Remember the touching Google Search Story about Parisian Love that aired during the Superbowl?
Well now you can create your own Search Story in less than 5 minutes. Just type in your search terms, select how you want the results to display (images, news, maps), choose your music, then wait briefly while the video renders. Preview, make edits, and upload directly to YouTube.
We recently announced the winners of the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards, but the contests don’t end there.
Our friends at the American Constitution Society have just announced a contest of their own. They’re looking for short videos that highlight the important role that courts play in shaping the laws that shape our lives.
The Quick Pitch:
This Contest encourages entrants to use their creativity to produce and film a digital video of four minutes or less that highlights the importance of our federal court system, the integrity and independence of judges, and the critical need to ensure a judicial nomination process that is fair, efficient and that helps cultivate a qualified judiciary operating at its full potential.
What They’re Looking For:
* Effectiveness at conveying message;
* Originality;
* Relevance;
* Incorporation of the Constitution and constitutional interpretation;
* Consistency with themes in Keeping Faith with the Constitution and the ACS Mission Statement;
* Production technique;
* Memorability.
The winner takes home $1,500 and a free registration to the 2010 ACS National Convention in Washington DC, where the winning video will be screened.
The deadline is May 15, 2010, so get your camera out and act fast! If you enter, be sure to let us know so we can watch.
Last week, our friends at Case Foundation announced the launch of Case Soup, “an interactive hub of videos and live discussions centered around some of the big issues and areas of focus that are important to us here at the Case Foundation.”
They’ll be kicking off the series this Thursday, April 1 at 1PM ET/10 AM PT with “Steps to Successful Nonprofit Videos with YouTube and Flip Video“. Case will be joined by Ramya Raghavan of YouTube and Basho Mosko of Flip Video, who will answer questions that YOU submit via Twitter, UStream chat, or email (just send a note to CaseSoup at casefoundation dot org). So if you have a nonprofit video you’re dying to get answered, now is your chance to learn from the experts!
We’re looking forward to this session and all Case Soup sessions down the road. See you there!
We’re excited to announce that we’ve partnered with YouTube to present the 4th Annual DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards! The contest will award a total of $10,000 in grants, funded by the Case Foundation, to the best videos of the year found in the YouTube Nonprofit Program—a special program that YouTube designed to help nonprofits achieve their missions.
Starting today, submit any video your organization made last year by March 19, when a set of nonprofit and media professionals will select 16 finalists to compete in a public vote among the YouTube community. Awards will go to organizations of all sizes, including a special award for Best Innovation in Video.
“We are thrilled to partner with YouTube for the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards. With this contest, we get to highlight important nonprofit stories and help organizations engage with the YouTube audience,” said Michael Hoffman, CEO of See3 Communications. “In addition, we are grateful to have such wonderful partners who have been trailblazing how nonprofits use technology, video, and social media.”
Now is your chance to get your nonprofit video featured on the YouTube homepage, receive great prizes from Flip Video and Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), and have your work showcased at a screening in Washington DC, hosted by Nomadsland.
A good nonprofit video gives a sneak peak into an organization. It celebrates accomplishments. It digs deep into a global issue. But that’s not enough. It has to move viewers and give them the tools to take action.
What do you want your viewer to do? Share? Donate? Read more? Sign a petition? Volunteer?
Facebook Video clearly doesn’t have the flexibility of YouTube, but in the past couple months they’ve added a small video feature that’s worth mentioning.
If you upload a video to your Facebook fan page, a “Become a Fan” overlay button will automatically appear upon mouse over.
It’s a simple call-to-action that lets your viewer stay more connected in the long-term. If you want to increase your Facebook fans, you should be driving potential supporters to one of your Facebook videos so they can engage with your media and easily become a fan of your organization.
Last year, when we uploaded our Guide to Online Video to YouTube, the quality looked like this:
And this:
We recently tried an experiment and re-uploaded the same exact videos to YouTube. We didn’t re-edit them or tweak the compression. We didn’t change a thing.
What a difference a year makes. Look at how crisp and clear the video is:
When we embedded these videos on our site last year, we decided to use Vimeo based on its superior quality. But with YouTube’s quality improvements and playlist functionality, we’ve made the switch to YouTube.
At the 2009 Convio Summit, Michael Hoffman was joined by Ramya Raghavan of the YouTube Nonprofit Program and David Neff of American Cancer Society for a session about online video.
We created a YouTube playlist of the session, which you can watch and share below. For more of our videos, check out the See3 YouTube channel.
Session description:
This session will cover how using videos to tell stories and drive support can be an effective strategy for nonprofit organizations. In this session we’ll discuss using constituent-generated videos to reach your audience on YouTube and your web site, walk through the great examples of using video on Convio-powered pages and share practical tips on integrating video strategically and technically.
