See What’s Out There

YouTube recently opened up its API (application program interface) so that users can now customize embedded players. They’ve provided some cases studies already, but it’ll be exciting to see just how this step encourages innovation using video on the web.

But this moves means a lot more than you’ll be able to change the color of your player. YouTube will still do the heavy lifting (videos will still be stored on and streamed through YouTube), but it means that you’ll be able to fully integrate YouTube into your site or application. Now your organization’s website can have its own YouTube without ever having to leave your site. Though of course you still have YouTube branding, still have conversation around the video happening on YouTube. It is NOT a white-label product.

If you don’t have a programming bone in your body, start easy like me and go to the YouTube page of the video you want to embed. Click “customize” and you’ll be able to change the colors, choose whether or not you want to include related videos, and remove the border. Then grab the code above and put it right on your site or blog. You can see my own example below.

A good friend of See3 and a terrific filmmaker, Macky Alston, has made a film called Hard Road Home. This documentary looks at a program in Harlem of ex-cons, helping other ex-cons stay out of prison. If you can catch it on PBS, please do. If not, go ahead and buy the DVD — you will be glad you did.

Here’s more information.

Dear Friends of Auburn Media:

On behalf of Macky Alston, GreenHouse Pictures, and all of us at Auburn Media, it’s my pleasure to invite you to watch Macky’s feature documentary Hard Road Home TONIGHT on WNET Channel 13 on PBS’ series Independent Lens. The broadcast will begin after midnight tonight, at 12:30 A.M. Saturday morning, March 29, 2008. Don’t forget to set your TIVOs and VCRs for this wee-hours broadcast!

Visit the Independent Lens Web site for more local PBS listings.

Also: Hard Road Home is now available for individual and institutional purchase. To get your copy, please visit the film’s Web site.

As many of you know, Hard Road Home is one of a series of documentary films around which Auburn Media has built campaigns to help faith communities of all traditions get involved and make a difference. To learn more about Auburn Media’s work with Hard Road Home and faith communities, please contact me directly or visit our Web site.

More news: Hard Road Home is the inspiration for Becoming The Promised Land: Faith, Community, And The Prison Reentry Population, a joint Auburn/Union/New York Theological Seminary/NY Presbytery conference for clergy and community leaders which will explore the biblical and theological foundations and contexts for work with and among the prison reentry population. The conference, to be held June 12-13, 2008 at Union Theological Seminary, will consider ways in which the church and church‐related institutions, as well as other communities and organizations, can and do work with formerly incarcerated women and men to bring about God’s healing and wholeness. Of course the film will screen at the conference as well! For more information on this event, please visit www.auburnsem.org.

We hope this notice finds you very well. If you would like more information on any of the above or wish to make direct contact please do not hesitate to do so.

With our best wishes,

Josh Olesker

Joshua Olesker
Program Manager - Outreach
AUBURN MEDIA

jco[at]auburnsem[dot]org

One of the problems with YouTube is that while you can see how many views a video got, you don’t know much more about where or how that video was viewed.

YouTube took a baby-step in the right direction with the release of YouTube Insight. From the YouTube blog:

“Today we’re releasing YouTube Insight, a free tool that enables anyone with a YouTube account to view detailed statistics about the videos that they upload to the site. For example, uploaders can see how often their videos are viewed in different geographic regions, as well as how popular they are relative to all videos in that market over a given period of time. You can also delve deeper into the lifecycle of your videos, like how long it takes for a video to become popular, and what happens to video views as popularity peaks.”

From the looks of it, we still don’t know how many people saw the frame vs. pressed play, how many people played through only parts of the video, etc. But it’s a start. (For some reason they did not link to the tool in the announcement.)

I went to several Web 2.0 sessions at NTEN, Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans last week. It was amazing how many there were, sometimes even two at the same time. They were all very good, and all the same. My one criticism of all of them is addressed at the end of this post. Also at the end, I have embedded the presentations of several of those folks I mention.

The first session I attended was specifically about social networking and led by Brian Reich of Echo Ditto, author of Media Rules!

Brian’s big point was that there’s a lot of noise to cut through and to engage people you must deploy quality, focused, niche communications. Volume and frequency are not primary considerations. Most importantly, participate with authenticity. This is something anyone studying the space knows. You must be a credible member of the community sharing useful information and thoughtful comments before anyone will respond to your asks.

