YouTube continues to be a great tool for nonprofits wanting to connect and market with their fans. With newspaper and TV staffs cut dramatically, why rely on these outlets to get your message out to the public? Take control of your message and your future.
Today I want to show you a short clip from a ballet company. The group wanted to find a fun way to raise awareness of its annual performance of The Nutcracker. They took a nutcracker doll and took pictures of it around the city. The pictures were edited together and then added a “ticking” sound. A couple of full page graphics were added and voila, the group had a video. Other than time, the project cost nothing.
This video was made without the use of any video. Just still pictures and graphics. It was edited with Windows MovieMaker, a free program. With YouTube, its easy to share the clip and even post it to social media sites like Facebook or embed it into a website.
Your nonprofit has spent a lot of time putting together a video about your agency. In most cases these run about five to six minutes in length. You’ve put it up on YouTube, which is a great social media tool. Maybe you’ve even embedded it your website. But then you stop. In this case you’re not getting as much as you can out of your video.
I’m guessing that your video is composed of several sections. Why not make each of these chapters into their own clips. So out of a 5 minute video, you might get four or five clips.
People consume information differently online. Some may not have the patience to watch a five minute video. But they will watch clips that are about a minute or two in length. Think of it like a restaurant that offers a lunch and a dinner portion of an entree. It’s the same food but it’s just presented in a different way.
In some cases, you’ll need to edit a slide to come before the video that can help set it up. Maybe in the big video, one segment is about mentoring. Pull that out and create an open that says something like, “mentoring minute.” Just a little bit of editing allows you to dramatically increase your video footprint.
Small and large videos should both be used and featured in your website. Maybe the big one goes on your home page and the smaller clips should be posted near the related programs.
Remember that social media marketing is not an exact copy of print marketing. Make sure that on your website or blog, you are limiting the number of words that you use. Pictures and video can sometimes say a lot more than just words.
Recently, on my speaking website I removed some copy and replaced it with a short, 38 second video. The goal was to create a short welcome that would also lay out the purpose of the website and my speaking business.
Through YouTube, I’ll be able to track the number of times people have watched it. I think the home page of the site now looks a bit more dynamic with the clip and also make the reader not shake in horror at having to read a lot of copy. Depending on the results, I may create a brief video for some of the other pages, that would give the basics about what the page is about.
YouTube is a free tool and embedding a video can improve the look and “readability” of your website.
Have you ever thought about using a YouTube clip to help promote a silent auction? In this example, I built a Powerpoint presentation, converted it to video, and then uploaded it to YouTube.
While the video won’t win any awards, that’s not the goal of the clip. It’s simply supposed to remind people of the silent auction, promote a few of the items, and make sure that people remember to bring their wallets to the event.
A nonprofit I’m involved with has an event it wants to promote. There isn’t a promotion budget though so we decide to use social media and create a very simple YouTube video.
The event will feature a nationally known presenter but we can’t interview her ahead of time in person as she lives in a different part of the country. No problem! We record an interview with her over the phone (with her permission). Later I edit together the soundbites add a few graphics and pictures.
Now we have a short video that we can embed in the website and upload to a Facebook page. These two things are possible by posting the clip on YouTube.
Simple, effective, and memorable. Here’s the clip:
Every day more and more nonprofits are under pressure to start using social media. I think it’s a great idea, even if you’re just sticking your toe into the water with one tool. But very often the call to action comes from a board member or a senior member of staff who may have other motives.
While they may not know it, are they trying to have social media substitute for some task they don’t like to perform? Fundraising is a big one that comes to mind. Do they think that if they start using YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter that they’ll never have to ask the community for a dime again? In their minds, the cash will just magically pour in. Then when this doesn’t happen, you’re suddenly in trouble and don’t have a backup plan.
This is one of the biggest mistakes people can make with a social media strategy. Don’t think of it as a tool that will replace a task. Instead integrate it into your fundraising, communication, and outreach processes. Over time you then may be able to shift more of each function to online methods. But it takes a while to build your capacity. Resist the urge to dive head first into social media with the idea that it will save you from having to do something else.
Social media is great because it doesn’t have to cost your nonprofit a lot of money. Here’s an example of a video that you can use as model for your nonprofit. It was the 4th of July and I took all of the pictures of the fireworks with a basic digital camera. No tripod or anything.
Later I edited them together and added some royalty free music. This comes with the iMovie editor but you can also buy royalty free music very cheaply from a variety of sites online.
Voila, your nonprofit can have an inexpensive video that you can easily upload to YouTube. Why not do this for your next event?
A lot of nonprofits are not sure how long their YouTube videos should be. YouTube limits a clip to about 10 minutes but there’s not reason why you can’t have a part one, two, or three. But will your audience sit through that much video at one time? It’s an important consideration as part of your social media strategy.
Instead of putting up a movie, why not have your clips be more like movie previews. Movie previews give you a taste for a film and hopefully you’ll be convinced that you want to see it. But the previews are more like an appetizer than meal.
Use video to get out a simple message and then give the viewer a chance to find out more. Like a movie preview, you should keep the length somewhere between 2 and 4 minutes.
With attention spans shrinking and a lot of competition from other nonprofits, you want your message to be clear, concise, and informative.
As a nonprofit, I understand that there’s never enough time to get everything done and there are always emerging challenges. But to maximize your social media strategy, I want you to spend a few minutes ever week doing some homework.
I want you to spend a few minutes online looking at what other nonprofits are doing. Check out your competition locally as well as national organizations. Are they using tools like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter in new ways. Can you gain inspiration from them and bring those techniques back to your office?
It’s also important to see what doesn’t seem to work in your mind. Just because someone is doing something online, doesn’t mean that it will resonate with a nonprofit’s supporters.
Think of this research time as an investment in your nonprofit fundraising and relationship building.
Posted by Ken Okel 
