See What’s Out There

A major Jewish organization applied to be included in YouTube’s nonprofit program. Today they got this letter:

YouTube Broadcast Yourself™
Thank you for taking the time to submit your application to the YouTube Nonprofit program. As you might expect, we’ve received many applications, but we’re limited in the number we can support. Regrettably, your organization was not selected.

We appreciate your interest in the YouTube Nonprofit program.

Sincerely,

— The YouTube Team

The criteria to be included in YouTube’s program is not clear. They encourage all 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations to apply and fill out an application, but I couldn’t find on their site anything that said how they determined who gets in.

The American Jewish World Service, a client of ours, was accepted into the program, so don’t start calling YouTube/Google anti-Semitic.

The best thing about YouTube’s nonprofit program is the promise of getting videos in a wider featured rotation on the home page. The other elements of the program — such as a link to Google Checkout for donations is unlikely to yield much benefit.

I will write more as we learn more about who gets in and who doesn’t.

We are in the middle of the judging of the Second Annual DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards. Wow, there is a lot of good stuff out there. I saw this one today. It is from our friends at Witness promoting their human rights video hub.

You can see more great nonprofit videos at DoGooderTV.

As part of our preparation for the NTC in New Orleans in March we have decided to give up to 6 organizations some free consultation with See3 Executive Producer Danny Alpert. Danny is a producer, director and editor whose films have aired on PBS, HBO and A&E and have been nominated for an Academy Award and national Emmy Awards. Here are the details:
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Free Online Video Consultation at Nonprofit Technology Conference

Not sure how to use video to its highest potential in telling your organization’s story and begin incorporating video into your messaging? Sign up for a free one-on-one storytelling strategy session. Sit with Danny Alpert, See3 Executive Producer and Award Winning Documentary filmmaker and brainstorm on new video stories, approaches and styles, explore how to repurpose your existing audio-visual assets and how to distribute your media to the widest and most effective audiences. This is one of the most fun-and maybe the most productive-30 minutes you can spend for your nonprofit’s communications.

Only 6 people will be selected so reply today to info[at]see3.net and tell us how you might use video (for example, do you have a campaign coming up, are you redesigning your website and want to include video, and so on). We will work with you to set up a convenient time during the conference.

Marc Andreessen has a blog post called “ABC thinks you’re an idiot.” What this post is about specifically is ABC’s launch of on demand programming as a way to get people to stop using DVR (digital video recorders, like TiVo.) The ABC people say, if we give you all of our shows on demand, then you want need the DVR. And on their on demand programming, you can’t skip the commercials.

Quoting Bill Carter from the NY Times

“This does counter the DVR,” said Anne Sweeney, the president of the Disney-ABC television group. “You don’t need TiVo if you have fast-forward-disabled video on demand…”

Ray Cole, president of Citadel Communications, which owns three local ABC stations, who is also the chairman of the board of affiliated ABC stations, was even more direct about the goal of the new service.

“As network and affiliates, we both have an interest in slowing down the explosive growth of DVRs,” Mr. Cole said. “This is about combating DVRs. As we developed this at every stage, there was an agreement that however we put this together, disabling the fast-forward function was key.”

Ha. ABC thinks we’re idiots. And this is the bigger point I want to make. Do you, in your work, project your goals onto your audience in unrealistic ways. ABC’s efforts will fail. It is a joke really. They want to believe so badly that they can stop the world from changing that they don’t tell themselves the truth. The truth at ABC is that people will watch what they want when they want, period. You can’t make them do anything. You better come up with other revenue sources, product placements, in-programming sponsorships, and the like, because the world you knew is gone.

When you think about your work and your goals and you think about the changes the internet has brought, are you telling yourself the truth?

MoveOn has been a leader in using the web, and email in particular, to get their message out. If you don’t know MoveOn, they started with a simple email during the Clinton impeachment — lets move on — and it grew and grew.

They are no strangers to using video either. They have had video contests, and have made lots of 30-second spots. They have used the web to fundraise for these spots.

Today I saw something different from MoveOn. Eli Pariser, the Executive Director of MoveOn.org Political Action did a direct response video. It came in an email with a little text and a large screen shot of a video player window. It said:

Dear MoveOn member,
I recorded a video message for you about this election year—it felt too important to put in a regular email.

Watch it here:

The here is this page on the MoveOn.org site.

The page is their standard fundraising page (the kind you get with services such as Convio or Kintera). In the video he even points down to the donation form from his YouTube box, asking the viewer to donate right now to kick of the 2008 campaign activities.

At See3 we’ve been exploring this direct response video technique for a while. We think that in certain circumstances it can work well and we will try to find out how this does relative to non-video landing pages.

At See3, we have been adding clients for social media marketing services for the past year. This is all about audience identification and message distribution. Finding your online niche and getting those influencers to engage and then influence their friends.

There are lots of organizations with just a toe in the water, others that are swimming away and some that are fully clothed, looking at the pool and wondering what it’s all about.

To measure this space by the job openings we can see some traction here. It seems that it’s hourly I am getting an email telling me that there is a job opening for an Online Marketing Director or an Online Community Manager, or an Internet Marketing Specialist or some other name that basically means the same thing.

