If you’re on a tight budget, the onboard mic is okay for interviews in quiet rooms with subjects less than 4 feet from the camera, and for recording ambient sound. But if you’re planning anything more than that, you need to get a wireless mic pack.

The Lectronics systems are the best, and the EW-100 from Sennheiser is also great. If you’re going to use wireless audio in an urban environment, don’t spend less than $800. Seriously, anything else and you will be throwing money out the window.

A lower cost option is to grab a wired lavaliere microphone for $200, which will suit most sit-down interview situations.

Recommendations for quick and dirty ‘pocket’ shooting

These are some simple products that most NPOs should familiarize themselves with. They’re small, inexpensive and good choices for your people in the field who need to point and shoot on the fly.

The iPhone: Seriously, this is one of the best low-fi options out there. You can also set up your phone to host a live stream event. Just know that the zoom on these lo-fi devices don’t work well, so when filming you need to be in the action, otherwise everything will come out looking distant. Don’t forget a mini-tripod where suitable.

If you’re looking to move up a little:

Kodak Zi8 camcorder: While there are some cameras out there with better image quality, the Kodak Zi8 gives us above average quality HD video and the ability to record better sound than a camera with on-board microphones. The Kodak also gives the option of using external memory cards making data transfer easier and less dependent on having a charged camera battery.

Sony EMC-T6 (audio): This small external mic will yield higher quality sound than the built-in mic, allowing subjects to record voice over and other important dialogue.

Conservatively, the total cost per package is about $300.

Consumer grade products

These are a wide variety of retail models that you can find locally or products that people in your organization might already own. When using these, consider the following:

• The No. 1 thing when looking at cameras is that you check the resolution size to make sure you can get at least 1080p quality.
• These days, most consumer cameras are tapeless, so make sure to figure out how much memory you’ll need and that you have a HD backup.
• Also, make sure your camera allows for an external microphone plug-in, in case you want to upgrade in the future. Hint: you will.

Recently, I was working on a project in Ecuador’s Cloud Rainforest and knew that I didn’t want to bring the most expensive high end gear. Also, I just didn’t need it! I shot on the Canon Vixia S20 series and loved it. The only nit to pick with this model is that most of the controls are on the screen, which can be a little cumbersome. This model is no longer available new, but you can always buy used, or the newest generation – the Canon Vixia HF M500 – for $528.

Pro gear

If you’re trained and ready to start creating video on high-end equipment — and have the budget! — consider the JVC GY-HM100U. It has a few major features that make it better and more cost effective for your department over the long run.

• JVC has just launched the HM150u, starting at $2,250. Check out its features.
• It records in a more universal XDCAM format while can be edited natively by most computers and software, without the 10x increase in file size of AVCHD.
• The camera has an SD card slot so you can back up your files in the field; JVC was the first company to implement this. This is a huge asset due to the volatile nature of digital data. The upgraded model allows you to record to both memory card slots at the same time)
• Many of the major camera controls are ergonomically located on the camera body and highly accessible, not buried in the menus. This is a big deal because you never want to have to search for small things like white balance or audio settings in the middle of a live event or interview. Those buried camera settings can cause you an aneurism in a tight situation.

Side note: Make sure to buy extra camera batteries. You can’t shoot an all day event with 60 minutes of juice.

DSLRs

Now I know everyone reading this blog post is probably wondering about DSLRs. Yes, DSLRs are an option and they are great. In fact, I will say they are beautiful! But ask yourself what you’re using it for. DSLRs are not the preferred choice for “run and gun” situations. To be sure, if you have a trained staffer and need top-quality content, it will produce beautiful images for your organization. To realistically use the DSLR for most situations you either have to have the Olympic gold in holding a camera steady or you need all the bells and whistles that essentially turn the DSLR into a shoulder mount professional camera. In the long run, by the time you have the lenses and peripherals you need to get 100% out of your DSLR, you’ve spent the equivalent of a Sony EX-3 (a very expensive camera).