A good tip Brian mentioned was to deputize people to grow your network for you. This is something we have been working on at See3 – methods to build a network of influencers in the social networks who will carry your torch. Giving people certain authority to speak on your behalf, and rewarding them with praise or titles or special invitations to events, etc. In other words, to formalize that relationship is a great idea. Another point Brian made was that perhaps Facebook and Myspace are not for your organization. You may find better success participating in a niche social network like Changents or Gather. I suggest another one to explore, Rethos.

Brian provided an overview of many of the social networks out there. He talked about LinkedIn, but he did not address LinkedIn for Good. I asked him afterwards if he knew of any case studies or saw any potential for using LinkedIn for Good, which launched last year with much buzz but seems like nothing but tumbleweeds rolling by since. His thoughtful response: “I know a bunch of people have tried (and there has actually been some discussion within the NTEN blogs and community about it) to use LinkedIn as a fundraising platform. The LinkedIn platform isn’t structured exactly to support direct fundraising, and I think people don’t necessarily appreciate when you don’t respect the medium. But I have seen groups use LinkedIn to form committees that do fundraising, to have people volunteer time from an in-kind standpoint, etc. So, if you use the right tools through LinkedIn, you can get that much closer to a donation–so I’d say that is a better path. All experiments still, but there is clearly potential.”

Brian emphasized that social networking is not for every organization, and that you must consider your goals, strategies, tactics, and resources, not assuming the use of any particular tool. This notion was echoed by the other presenters on this topic that I saw, but Brian said it the best and with the most authority: “If you leave this conference, go back to your team and say, ‘We need a Facebook strategy’ then I have failed…”

Beth Kanter led a mere four sessions. I attended two of them. The first was about ROI. Coming from a background in SEM and lead generation, I was so glad to see “Web 2.0 ROI” as the title of a session. Beth pointed out a great study on blogging ROI from Forrester. She asked the audience how many people use formal ROI evaluations with regard to social media efforts. I was glad my hand was up but sad it was one of only two.

The first panelist was Eve Smith from Easter Seals. They tried the Causes challenge – seeking donors on Facebook - and her biggest takeaway was that influencers are more valuable than donors. I assume what she means is that if you find the influencers, they will bring you more donors than you could find on your own. Makes sense.

Wendy Harman from the Red Cross gave her case study on Project Listen. She does an amazing job at communicating with and monitoring the blogosphere and reporting on coverage of her organization. Her take-aways from that activity are that internally, people love the feedback from bloggers, and externally, people love to know that you care.

Danielle Brigida from NWF presented a case study on Digg and StumbleUpon. It took her 7 months to establish relationships in the Digg community sufficiently to get good results (ie, popular stories). Just like anywhere else, you have to be a credible, authentic participant and contribute valuable information in order for others to reciprocate. In StumbleUpon, she saw results from being the source of quality, relevant info. I have embedded Danielle’s PowerPoint below.

Carie Lewis, who does tremendous things on Myspace and in other social media channels, gave a case study on HSUS’s video contest after the Michael Vick dogfighting incident. HSUS only got 22 entries but from a marketing perspective it was a success in part because Hulk Hogan did the promo video for the contest. She learned from the experience to require email in the voting tool, target people likely to submit videos, and do more blogger outreach. See3 has run many successful video contests (a few examples here, here and here). Video contests can be a great way to give your community something tangible to do and create great content for your organization in the process.

Justin Perkins from Care2 presented his famous social media ROI calculator. The big take-away here is that if you assume one full-time staff member getting paid $52k/yr dedicated to social media can yield even 10,000 new email addresses for your organization in a year (which I agree would be a lot), then your CPA is $5.20/name. Justin says “there are cheaper ways to acquire email addresses.” He respectfully refrained from plugging Care2, which uses a brilliant petition process to find supporters for your cause among their network of 7 million activists at the cost of between $2-3/name.

My understanding of Care2, based on comments from Care2 clients, is that the lists perform well, however the demographic is clearly progressive, and somewhat skewed to middle-aged women. So how much any organization should rely on Care2 for list-growth really depends on your mission, objectives, and your own community. There is a lot more to this discussion, such as all of the potential benefits to social media marketing beyond strictly list-growth, such as branding, fostering community, creating discussion, distributing media materials, participating in existing communities, and many other results more difficult to fit in a spreadsheet. Again, what are your goals.

