videoHere is a striking fact: video makes for more than half the content on the Internet. If you think about it, this is not surprising – nowadays, there’s scarcely a company that hasn’t tried to convey their message through a clip uploaded on YouTube and posted on their website, social media profiles or blogs. Videos are all around us, so, when it comes to expressing your not for profit club’s message, the question is: Have you tried using your own video and if not, why?

According to recent report named Into Focus: A Benchmark Guide to Effective Nonprofit Video, if you have not tried creating your own video content yet, you are one of the last Mohicans. It appears that the YouTube non-profit program, which allows you to tell the story of your organisation through videos, has more than 20,000 active participants who have achieved almost 6.5 Billion views. These numbers go further, showing that more than 6 billion hours of video are viewed monthly on YouTube and that there are 588 NFP videos that have achieved more than 1M views, while the bottom 10,000 videos have an average of 83 views.

What does all that mean?

Certainly, an opportunity. However, the secret of a successful YouTube video is well-kept by those who know it, but there are a few tips Admin Bandit can give you to help with your non-for-profit video.

  • The first of them is not to aim for Facebook likes and retweets, but for a specific audience. Make your video interesting and captivating for those your NFP depends on – beneficiaries and donors, staff and board, partners and contributors. If the video moves and motivates them, then you will have more success than if it has been seen by a million of uninterested or unconcerned people.
  • Secondly, acquire the material you will need for the video – explore your archives, collect photos, or ask your staff to record themselves while they have fun working. You can make a video explaining the figures from your annual report (so that people see how your club spends their money),  a training video for your staff and contributors, or a video accompanying a project proposal/application. There are many more interesting ideas.
  • Here is another tip – find the winning idea on your own – thus your video will be original and creative, not a typical NFP video with well-known elements that will not impress your audience much.

If you have not started the video yet, it’s high time you did – the world is watching NOW. Billions of people are on YouTube and Vimeo, Metacafe and Yahoo, not to mention Facebook and Twitter, G+ and LinkedIn. You can be sure that even if you get only 83 views on your non-for-profit club’s video, they will be about 83 more than the people who will read a 20-page annual report or an annual prospectus. You have something to say and people to say it to – it’s time you did it in the format they most prefer!