I personally use the Sony – NEX7. I love it for the pocket size body but I can still add interchangeable lenses. The audio on it, like most other DSLR Canon and Nikon cameras, is terrible. So I also had to buy a separate Tascam DR-05 recorder.

See3 has the Canon 60D which is more of a traditional DSLR body and has a Tascam DR-100 as well.

Remember, if you are recording audio separately you will need to sync up your image in post production. Our recommendation to help you do this faster than a speeding bullet is to use the PluralEyes plug-in ($149) for your editing tool.

Considerations when integrating video gear with an editing solution

What format does the camera record in and is it compatible with your editing software? Here’s a scenario that has created many a money pit and bottleneck in people’s post-production: A camera records in the AVCHD format, which is a format that cannot be natively edited on most software (with the exception of Adobe Premiere). You must first convert the file then import it into the software you are using to edit. Sounds simple, but here is the catch: If you have 1 hour of footage, that is about 8GB. It will take you roughly 3 hours to convert the footage, and the resulting converted files will be about 10x the size at 80GB. This is a huge post production burden and you will end up burning through a lot of time and buying a lot of hard drives to store these huge files. So based on this example, every time you shoot 1 hour of footage you are committing to 3 hours of compression time in which a computer is tied up, plus about $80-$100 for a hard drive to store that footage.

Editing software recommendations

Adobe Premiere Elements 11 ($99) is terrific entry level editing software. For more advanced users, Adobe Premiere Pro ($750) is a fine choice. Adobe works on both Mac and PC and is what most smaller post-production agencies are moving toward with the recent changes in Final Cut.

If your organization is already using Adobe Elements in house, you can purchase the cloud package, which gets you the entire creative suite for $50 a month. The benefits are you will never have to upgrade again and there is an attached cloud storage solution. This is not big enough for all of your footage, but it is a great place for an archive of final products.

Get started – don’t sweat the hardware

Ultimately, it’s about how you tell your story, not the tools you tell it with.

Just remember: A camera doesn’t take good picture, and sound devices don’t get good sound unless the driver knows how to get it and has a story in mind. Whatever you do, be motivated and work with equipment you are comfortable with. And before you even press record, know why you’re filming, what you are filming and what it will do for you as an organization!

The post What to consider when investing in video appeared first on Socialbrite.

Video hosting and analytics service offers special promotion

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, educators, video producers.

We continually like to update our subscribers and clients with interesting new products andapps that grab our attention. One such product that may be useful to nonprofits is Vidyard, a relative newcomer in the end-to-end video hosting space. (See below for a discount for Sociabrite readers.)

With regard to video strategy, the first step is always to determine the overall goal of your video — fundraising, awareness, action or education, said Patrick Landy, Vidyard’s customer success manager. To achieve your goal, he generally likes to break it down into three key areas that you need to execute on:

1. Content creation – finding stories to tell and the right format for conveying them (Socialbrite’s chief area of expertise)
2. Deployment – compatibility across browsers and mobile devices, quality playback, speed, analytics
3. Distribution  – paid search, SEO, organic search, etc.

Vidyard is an attractive option for helping companies and nonprofit organizations deliver on #2 and #3 by:

• Using call to actions to increase conversions and drive the action your nonprofit is after
• Providing YouTube integration to increase views and searchability
• Offering analytics to track and measure the success of your video strategy.

Check out the Donate Now call-to-action in this video

An example of how their video player and call-to-action features work can be see in this new video produced by Major Multimedia for Deborah’s Place, Chicago’s largest provider of supportive housing exclusively for women. Notice the “donate here” pop-out (at 30 seconds) and the clickable link back to Deborah’s Place at the end.

With Vidyard’s real-time analytics, nonprofits can see how many people are currently watching their videos, discover the most popular geographic regions, view their audience’s attention span, see how videos are performing on YouTube and much more.

Discount for Socialbrite readers

Of course, using Vidyard doesn’t mean you need to abandon YouTube. Why not do both?