Another Web 2.0 related session I attended was See3’s Michael Hoffman about online video, which he already summarized. My take-aways from his session: “viral to what end?” Michael made the point very well that everyone wants their video to go viral, but that is not a legitimate goal in itself. Views do not necessarily lead to donations and email addresses. You need a strategy for your video and your call to action. This relates to Michael’s other session on using microsites to convert views to action. He said it’s important to start with stories and to have a strong call to action. Now here’s the part where I criticize my boss. He showed this as an example of a direct response piece, which is a great video and performed well in the email appeal for which it was created, but not nearly as well as this one, which has a much stronger call to action and is the better example.

The last session on Web 2.0 I attended was called “The Next Latest Thing: The Future of Technology in Nonprofits” led by John Kenyon with Beth. I have to say, the title of this session was misleading. Upon reflection, “the next latest thing” seems cheeky, but “the future of technology in nonprofits” seemed like a fun exploration into the unknown rather than a run-down of the most contemporary tools everyone else was talking about. Nevertheless, what I liked about this session was that John did a great job of getting comments from the crowd after each point, creating some discussion and incorporating feedback into his presentation. What I also liked about this session is that John echoed many things we advocate at See3: tell stories, get user-generated content as a great way to efficiently acquire marketing material and ignite your audience, use media to engage people.

Now here is my criticism of all Web 2.0 sessions, as promised at the beginning of this post: most, if not all, of the case studies are from large organizations with communications teams and resources that allow them to try things like video and daily engagement in social networks. But what about the small organizations that have one person responsible for marketing & communications, and that person is also the network administrator, web manager, and events coordinator? What can they do? We cannot solve their problem of limited resources, but we can find their successful case studies and present them to inspire other organizations like them, which is a majority of nonprofits. I’d be happy to moderate that panel next year in San Francisco.

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Are you annoying your supporters?

I recently received a call from an organization I’ve donated to in the past.

They have already solicited me by mail at least once and have made frequent phone calls as well. On the phone, I was thanked for my support and asked for additional support. When I said I would eventually give again later this year, they wanted to send me another piece of mail with a membership card–what exactly I would do with my membership card is not clear–to give me another opportunity to make a donation.

I wonder if the organization realizes how this sounds to a donor. They want me to give them money and I’m willing to give money. At the same time, they are spending my money, as a donor, to mail me things I don’t need and make phone calls I don’t want to receive. I know they have my email address because they solicit me that way as well. Organizations prefer to receive unrestricted funds, but you can see why a donor might prefer to restrict the use of those funds. Any of us giving to an organization wants to know the dollars are being put to good use.

Another example of this is with the election. I recently handled incoming calls for one of the presidential candidates working the 6-9pm shift. The majority of the calls I took were from individuals begging to be removed from the call list; they were being inundated with calls asking them to vote for this candidate. Some are on the “do not call” list and wonder why that isn’t being respected. [Nonprofits are exempt.] For a voter on the fence, this intrusion could make the difference in the candidate they choose to support.

Sure you want to fundraise and keep in touch with your members,­ but are you doing it in a way that makes people want to support you? Are you being as efficient and effective as you can?

Check out this new idea in civic action. It’s called Carrotmob and the idea is simple. A whole group of people shows up at a store on the same day and buys things. In exchange, the store uses the profits from that day to upgrade to more environmentally friendly systems.

People are itching to DO SOMETHING more than click to send a [increasingly meaningless] email to their Member of Congress.

Of course this is happening in San Francisco.

Carrotmob’s first campaign will begin on Saturday, March 29th at 1pm. At that time, our mob will physically manifest for the first time, meeting at K & D Market, on 16th St between Valencia and Guerrero in San Francisco. We will buy as much as we can from this store. We will collect all the receipts and keep track of the total gross revenue that we bring to the store. Then, K & D Market will take 22% of that amount and spend it all on upgrades to make their store more environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient. We all buy our usual products at the usual prices, but suddenly almost a quarter of our money goes directly towards fighting global warming. K & D Market has generously committed this impressive amount of money with the hope that Carrotmob will be able to offer them real value in return. If the mob shows up, we’ll revolutionize their store and finally get rid of their big white fridge that’s been sucking down gobs of power since the early 80s. More info coming later, save the date!

