See What’s Out There

Without fail, we get a call at See3 every week asking us to produce a “viral” video. “You know”, they say, “a video that will get a lot of views when we put it on YouTube.”

And every week, without fail, there is a sigh and a deep breath among the staff at See3 as we explain that maybe a viral video isn’t what you really need. Maybe, we say, what you really need is a video strategy.

The Siren Song of Viral

Nonprofit organizations work very hard to get their messages in front of new audiences. They work to get people to join their emails lists, to show up to events and to eventually become donors. Unlike other marketing efforts that take the actual hard work of building relationships, viral video seems like a short-cut to organizational riches.

The viral video story goes like this: A video will be uploaded to YouTube and it will (magically) catch fire. People will send it to each other and it will get so many views that it ends up in the “Most Viewed” rotation at YouTube, which will only bring in more views and next thing you know 1 MILLION PEOPLE have watched our video!

At this point in the story I ask, “And so what does that get you?” Well, they say, when 1 MILLION PEOPLE know about us, many will go to our website, sign up and be compelled to donate because our video was so good [funny] [sad] [moving] [powerful].

It’s a nice story, but unfortunately, it rarely works out that way.

Facts about Viral Video

You cannot predict which videos will be viral hits

We never promise viral hits because very few organizations are interested in being edgy enough, or off-message enough, to make their video a must-see. YouTube is littered with videos that the makers had hoped would be hits. The real viral video hits – the ones that get in everyone’s email — are, with some notable exceptions, videos with cute pets, people saying stupid things, sex appeal, and other qualities that rarely have anything to do with a nonprofit mission. (All of us should envy the animal welfare groups, because they have the unfair advantage of cute furry creatures.)

YouTube views do not translate into website traffic.

The average video length on YouTube is about 1.5 minutes while the average session time on YouTube is about 30 minutes. What this means is that the most likely thing to happen after someone watches a YouTube video is that they will watch another YouTube video, not enter in your URL to check out your website.

You need long-term supporters, not 1-minute sympathizers

A consumer product, such as Blendtec, gets a benefit from having lots of videos watched on YouTube because it helps their branding, which in a retail setting, translates into purchases. Nonprofits, on the other hand, are not sitting on store shelves. Organizations need to have online strategies that follow-up initial interest with real engagement over the long term. One successful YouTube video, even if it moves people while they are watching it, does not facilitate this engagement. It can be part of a strategy toward engagement, but it cannot be an end in and of itself.

You don’t want to be a one-hit wonder.

The people who are most successful on YouTube aren’t focused on making a single viral video. They are making a series of videos with a character or a set-up that is interesting and brings people back for more. In other words, they are building an audience through regular production of videos that tell stories. That’s what you should be thinking about. By investing in many videos over a long period of time, you are also much more likely to hit on one that attracts others to join your long-term audience.

People who like to watch kittens in paper bags may actually not be good donor prospects

The first question we ask about viral is, “Viral to whom?” The unspoken viral video assumption is that random people on YouTube are potential donor prospects. Some of them may be, of course. But it is likely that the people who spend a lot of time watching the viral video hits are teenagers, for example. You are better off identifying and speaking more directly to the audience who is most likely to already care about your core issues.

One of our biggest viral video hits was this video for the Maryland State Teachers Association. It only has about 2000 views. How can it be considered a viral hit? Because the goal of the video was to influence a debate about education funding and the state-level policy-makers and journalists that matter in that debate all heard about it, passed it on, and watched it. It worked.

Towards a Video Strategy

Viral is just another way of saying “word of mouth” and at its core it means that people pass the content on to one-another without the need for much intervention from the organization. In this sense, having viral marketing work for your organization is important. If you have really important, interesting things to share – and you share them in creative and interesting ways – then people will pass them on to their friends and increase your marketing effectiveness.

Where you should start with online video is to make a commitment to using this new medium to connect people to your work. You need to think about what the important and interesting things are and ask yourself, “How do we document this work?” You need to ask yourself why do you think what you do is important, and ask your staff as well. You need to then capture – on a regular basis – those important and interesting things. If you can find the funny stories, the creative metaphors, and turn your issue on its head once in a while, so much the better. But please, stop focusing on making a viral video and start focusing on making a viral cause.