As an incentive to Socialbrite subscribers and clients, Vidyard has agreed to offer 40% off for the first 6 months for nonprofits that mention the code “Socialbrite.” Check out their website and blog for more details.

The post Vidyard: A complement to YouTube appeared first on Socialbrite.

Getting your supporters to take the next step when your video ends

This is part two of a three-part series on how nonprofits can create engaging multimedia stories that motivate supporters to take a desired action. Part two describes the use of call-to-action video overlays to boost ROI. Also see part one:

• Creating compelling advocacy videos for nonprofits

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, foundations, cause organizations, social enterprises, brands, businesses and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) divisions, video producers, Web publishers.

While the audience for online video continues to grow, the advances in Web video technology are changing at a dizzying pace, making it hard for nonprofits to keep up. There are several good online video platforms and third-party apps available to convert views into actions. YouTube’s call-to-action video overlay, third-party video apps and customized video domains or microsites offer great options for boosting the return on investment of your nonprofit’s video program.

YouTube’s call-to-action video overlay

Most nonprofit Web videos make mention of their organization’s URL either verbally or with graphics edited into the video. But the effectiveness of your message is cut short if you don’t include a clickable call to action that takes visitors to your website, Facebook Page or Twitter page to make a donation or to take another desired action.

YouTube’s nonprofit program offers two such call-to-action video apps that can be easily implemented: overlays and annotations.

If your nonprofit is not already part of the Google for nonprofits program, consider applying. The free program offers many benefits and can become a center for creating effective calls to action and engagement:

• Free or discounted version of Google Apps for your organization
• Premium branding capabilities and increased uploads on YouTube
• The option to drive fundraising through a Google Checkout “Donate” button
• The ability to add a call-to-action overlay on your videos to drive campaigns
• The ability to post volunteering opportunities on the YouTube Video Volunteers platform
• Free Adwords advertising

Examples of video calls to action — in action

Here are a few examples of how nonprofits have incorporated overlays and annotations to drive a specific course of action.

This Angry Kid Greenpeace video is heartfelt and does a great job delivering its message. Unfortunately, the creators stop short by simply offering engaged viewers the opportunity to visit their website at the end with no actionable link:

The Darius Goes West video takes it a step further and adds a call-to-action overlay to visit Darius’ Twitter page as part of the YouTube player:

The use of  annotations to engage the viewer and encourage interactivity can be seen in The Hug The World video (after the initial 15 second ad):

This Greenpeace video celebrating a victory over rainforest destruction also uses annotations in their call to action by encouraging the viewer to “like” the video:

Third-party video player overlays

There are several companies that have emerged recently that market call-to-action video player skins that are designed to be layered on top of players such as YouTube or Vimeo. Viewbix, for example, offers “to put the entire Web experience in the video player.”  Their software allows video creators to add elements of their websites, social networks and more into the video player so that when they share the video on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube they take all their calls-to-action and content with them.

To illustrate, Socialbrite partner Major Multimedia, a nonprofit video training and production company, created a Viewbix overlay for a video created for a client, Chicago Cares, to recognize outstanding volunteers at their awards banquet. This video is housed on Viewbix’s website but can be embedded, copied and shared.

Videos for a customized video domain or microsite

While hosting on YouTube has its advantages for nonprofits, a professional multimedia firm can help you custom-design media-driven websites and microsites that integrate with your nonprofit’s existing organizational website with platforms such as Vmix, Convio, Kaltura or Drupal (compare).

Just a little over two years ago, Pathfinder International had no videos online and little in-house video production. With the help of See3 Communications, Pathfinder launched a microsite that is built entirely around video sharing: Girl2Woman.

Pathfinder shared how they opted not to use YouTube because “we couldn’t control the look and feel as much as we would have liked, we wanted to count the shares of the videos (not the views), and we wanted to focus on integrating features like the call to action share.”  They’ve still posted the videos on YouTube, however, so that others can embed them.