Thanks EarthFirst

At the NTC in New Orleans I was interviewed by Chris Parandian from Mobile Diner and MobileFuture.org. The interview was LIVE, yes live from the conference floor, and, incredibly, it was conducted using a cell phone, a Nokia 93 (I think), over a regular cell network. Wow.

This is a great job for someone to run the Chicago operation of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corp. AVODAH is a year-long residential program where the young folks live together, learn together and work full time in a local anti-poverty organization.

Chicago Site Director

Position Reports to: Executive Director, dotted line reporting to Associate Executive Director

Job Title(s) Reporting
to This Position: Chicago Program Director, Administrative Coordinator

POSITION OVERVIEW

Serves as primary spokesperson, strategist, fund raiser, and advocate for AVODAH’s Chicago site and program. Manages Chicago staff and is responsible for developing and meeting annual goals for site.

DUTIES
• Serves as chief spokesperson and advocate for Chicago site and program.
• Develops and monitors site budget and monthly financial statements.
• Establishes and fulfills Chicago fundraising goals under supervision of AVODAH’s Associate Executive Director.
• Plans and implements all aspects and fundraising activities for AVODAH’s annual fundraiser in Chicago, as well as smaller fundraising house meetings and other opportunities during the year.
• Cultivates and nurtures current and potential community and funder relationships and partnerships.
• Organizes public speaking opportunities for Chicago staff, alumni and Corps members.
• Recruits members for and staffs local Advisory Council.
• In collaboration and coordination with national program director, provides supervision, coaching, and support to local program director.
• Assists Chicago program director to research, recruit, select, and match program participants and placement agencies.
• Represents AVODAH at and assists Chicago program director with orientation and retreats.
• Serves as trainer or facilitator and provides backup program staffing for one-year program.
• Provides supervision and direction to Chicago program assistant.
• Serves as primary liaison and resource to local alumni community.
• Advocates and promotes engagement of broader Chicago-area Jewish community in effective work for social change.
• Manages day-to-day operations of Chicago office and oversees efforts to locate new office and residential space.
• Manages relationship with landlord of AVODAH Corps member housing.
• Performs any other site or agency-related duties or special projects as required by the Executive Director.

QUALIFICATIONS
• Substantial nonprofit management experience.
• Track record in cultivating and nurturing individual, group, and community relationships and partnerships.
• Supervisory and fundraising experience strongly preferred.
• Ability to develop and monitor budget and financial reporting.
• Excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills.
• Sensitivity and ability to collaborate and work with diverse populations.
• Commitment to the work of integrating social activism and Jewish life.
• Creative self-starter.
• Flexible.
• Team player.
• Facilities management a plus.
• Some weekend and evening availability.

Salary: Competitive salary, excellent benefits.

E-mail cover letter, resume to:

David Rosenn, Executive Director, AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, at drosenn[at]avodah[dot]net. No calls, please. For more information about AVODAH, visit our website.

Here is the slide presentation I used for the session at the Nonprofit Technology Conference (08NTC) called “A New Tool for Online Campaigns: How to Show, Tell and Activate with a Video-centric Microsite”

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Some links from the presentation:

Landing page for fundraising: Jews4NewOrleans.org
This is an example of a microsite designed to reach a different audience than the organization’s main site (Here’s their main site if you want to compare.)

Center for Global Development Main Site. Designed for policy wonks.
Global Development Matters Microsite. Designed for the general public.

BMW Video Focused Microsite designed to tell you something very different than the usual pitch. Relearn To Drive.

Election Microsites:
Hillary’s Fact Hub site
Obama’s Hillary Attacks site

Nothing But Nets — a great microsite because it is focused, with a clear ask and compelling media.

One of my presentations at the Nonprofit Technology Conference (08NTC) was The Age of YouTube: Using Online Video to Reach the Masses.