For more information about nonprofits and online video, watch the See3 Guide to Online Video.

It is not an every day occurrence that I hear about a project and think — that’s firkin’ brilliant. But at the Cause Marketing Forum a few weeks ago I was looking over the attendee list to the workshop where I spoke and saw that someone was listed as being from Movember. I thought to myself, “self, this has to be a mistake, it must be November.” I saw the name again and thought to myself, “self, this isn’t a mistake, you have to look it up.” So I did look it up.

Movember is an organization that gets men around the world to grow a mustache during the month of November and to treat this activity as a fundraising event, the same way you would treat a run, walk or ride event for a charity. At the end of the month they have parties where the participants dress up as their favorite mustachiod stars — think Tom Selleck.

I know what you are thinking. That’s fun and cute. Oh, and by the way, they raised $30 million.

That’s no type-o. And they are just getting started. I was so taken with this idea that I called the founder of the organization Adam Garone. Adam is Australian and started Movember with some buddies in 2003, kind of as a joke. A “mo” is short for a mustache in the Australian language, and so November could become Movember. They had 30 friends do it that first year. They got grief from their bosses and girlfriends but they wanted to keep doing it. So they added the charity component and no one can argue with that.

In 2004 they approached the Prostate Cancer Foundation in Australia because the connection to men’s health was obvious and they felt prostate cancer didn’t get the attention that it should get. They raised $55,000 that first year and were the largest single donor to the foundation. They are literally changing the face of men’s health.

The idea has grown rapidly in Australia and they have raised more than $20 million there. They then added New Zealand, and came to the US in 2006. They are just getting started here. This year, they are partnering with both the Lance Armstrong Foundation, for testicular cancer, and they continue their affiliation with the Prostate Cancer Foundation. I expect this organization to reach $100 million annually in a few year.

They are very focused on cause marketing as well with US sponsors including Pepsi Max, Canadian Club, Wahl, Quicksilver, DC Shoes, Warner Bros. and others. The parties they have at the end of the year rock and they give prizes for the best mustaches.

What is particularly brilliant about this concept is that when I start to grow my mustache in November, people are going to say, “What’s that dirt on your face?” or “Have you given up your day job for that porn career?” or “Are the Villiage People recruiting?” I will then have to explain why prostate and testicular cancers are in need of research dollars and more public attention. Talk about viral.

Learn more about Movember and, for you men, plan on joining me in growing that mustache in November for men’s health.

Some famous folks with a mustache that you can dress up as for the Movember party.

What impact does the widespread adoption of broadband have on social organizing via the Web? How does this vary globally?

This is one of the questions we’ll be discussing today with some of the top women leaders on the topic of Video Activism. I’ll be joined by Matisse Bustos Hawkes from WITNESS.org, Erica Priggen from Free range Studios and Ramya Raghavan, YouTube Nonprofit Program as part of the second annual Women Who Tech TeleSummit, which brings together some of the most talented women today who are using technology to change the world.

For those of you who would like to view the videos please access the slides we’re referencing, here are the resources, or want to continue the conversation please share your comments and questions.

We did this cool video for the Sierra Club to let people know that Coal is NOT the answer.

Now, Sierra Club is back with a contest. Help Sierra Club come up with a new slogan for coal.

Learn more here at Coal Is Not The Answer.org

The world of social media that we live in means that continual communication and transparency is good because you then develop long-term relationships with your constituents. Our new world also means that you can’t hide the ball. You can’t use marketing speak and emails to fundraise and then, when it counts, not to be there for your cause. And if you missed it, then you will get called on it and the best response is one that’s honest.

I was thinking about this this morning when I read Andrew Sullivan’s spanking of Human Rights Campaign. In the wake of the Prop 8 loss in California, which outlawed gay marriage, there is a lot of wondering, “How did we lose?”

