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September 23, 2008
Storytelling In Online Video for Non Profits
These are notes for myself. Disregard this post. -kc.
+ Things You Already Know
People are using video to help spread their message. (you already know this.)
There are lots of genres of video.
videoblogs, docs, interviews, PSAs, infoporn, narrative, mock tv, response videos
Just because video is there doesn't mean that you have to use it. Do not start a videoblog if it doesn't make sense for your community (audience) and definitely don't do it if you don't understand the amount of work that will go into it (like lots of projects without end, fatigue will set in.)
+ Creation and Distribution
You can shoot for an Emmy just fine but just as important and more attainable is shooting for Emilia and her Friends.
Shoot within your means. Create video that gets your message across.
+ Handing out cameras vs slick vids. It's all about how much energy/money/resources you can devote to it.
There is value in cheap video. Immediate, real. Either media training through existing staff. On the Internet Production Value Is Not Necessarily a Value.
If you want to win an Emmy, fine, production is cheaper.
In-house or bloggers.
Media training for existing staff.
Get into the habit of document existing work (immediacy sometimes more important than production value then let the pros make sense of it.)
Partner with existing bloggers, forums, content creators, peer orgs.
Outsourced/Partnership
Highly produced doc is fine, just produce it so that it can be repurposed for the web.
The rise of the fakedoc has created a new creative class of media maker, professional yet cheaper than traditional production houses.
If spread is more important than control, write once, distribute everywhere.
They post it to video sharing sites, embed them within their own pages, wherever makes sense. When possible, they produce it in a way that allows it to be repurposed for multiple mediums, multiple platforms. rss, linkable, embeds. go to where they are.
Just like all new media communication, the video has to fit the audience, be it policymakers or the general public. Access is a filter.
Understand expectations differ with each platform. (YT vs Vimeo)
Web video for civilian audiences is different from web video for specialized audiences (policymakers, journalists, staffers). Web video for specialists should fit the purpose of their work (sound bytes, documentaries as top level surveys) and their use patterns. OTOH, web video for civilians needs to speak to their use patterns: at work, short filtering span (not attention) fashioned for the pipe (tend to be short form b/c of file sizes and time to engage)
Go to where they are. If you bring them back, give them action.
YouTube Nonprofits & Activism Channel
Bloggers, Forums become your advocates, your evangelists, your army.
If All You Do Is Build It They Will Ignore It.
Make it something civilians will eat up and want to share.
Make It Simple (to comprehend, to spread, to take action.)
Tailor it for the internet audience.
-Peretti rules.
Make it ACTIONABLE ("specific asks" -MHoff)
Forwardable. Shareable. Embeddable. Findable/Indexable. Actionable.
Make spread beyond the 1st degree part of your strategy.
70% of all video views came through search. Tagging, searchable pages, link economy
Metadata. Titling,
RSS feeds + distros
Civilians Will Commit Acts of Advocacy Whether You Like It Or Not. If you create & distribute video, let them use it.
Nerdfighters.
Ryanne (bloggers.)
Nathan.
Partner with these people, get into the conversation b/c, like it or not, it's going to happen without you. (Journalists vs. acts of journalism.) Connect it to groups that will eat it up (God and Politics) Make sure the video knows its' place.
Stupid is not a new concept. Trolls were always out there. They're just indexable, discoverable, explicit. Example: Pedos Online. This is a good thing.
Narcissism, Information Overload, Fear of the Unknown.
What we're doing is making the tools, the talk, the relationships more explicit. The fact that we can't make sense of this mess is a failure of our filters. But as Holly said, the web is iterative. Some of the tools are fantastic. Other tools are bunk. The ecology is changing and we're constantly building new tools to sess out new user behaviors and forms of communication and curation. Use what works for you and work with us to build better tools.
Resources
Funding Social Media Resources -- Center for Social Media at American University
Documentaries on a Mission: How Nonprofits Are Making Movies for Public Engagement
Using Grassroots Documentary Films for Political Change - MediaRights
Viral Marketing for the Real World Duncan J. Watts, Jonah Peretti
YouTube for Nonprofits Tip Sheet - Steve Grove
Producing films with nonprofit organizations
Posted by yatta at 10:21 AM