Here is the session description:

Broadband is finally here and the organizations that are creating compelling and viral video content are reaping the rewards. Those gala dinner videos are no longer enough. Readily available digital video cameras and editing software allow your organization to capture stories and introduce a wider world to your mission. Video content can be seamlessly integrated into your website and provide the compelling hook for fundraising and advocacy. Portable media players enable you to embed your message in hundreds of sites. But, how do you capitalize on the opportunity?
Takeaways:

1. The benefits to using web video
2. Case studies of innovative uses of video
3. How to effectively use video in your e-campaigns

I opened the session looking at the world we live in — the environment nonprofit messages are competing with. Here is the video I showed at the start of the session:

Here is the slide deck I used for the session. Mostly, these are just illustrative of talking points.

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Here is are relevant links to the videos we talked about from the session:

The power of video to breakthrough all the clutter. Example: Yes. We. Can.

The dinner video.
Other pieces you can make from a dinner video. (American Jewish World Service Passover Video)

Bread for the World video we showed as an example of something easy you can do with your staff.

Videos from Amnesty International showing both the man-on-the-street technique and how you can use video in an online campaign and how you can make videos with very different tone out of the same source material.

The funny video.
The serious video.

The PSA type video. An example from Chicago Foundation for Women and a very edgy UK one from Greenpeace International.

A documentary-style video from Columbia College Chicago.

Care2 is an online community where you can promote a video and seed your list in order to reach new audiences. If you are interested, you can learn more by calling Clinton O’Brien
Vice President, Business Development
Email: partners[at]earth.care2[dot]com
Phone: 202-785-7308

AOL quietly offers a program of free banners for certain organizations. If you are interested you should call us at See3 and we can tell you more about it.

If I left something out of this list that I mentioned in the session, please let me know with a comment.

Steve Grove’s YouTube for Nonprofits Tip Sheet. (Steve did not make the session at the last minute, but we got his tips. I will ask Steve some of the questions and publish the answers.)

The Basics

• Reach Out. Post videos that get YouTube viewers talking, and then stay in the conversation with comments and video responses.

• Partner Up. Find other organizations on YouTube who complement your mission, and work together to promote each other.

• Keep It Fresh. Put up new videos regularly and keep them short—ideally under 5 minutes.

• Spread Your Message. Share links and the embed code for your videos with supporters so they can help get the word out.

• Be Genuine. We have a wide demographic, so high view counts come from content that’s compelling, rather than what’s “hip.”

Your Channel:

• Design Your Channel. Go to Channel Design, then choose a color scheme to match your logo or other materials, and decide which modules you’d like to display on your public profile.

• Add Banners and URLs. Go to Branding Options, upload your icons and banners, and enter any of the other options you’d like to use.

• Choose Your Top Video. The top video on your channel automatically plays each time someone visits your page—choose it wisely. Update this video regularly to keep it fresh, or keep your most important video there as an introduction.

• Get Donations Flowing. Sign up for Google checkout, then go to your Google Checkout Options, enter your ID and Merchant Key, and choose donation amounts. Once you’ve filled in the information, the button will appear on your public profile and all of your video pages.

Your Content:

• Direct Dialogue. Make videos that create a dialogue about your work and what you’re trying to achieve. Ask questions and solicit video responses.

• Call to Action. Harness the power of user-generated content by asking supporters to submit videos to your cause. Create a group to collect these videos together; find ways to give recognition to the best ones.

• Tell Serial Stories. Engage viewers with a series of videos that tell a story around a specific theme, and keep them coming back for more. Once you’ve created a few episodes, put them into a playlist. This allows you to develop several video narratives targeted at particular demographics.

• Respond to Current Events. Address relevant news stories by posting videos that explain your position. You can then embed them in emails to your supporters—a video message can be more effective than a text-laden email.

• Use Endorsements. Whether they’re from celebrities or people you’ve impacted, it helps to have supporters chiming in about why your work matters.

Networking and Distribution

• Tag and Title Well. Tag and title your videos with relevant keywords—that’s how users will find your content as they navigate YouTube.

• Embed, Embed, Embed. Broadcast your videos over the web by embedding them on your website and encouraging supporters to do the same on theirs.

• Click “Subscribe”. Subscribe to the YouTube channels you’re interested in to stay up-to-date on their content; they may return the favor.

• Engage and Interact. Draw attention to your work by interacting with both allies and adversaries through video responses, text comments, or joint projects/debates.

• Make Web Traffic a Two-Lane Road. Use your video description field and branded banner URL to drive users to your website, and link to your YouTube channel from your website to encourage people to interact with your video content here.

For video production tips, go to: http://youtube.com/video_toolbox