Here’s a simple statistic that might help shake us out of complacency: HRC claims to have spent $3.4 million on No On 8. The Mormon church was able to spend over $20 million, by appealing to its members. Why are non-gay Mormons more capable of organizing and fund-raising on a gay rights measure than the biggest national gay rights group? I mean: they claim (absurdly, but bear with me) 725,000 supporters and members. In the summer, the major problem for No On 8 was insufficient early funding. If HRC had led, they could have thrown their money weight behind it. If every supporter had given $20 - chump change for the biggest ever battle yet for civil rights - they could have delivered $14 million overnight. So why didn’t they?

Why indeed.

This line really hit home:

“How many struggles do we have to wage with these people always, always failing to lead - before we demand accountability and reform? Losing a battle this important should mean, at least, the rolling of some heads. Or we have no accountability at all. What are we: the Bush administration?”

See what is happening here? A constituent is DEMANDING accountability from a non-profit organization. He doesn’t own this organization. He doesn’t sit on the Board of Directors. He isn’t the biggest donor. But he dares to demand that the organization be accountable to it’s issue and to its constituents.

Put yourself and your organization in this place. Are you accountable to your constituents and to your issue? If the hard questions are being asked will you have good answers? Ask the questions now, yourself, and if you are comfortable with the answers, then communicate this with your constituents now, honestly and forthrightly. Don’t make them show up at your door with pitchforks and torches.

Link [Andrew Sullivan]

An interesting thing I just read from Andrew Sullivan:

A fascinating take from a new media voter:

This is my first election year without a TV or local radio. I have been completely dependent on the internet and print media for my electoral news.

Instead of bulleted paragraph points in a brochure or snippets of speech chosen for me by an editor or the oddness of my brain, I have read (and reread) or watched (and rewatched) entire speeches and election platforms online.

The result of all this exposure dawned on me when I glanced at my ballot. Instead of the straight Republican ticket of previous years, my ballot this year is a jumbled, bi-partisan alphabet soup of R’s, D’s, and I’s. I feel so much hope and delight about this!

What does this mean for nonprofit organizations? A lot. It means that people aren’t getting the filtered information from the same sources any more. It means they are finding “whole” pieces of information such views from the field, blogs by volunteers, the candid remarks of a fundraiser, an interview with a client/constituent… It means that you have to have much more information, much more transparency and much more passion to be on people’s radar in this new media environment.

In this down market, don’t stop investing in growing your new media assets and in growing your capacity to communicate online. It’s officially a different world.

October 15th is Blog Action Day, an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters to post about the same issue on the same day. This year’s topic was poverty so See3 decided to host a screening of the Dollar A Day film series released by GlobalDevelopmentMatters.

Bloggers, activists and friends gathered at our office to watch The New Silver, a film about a woman in Bolivia who is fighting to build a better life for her family with the help of microcredit. Here’s the trailer for the film:

We followed the screening with a discussion of micro-credit and the role that film and new media can have in educating the public about social issues. Here are some photos from the event:

We also passed out this resource guide compiled by Global Developement Matters:

How Can I Help?
Check out these organizations and join their efforts to save lives and end global poverty.

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/
Oxfam America is an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice.
The Senate is debating a new Farm Bill, which will set policies that could either help small farmers at home and abroad-or keep them struggling. Please contact your senators today and ask them to create a Farm Bill that reduces misguided subsidies and shifts those resources to support the programs that really need the money.

http://www.bread.org/
Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. Bread for the World members write personal letters and emails to Congress. Working through our churches, campuses and other organizations, we engage more people in advocacy. Right now, Bread for the World is pushing for more and better poverty-focused development assistance and passage of the Global Poverty Act.

http://www.onevote08.org/
ONE Vote ‘08 is an unprecedented, non-partisan campaign to make the fight against global poverty and disease a key foreign policy and security issue in the 2008 election. We’re mobilizing voters across the country to ensure that the next president makes a historic commitment to save lives by fighting global disease and extreme poverty.

http://www.mercycorps.org/
MercyCorps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. Global Citizen Corps is a Mercy Corps program that aims to build a national network of youth who think and act globally, have the passion to build a better world, and are committed to ending global poverty.

http://www.care.org/
CARE fights root causes of poverty in the world’s poorest communities. We place special focus on working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty.