They documented specific objectives for wanting viewers to share their microsite:

1. to raise the visibility of reproductive health needs throughout a woman’s life
2. to raise $1 million (and for each video share, a generous donor is giving $1 to Pathfinder)
3. to leverage the share functionality to increase the number of registrations by constituents

To meet those goals, they needed to be able to count the number of shares and capture the information of people who shared, which they couldn’t do with a YouTube hosted site.

In fact, embedding video on a nonprofit’s own website can be better for your SEO — when a video is published on a third-party site, links to those videos just increase the page rank of the third-party site, not the nonprofit’s own site. If the video is published on the nonprofit’s site they have full control over the links on that site and the corresponding SEO.

Regardless of which of these call-to-action options your nonprofit chooses, remember to:

• first build your social network & encourage conversation before inserting a call to action
• use a clear and distinct call to action that tells the viewer exactly what you want them to do
• connect viewers to URLs that elaborate on your story.

Consider placing the “call” on the skin or at the end of the video to encourage the viewer to watch until the end and follow through on the call to action. Also, because each video hosted is different, the call to action might be different depending upon the content and desired outcome.

The most important part of your call to action is ensuring that it fits with what your audience needs. When it matches the exact needs of your audience, taking the recommended next step will be a natural course of action for viewers.

Please share your own experience with call-to-action video apps and online video platforms.

Related

• Creating compelling advocacy videos for nonprofits (Socialbrite)
• Techniques to add dazzle to your advocacy video (Socialbrite)
• How to find amazing, powerful stories for your nonprofit video (Socialbrite)
• How to use microsites to better tell your nonprofit’s story (Socialbrite)
• 6 ways YouTube is helping out nonprofits, including call-to-action-overlays (Socialbrite)
• Five Nonprofits Maximizing YouTube’s Nonprofit Program (Nonprofitorgs)

The post How to effectively use calls to action in nonprofit videos appeared first on Socialbrite.

Matanya’s Hope tells stories of Kenyan schoolchildren through photos & video

Multimedia storytelling can be an incredibly powerful tool for your organization to attract funders, motivate volunteers and demonstrate the power of your message.

Our friends at Matanya’s Hope asked us to create a visual story for their nonprofit by seamlessly blending photos and video footage that they have captured over the past several years with original interviews, music and graphics we developed.

Founded in 2005 by Illinois native Michelle Stark, Matanya’s Hope is a nonprofit dedicated to educating children in Kenya. Last summer I accompanied Michelle to Matanya Primary School and saw the destitution these children and their families face: severe poverty, hunger, lack of clothing. And I realized why Michelle is dedicating her life to this cause.

For nonprofits and other organizations looking to capture their stories through powerful imagery, here are some simple tips for creating professional-looking video:

• Use “b-roll” (stills & video)
• Incorporate stock music
• Use narration or background sounds

How to incorporate b-roll

By using B-roll – still photographs and short video clips referencing what the interviewees are talking about – you can make the video much more interesting than by solely using “talking heads” (straight interviews of people talking without any additional footage). As we are hearing Michelle talking about the children with “no shoes and torn and tattered clothing,” the still photographs visually reinforce what the interviewee is saying. B-roll also allows us to edit the interviews without a noticeable cut (“jump-cut”) in the action or picture on screen.

Use background music to add texture

Background music was also selected to set the mood of the video. Royalty-free music can be purchased online from a number of stock music websites for a modest charge. One of my favorites is Triple Scoop Music. There are also a slew of free sites offering rights-cleared music, generally using Creative Commons — see Socialbrite’s Free Music Directory.

For the Matanya’s Hope video, we licensed a song from a local Kenyan composer we discovered while we were there filming the video.

Narration and background sound round out the piece

Using natural, or ambient, sound captured while videotaping b-roll is another effective way to make the storytelling more compelling. Background sounds of children talking in a classroom help create a more natural, captivating video. Natural sounds can also be useful in making transitions or in reinforcing a point the speaker is making.

