Nonprofits Need Social Video and Easier Software Is Coming to Their Rescue Michael Humphrey - Forbes
go to original October 23, 2017

Shine for ShelterBox (ShelterBoxUSA)

Sarah Robinson was on the phone with me last month, talking about the importance of video for the organization where she directs fundraising and strategic partnerships. But it was not exactly an exercise in abstract thinking or reminiscence, not when that organization is ShelterBox USA, which delivers essential gear to disaster areas, helping people start the recovery process. As we were speaking, Hurricane Maria was bearing down on Puerto Rico, a cruel follow up to Irma and Harvey and two devastating earthquakes in Mexico.

"Even prior to that," Robinson says, "our teams were on the ground in Nepal and Bangladesh, who've seen significant flooding this year."

In times like these, when a local response is no longer enough to address the immediate needs of human beings, communication on social media is more than a luxury. For most nonprofits, that is not news. What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that communication had better include video.

"It's important for ShelterBox to have a way to produce professional materials," Robinson says, "but it to also do it rapidly."

And research bears this out.

In 2011 a team of researchers from across the country studied the effects of different media forms on people's level of engagement, processing and recall. The team presented 30 undergraduate students with personal narratives about HIV/AIDS in three different modes: just text, just video and text+video. What they found was complex, but offers key insights into why groups with a cause are increasingly looking to video to make their cases to the social media world.

For real-time engagement and stirring emotion, video (or video+text) was more powerful than text alone. And while the researchers also found media choice did not have a major effect on memory or judgement, what did matter was specifically who it was about. When you suss it out, video can grab that temporary attention and if the audience makes a connection, the effect can last.

But many nonprofits and other humanitarian organizations don't have the means to produce high quality video, especially quickly and regularly. So video-forward communicators like Robinson are turning to companies like Animoto, whose tagline says it all: "Make great videos. Easily."

Read the rest at Forbes

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