Host your own Dollar A Day screening!
Visit: http://globaldevelopmentmatters.org/host-a-screening

There was an article in the New York Times yesterday about our latest project with the US-Muslim Engagement Project, which launched yesterday.

The piece, “Report Seeks Engagement With Muslims by Diplomacy“, discusses the origins of the interactive website, ChangeTheStory.net, that See3 developed:

After 18 months spent examining the deteriorating relations between the United States and the Muslim world during the Bush administration, a diverse group of American leaders will release a report in Washington on Wednesday calling for an overhaul of American strategy to reverse the spread of terrorism and extremism.

The report, “Changing Course: A New Direction for U.S. Relations with the Muslim World,”; was produced by 34 leaders drawn from religious, business, military, foreign policy, academic, foundation and nonprofit circles. The group included Democrats like Madeleine K. Albright, who was secretary of state under President Bill Clinton, and two former Republican congressmen, Vin Weber and Steve Bartlett.

What came out of this report was a need to make the information accessible to a wider audience, so Intersections enlisted See3 to develop ChangeTheStory.net and to provide much of the video content for the site.

Robert Chase, Founding Director of Intersections said, “Our goal was to build an interactive experience for concerned individuals, educators and religious leaders, to provide entry points into the report, which is not necessarily accessible to the common person, and to help people apply the principles of the report to their local settings.”

See3 produced 14 videos for the site, which also offers timelines, maps, discussion guides, educational tools, and plenty of resources.

There has been a lot of media coverage of the report already, and we hope that ChangeTheStory.net continues to educate and engage on this important issue. Even the presidential nominees have been involved:

The McCain and Obama campaigns have been briefed on the report’s recommendations, and both were receptive, said Mr. Weber [chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy] and other members of the group. There is a briefing on Wednesday for the House Foreign Affairs Committee and members of Congress, and a public release at the National Press Club in Washington.

Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the Republican leader of the Foreign Relations Committee, has sent the report to his colleagues with a letter saying it contains “constructive recommendations on how we can approach this pressing concern in a bipartisan framework.”

Chase explains, “We wanted to create something groundbreaking, distinctive, and totally compelling to a public that has the potential to build bridges between U.S. Muslims and people of other faiths.”

Guerrilla advertising example here that shows that the post-action video can be seen by many many more people than would actually see the action itself.

Link [YouTube]

There was a great article in this past week’s New York Times Magazine about social networks that every nonprofit and cause-focused person should read. It matters how people use the sites because you can see how awareness of your cause can then travel these same pathways.

What this article explains is why we want to share what we are doing and be connected to several (or several hundred) friends who are also telling us what they are doing. Who has time for this, many people ask.

What does it mean to have constant contact with all of your friends. The article explains:
“Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it “ambient awareness.” It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye.”

What the article says is that many people sign up for the services and then wonder why they are wasting their time. But then things change:

But as the days went by, something changed. Haley discovered that he was beginning to sense the rhythms of his friends’ lives in a way he never had before. When one friend got sick with a virulent fever, he could tell by her Twitter updates when she was getting worse and the instant she finally turned the corner. He could see when friends were heading into hellish days at work or when they’d scored a big success. Even the daily catalog of sandwiches became oddly mesmerizing, a sort of metronomic click that he grew accustomed to seeing pop up in the middle of each day.

This is the paradox of ambient awareness. Each little update — each individual bit of social information — is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting. This was never before possible, because in the real world, no friend would bother to call you up and detail the sandwiches she was eating. The ambient information becomes like “a type of E.S.P.,” as Haley described it to me, an invisible dimension floating over everyday life.

“It’s like I can distantly read everyone’s mind,” Haley went on to say. “I love that. I feel like I’m getting to something raw about my friends. It’s like I’ve got this heads-up display for them.” It can also lead to more real-life contact, because when one member of Haley’s group decides to go out to a bar or see a band and Twitters about his plans, the others see it, and some decide to drop by — ad hoc, self-organizing socializing.

Read the whole story.

Link [New York Times]
Hat Tip [Jeremy Liew]