The organizations that are hiring for these positions are the ones who are going full speed ahead. Humane Society, for example, is a leader in using social networking to spread their message. And so it is no surprise that they are hiring. They are seeing the return on investment from using social media tools — and video — and so they are beefing up their operations.

If you are not thinking about how to plan and staff your online strategy — which is becoming more lucrative AND more time consuming every day — you need to be.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2nd Annual DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards

Chicago, IL & Seattle, WA January 11, 2008

See3 Communications and NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network announce the co-sponsorship of the 2nd Annual DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards. Nonprofit organizations are encouraged to submit their videos to the contest, hosted on DoGooderTV, the video sharing platform for nonprofits. The grand prize winner will be announced at NTEN’s annual Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in New Orleans on March 21. The winner will be awarded an all-expense paid trip to the 2009 NTC to be held in San Francisco.

The theme of this year’s contest is From the Ground Up: Using Technology to Engage Constituents and Make the World a Better Place. The goal of the contest is to highlight the work of nonprofit organizations and to spread the word about the creative ways they employ media to bring about social change. Last year’s winner, Avaaz “Stop the Clash of Civilizations” received a standing ovation when played at the conference. This video has been viewed over 1.5 million times on YouTube.

Nonprofit organizations and their constituents are invited to submit videos used in support of a 2007 campaign. Videos can be from a wide variety of issue and interest areas including (but not limited to) activism, environment, education, disability, economic development, human services, international development, health, and the arts.

Entries will be accepted until February 15, 2008 at which time finalists will be determined. The finalists will be shown on www.DoGooder.tv beginning March 1, 2008; individuals will be able to vote on their favorite entry through March 20, 2008. For complete contest rules and to submit or view videos, please visit the video contest home.

See3 Communications creates compelling visual media and internet marketing initiatives that enable nonprofits to maximize exposure, deepen connections and produce results. Our background in video production, web development and nonprofit marketing and fundraising are combined to create campaigns with emotional appeal that compel target audiences to action. For additional information about See3 Communications, visit www.see3.net

NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network is the membership organization of nonprofit technology professionals. NTEN facilitates the exchange of knowledge and information within the nonprofit community. We connect our members to each other, provide professional development opportunities, educate our constituency on issues of technology use in nonprofits, and spearhead groundbreaking research, advocacy, and education on technology issues affecting our entire community. For additional information about NTEN, visit www.nten.org

Contact Information
Mary Dombrowski
Director of Operations
See3 Communications
(773) 784-7333
mary[at]see3[dot]net
www.see3.net
www.dogooder.tv

Holly Ross
Executive Director
NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network
(415) 397-9000
holly[at]nten[dot]org
www.nten.org

One of my most favorite conferences of the year is the Making Your Media Matter Conference. It is put on by American University’s Center for Social Media. This is the place to go if you are interested in the intersection of film, video, documentary, web video and social change. And you should be interested — this is the most important communications method available to nonprofit organizations. We are moderating the panel on short-shorts and new platforms.

Here’s the info on the conference. It is small and ALWAYS sells out — so reserve your spot.

The Center for Social Media is sponsoring the Making Your Media Matter conference on Feb. 7-8 at American University. The conference, geared towards established and aspiring filmmakers, non-profit communications leaders, funders and students, is a place where leading-edge practitioners learn and share cutting-edge practices for creating media that matters. The conference will feature panel discussions on the latest tools and trends in creating and distributing social issue media, including panels on games for social change, intercultural media, and short-shorts and new platforms; demos of cutting edge practices; networking opportunities as well as the chance to hear from our keynote speakers, filmmaker Byron Hurt and outreach expert Sonya Childress.
Click here to register and learn more.

SPACE IS LIMITED! REGISTER NOW TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SPOT

I have been following the OLPC project since it started and I am surprised when I run across people who haven’t heard about it. My daughter took the OLPC laptop we just received to school to show it off and only a few of her teachers had heard of the project. Without the background on what it is, the laptop looks and feels like a toy. (In fact, it’s an amazing set of technological and operational breakthroughs.)

One argument against this project has been that many of these kids need basics — food, clean water, jobs, teachers who get paid, etc. And so we shouldn’t spend money on laptops. No doubt kids have basic needs. But I have come to believe that in this flat world of ours knowledge is the solution to these problems. Kids who can participate in the global economy will have a way out of their circumstances as they become citizens of the interconnected world.

Here’s a demo video:

Our favorite conference of the year is the NTC - the annual conference of NTEN - the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network. This is the conference were more than one thousand nonprofit professionals gather to share and learn about how technology can advance the mission of nonprofit organizations.

I will be leading a session about online video — more to come on that — and we are once again a sponsor of the DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards, sponsored by See3 and NTEN — more to come on that also.

I am very excited that David Pogue, my favorite New York Times technology columnist, is the keynote speaker. For those of you who read this blog you know that I am a big fan of David Pogue. You can see previous posts from me on his work here and here.

So, register for the NTC today and meet us March 19-21 in New Orleans!