We’ve all heard the old phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Well, if you think that’s true, how much do you think a video is worth? According to Jeannie Piekos and Jeff Sylevestre of Blue Moon, the value of video for those in the nonprofit sector is potentially priceless.
I recently attended a session about online video presented by Jeannie and Jeff at the MCN/MCF Joint Annual Conference. The following entry is a combo of some of the choice teachings I brought back from their session, as well as some of my own research on the unique advantages of using online video to communicate to your audiences.
The Bad News: You’ve Got 5 Seconds to Make Your Case
Did you know that it takes just five seconds for a new visitor to decide whether or not they will stay on your website? Forget about giving someone your elevator speech, five seconds is barely enough time for a “Hello.”
Now Here’s the Good News
If you can get them to click “play,” five seconds is all you need. Data show that video can help you improve the likelihood that people who land on your organization’s homepage will take the time to acquaint themselves with who you are and what you do.
Fifty to eighty percent of new visitors who land on a homepage will click on a video first before doing anything else. Research from eMarketer shows that individuals who click on a video tend to stay around longer to watch the video and are more likely to engage in activities such as purchasing a product (or making a donation).
It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect to Stick
My favorite mantra of tech expert Guy Kawasaki is, “Don’t worry, be crappy.” A tad crass, but it’s a message worth bearing in mind when you’re considering online video for your nonprofit or foundation. Online viewers do not expect HD-quality video from you; what they’re looking for is an emotional connection with your organization’s mission (I’ll explore this more in a second).
With the accessibility of digital cameras and camcorders, and simple editing programs like Windows MovieMaker and iMovie, you (or an intrepid intern) can produce your own video inexpensively. It doesn’t have to be long either; industry opinion pegs the best length for online video to be between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. YouTube also makes engaging users who are hard-of-hearing, deaf, or ESL speakers easy with their closed caption feature.
Make Those Heart Strings Sing
Getting people to stay on your website long enough to learn about your organization is just the tip of the iceberg. Another key benefit that should not be downplayed is the power of video to create an emotional connection with your mission.
I recently attended a webinar where Dr. Paul Slovic, a Ph.D. psychologist and expert in decision making, discussed research findings that show that the best way to persuade a donor to give is to create a sense of one-on-one emotional engagement between the donor and your constituent.
Next to meeting face-to-face, video is one of the best ways to create that sense of sympathy. As Jeannie said at the conference, “Video has the power to humanize and globalize your constituents’ lives.”
And Then There’s SEO
Finally, if you’re looking to improve the search engine optimization (SEO) of your organization’s website (who isn’t?), research from Forrester has shown that using keywords to properly tag your video (something that YouTube and other services allow you to do easily) can help you bump your page ranking on search engines like Google.
So What Are You Waiting For?
A few good examples for inspiration, perhaps? Jeannie was nice enough to send me some examples of nonprofits and grantmakers who are using video to engage with their stakeholders. Here’s a selection of links she sent me, as well as links suggested by folks who commented on this post:
Grantmakers
- “Kathryn T. McCarty,” Cal State, Fullerton Philanthropic Foundation
- “Philanthropy: A Powerful Tool for NEA Affiliates,” The NEA Foundation
- “Philanthropy is… ,” MCF, The Minneapolis Foundation and The Saint Paul Foundation
Nonprofits
- “As a Homeless Teen, Jennifer Fought for Survival,” Lutheran Social Services Minnesota – The Center for Changing Lives
- “Hansel & Gretel Dress Rehearsal,” Kentucky Opera Blog
- “Tahlia’s Story,” Green for All
Join the conversation: Have you used video as a tool to market your organization’s mission or to communicate about a particular cause or campaign? We’d love to hear about it. Please share your experiences in the comments below.
- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate
Great post promoting nonprofits using video.
I encourage organizations to also implement closed captions in their online to maximize their use of them to both deaf and hard of hearing audiences as well as English as a second-language audiences both of whom will be able to understand your video much better in written form.
Google’s YouTube has added an easy closed captioning feature. You simply need a text file of the timed transcript of your video. See http://www.youtube.com/t/captions_about for details.
Thanks, Christine. You are spot-on with this one. I’m going to add a note to the blog entry about this.
Kentucky Opera has hired professional videographers to capture short clips of dress rehearsals for TV for years, but this season we have been able to add those clips via YouTube to the Kentucky Opera blog which have proven extremely benifitial.
We are also capturing our own video with an inexpensive hand held video camera. It has taken a while to work through the video editing software and formats, but we are starting to get the hang of it.
One thing we have found, when adding the video, we make sure we put that in our email blasts (sending people to the blog), we put it on our FaceBook fan page and then twitter about it. This lets everyone we are potentially already involved with know there is somthing to see. What we would like to work on is getting more people who are NOT already friends or fans to connect.
Any thoguhts on that?
http://kentuckyoperablog.blogspot.com/
Thanks for sharing, Heather. Glad to hear you’re having success with your videos, at least in terms of engaging your current fans. As to how to engage folks who are not, I think you’re taking good steps now to start to engage folks. The first one, after all, is showing up on these social media sites.
As to how to engage new people, have you considered a YouTube contest, like “So you think you can sing?” Or challenge people to sing one note the longest and film it on a YouTube video that they would then send to you. The incentive would be free tickets to the Kentucky Opera. Or you could stage guerrilla Kentucky Opera performances on the street, post them on YouTube and then start a buzz about the opera that way–”Where will they show up next?” These are just some crazy top-of-mind ideas.
One the keys to engaging online viewers is to just plain have fun with it. Be creative, and think about fun and inventive ways to showcase your org. Good luck, and keep in touch! I’d love to hear about what you end up doing.
-Cary
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by defiancecary: Hey, y’all. Just finished an MCF blog entry on online video for nonprofits and grantmakers, wanna see? – http://bit.ly/4pTVkV...
Excellent blog entry, Cary. The value video can add to a nonprofit website is pretty astounding. Also I think it is an excellent idea to connect the email blasts to a link to the video as Heather mentioned. If the video is engaging –if it is funny or emotionally evocative then folks will share it via their social networking and the nonprofit’s reach will expand. Once upon time it was enough to have pictures and text on one’s website; video is so prevalent now that it is becoming expected and a surer way to really connect with the target audience.