Tips for using online video to communicate your message

October 5, 2007

How is your organization using video to communicate your message?

More and more nonprofits have begun using multimedia videos to spread their message.  The International Rescue Committee, New Israel Fund, HSUS and the ASPCA are just a few of the nonprofits that have been successfully using video in campaigns to communicate their message. 

The following blog post from The Agitator provides some hard data to back up the value of using video.


Here, from Advertising.com, are more stats on the growing popularity of online video with consumers. This is a very comprehensive look at consumer behavior with respect to online video, and well worth a read.

Huge takeaways for us:

  • More than twice as many consumers ages 35 and older (a whopping 69%) view online video than those under 35 (31%).
  • What are the old fogies watching? News clips (69%), followed by movie trailers (35%), then music videos (27%). So, "serious stuff" dominates.
  • And, for those of you who dream of the viral marketing homerun, 39% of the fogies have forwarded a video clip to a friend.

Another "must read" is this online video "primer" prepared by Ryann Miller, a fundraising consultant at HJC New Media. Her primer answers the question "Why Video?", offers best practice advice, and tells you how/where to place your online videos once you have them. Lots of links to good examples and resources.

Thanks for putting this together, Ryann ... you deserve a raise!

Roger & Tom

 

 Alia McKee with Sea Change Strategies blogs about how video killed the radio star and offers the following advice:

  1. Don’t be long-winded – The online world is fleeting – get your message across in 30 seconds – 2 minutes.
  2. It doesn’t have to look expensive - a nice-on the-budget, do-it-yourself video is completely acceptable.
  3. Humor is hard for most non profits to do. If you go for funny, go all out.
  4. Buy a video camera, start filming, and start a video library.
  5. Everybody wants a viral video. And while viral is great – it’s hard to hit that jack pot. Keep dreaming the viral dream, and in the meantime start producing some good video content and promoting it.