Next up: We’ll share our learnings on professional interviewing techniques.

And please make a donation to support Matanya’s Hope’s efforts to educate children in this region of Kenya. All net proceeds from the sale or leasing of photographs from the Matanya’s Hope gallery will go directly to the children of Kenya this charity supports.

Related on Socialbrite

• Online advocacy video best practices
• How to find amazing, powerful stories for your nonprofit video
• How nonprofits should be using visual storytelling
• 10 secrets to video storytelling success

The post Techniques to add dazzle to your advocacy video appeared first on Socialbrite.

Earlier this month a group of environmental experts, activists and scientists gathered in Aspen, Colorado, for the 2011 Aspen Environment Forum. Solving – and communicating – the challenges facing the planet was top of the agenda, and I was invited to sit on a panel that focused on the use of social media.

There was increasing interest in social media given events this year in the Middle East. According to the forum website, “Recent social movements in North Africa and the Middle East have shown the power of social media and mobile devices to accelerate change at the grassroots level. What lessons does that experience hold for the environmental movement? Can Facebook and Twitter somehow catalyze an environmental revolution as well – and is it happening already?”

You can watch the one-hour discussion above. The panel was made up of:

Ken Banks, Founder of kiwanja.net/FrontlineSMS and a partner in Socialbrite

William Powers, prize-winning writer and author of the New York Times best-seller “Hamlets BlackBerry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age”

Courtney Hight, Co-Director of Energy Action Coalition and Power Shift

Charles Porch, who heads up Facebook’s efforts to help non-profits use the platform

Ned Breslin, CEO of Water for the People

The 2011 Aspen Environment Forum is presented by the Aspen Institute in partnership with National Geographic and provides a critical framework for committed voices to address a significant milestone: a global population of 7 billion and how to reconcile Earth’s finite resources with its ability to sustain our expanding human needs. I hope you’ll pitch in your thoughts.

The post Challenges to the environmental network appeared first on Socialbrite.

One of the central benefits of social media is the ability to share content with just one or two mouse clicks. Your supporters are already sharing interesting content on Facebook. They’re retweeting it. They’re favoriting videos on YouTube as well.

All with one mouse click.

But even though sharing has gotten easier, actually getting people to share can feel like pulling teeth. And when when you see other non-profits getting thousands of views on YouTube with what seems like no effort, it’s downright frustrating.

So how do you get people to share your content?

5 tips on sharing

1. Accept that social media is not email

Having an email list of 80,000 people is a far cry from having an active, thriving community of fans. The same goes for the 5,000 fans you have on Facebook, especially if they fanned your Page only for a chance at winning a free iPod (yawn). It’s all about vitality. So stop thinking so much about accumulating numbers. Instead, start thinking about nurturing the 1% who are already raving fans.

2. Understand the power shift

If you’re thinking on some level (even subconsciously) that your job is to get people to do something, stop it. You can’t make people do anything today. Facebook, blogs and Twitter has tipped the power balance in favor of anyone with a blog who has something smart to say. The days of Mad Men are gone. Bloggers and Twitter junkies are now the new powerful media moguls. Twitter pummeled The New York Times last year. Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch have been supplanted by Perez Hilton.

3. Respect the blogger

The powerful new media folks I mentioned above? Yeah, they’re really smart, too. Respect that fact – or live to regret it. In other words, don’t hire an amateur do a mass copy-and-paste blogger outreach campaign.

4. Consider how you share

Think about the last time you shared a video on YouTube. How did you share it? Did you email it, tweet it or post it on Facebook? More important, why did you share it? Was it funny? Did it make you think of a specific person?

5. Give them the tools

Chances are you already have a growing number of supporters who talk you up at parties and on Facebook. What’s that? You don’t have a Facebook Page? OK, fix that. In fact, optimize all your social media for sharing. And make your fundraising easy to share, too.

What makes you share?

Cross-posted from JohnHaydon.com.

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