Sometimes the best video comes from authentic voices, not fancy equipment.

Video is one of the fastest-growing attractions on the Web. It brings new viewers to your site and can engage potential donors in new ways. So how can non-profits make the most of this valuable medium? I was really struck by Avaaz.org’s use of video to demand action. The example is not a new one, but it teaches some evergreen lessons to non-profits everywhere. Namely:

1. Great video doesn’t require expensive equipment.
   Sometimes the most compelling videos are the ones shot with Web cams in someone’s basement. The message is what is important, not what is used to take the video. I think with non-profits this is especially relevant. Often if it looks like you’ve spent too much money on the production of the video, people will discount the cause as frivolous. When you have low-grade but very compelling video, you’re making the case that your effort is going toward the important stuff-not the administration and overhead.
2. The way you send out your videos to the world makes a big difference.
   The e-mail Avaaz.org sent to petition videos (below) is compelling because it is clear, it leads with a problem we can all understand, and it gives readers clear, and very doable, action steps. It is also short.
   Here’s the e-mail, thanks to Autoscopia:

The world food crisis is skyrocketing – steadily rising prices are squeezing billions and triggering food riots from Bangladesh to South Africa. Aid agencies say 100 million people are facing starvation.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_food_crisis/5.php?cl=94029425

In response, the United Nations is convening an emergency summit of world leaders in Rome this week. There is a real danger that rich country leaders will push half measures and band-aid solutions – we need a huge global outcry to demand rapid, massive, coordinated action.

The head of the UN, Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, will receive our petition at the summit at 9:30AM on Wednesday morning. This is a huge opportunity for our voice to reach our leaders directly, but we need half a million voices in the next 60 hours.

Click below to sign the petition, and then tell your friends and family: http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_food_crisis/5.php?cl=94029425

Too often non-profit organizations try to fit too much information in e-mails and press releases. It is much better to follow the model of Avaaz.org . Explain the problem clearly, and then give people a way to make a difference.

If your audience wants to learn more about what you do, they’ll figure it out on the rest of your Web site.

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Huge caveat: This example is from my mom’s first grade class. I’m biased because I think she is a brilliant teacher. Read on and you’ll see what I mean. Everything here was completely driven by her 6 and 7 year olds. These truly are our country’s future leaders…

We Have A Hairy Idea!

What we love about being first grade teachers is you never know what you are going to learn when you start the day! You never know what direction one idea will take you! On Tuesday, as we were lining up after lunch, we had a first grader share a discussion that he and his family had concerning the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. All the first graders were very concerned about what they could do.

We made a list of ideas on how to raise money in support of the cleanup efforts needed. It was a great list made up totally by first graders! Some ideas include: reading to younger children $1, machine sale $0.50, bird walks $0.05 a mile, and toy sale $ 2.00. Making shell jewelry $1, readers’ theater productions $0.50 and selling tickets to our bird shadow puppet show at $0.75– just to name a few. We thought these were some good ideas but things didn’t end there.

The next day the same first grader had a presentation with more information on how the oil spill happened, why the oil was still coming out into the ocean and what the scientist were trying to do to stop the oil from coming out. From that presentation more and more questions were asked. Does the pipe that is in the ocean go straight to the gas stations or does it go up on the platform? Have they tried putting a lid on the pipe? How do you get the pipe into the ocean and how deep does the pipe go? We had to find out the answers to questions so we contacted our very own Upper School math teacher, Jim Moser, who is a trained engineer and worked on an oil rig based in Texas. He used to drill for oil so, of course, he was able to explain how they drill for oil, how the pipes are put in the ground and how they find out where the oil is.

Meanwhile, we had been experimenting with cups of water and some of our home-cooking oil. We placed some feathers into our water cups and saw the differences between feathers when in water with oil and when in water without oil.

Now that we had all this information we were still thinking what we could do to help!

Then we read about a group that had an easy way that is really helping the people that live by the coast. They found out that hair put into nylon bags creates a stopgap between the coast line and the oil that is coming in. The first graders decided that this is something we can do right away. We have asked a local salon to give us their hair and if any first grader or family and friends are getting a haircut, just send in the hair to us!

We will be sending the hair twice– once on Monday May 10th and the second time the following Thursday May 20th.

You are also welcome to send in old nylons. (The hair will be stuffed into the nylons and fishermen are placing the floating nylons to serve as a barrier reef.) It’s fine if they have small runs. We all thought that getting haircuts or just a simple trim and collecting the hair was something we all could do and would be easy! Also, as a family, if you want to you can also go online and buy Dawn dishwashing liquid and $1.00 of the purchase will go to help the oil spill cleanup.

We have all had a great time with our spontaneous learning! We loved finding experts to come in and doing our own research on this world topic. We have learned where in the world the oil is and who in the world it could effect. We have learned about the impact it could have on our oceans and why we want to help clean it up. We have learned how scientists solve problems. We have learned how an engineer finds oil and how they drill and put the pipes in the ground. So much learning! Now you can see why it’s so exciting to be a first grade teacher!

If you want to support this ingenious first grade effort, you can reach them at Principia Lower School, First Grade, 13201 Clayton Road, St. Louis, MO, 63131

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Didn’t they realize that I had just lost my connection to the world? What was I supposed to do without my iPhone? I was heading to the airport. How on earth would I survive a flight? What if someone sent me an e-mail? What if I got lost? My world slowed to a halt.

Despite herculean efforts on my part…from yanking the emergency brake to stop the train (in case anyone from the DC Metro is reading this, you might want to look into those bad boys. Both of the brakes on my car were loose in their sockets)…soliciting the help of a slightly over-eager DC policeman to track down a similar-looking guy and frisk him…getting the metro police to agree to review the tapes from the station to try to match our suspect to the theft…nothing worked. To make matters worse, I nearly missed my flight.

Here I am, two weeks later, still using a $20 Nokia phone with one ring tone, no games and of course no data access. It has been an interesting process. Some would probably say that I needed the cleansing. I disagree. I’m trying to hold out until the new iPhone comes out this summer. Until then, I’ll have to resign myself to the following lessons learned:

Without an iPhone, a lot of time is wasted

In the morning before I was ready to get out of bed, I used to lie in bed reading my favorite blogs and posting the best entries to Twitter. I would clean out the junk e-mails from my work account and skim the others to see what I needed to work on right away.

Now, I just lie there.

On the way to work, I’d have any form of entertainment my heart desired–from the day’s sudoku to the day’s news, to audio books, to a real book, to mindless entertainment like Ms. Pac Man.

Now, I sit and look around for punks eying my stuff.

Waiting ANYWHERE I’d have the instant ability to let my office know where I was or catch up on responding to e-mail.

Now, I wait.

There are a few benefits, though, to not being constantly plugged in

For one, I have a great excuse not to respond to work e-mails after hours. “Shoot, I don’t have an iPhone…sorry I missed that!” I shrug and move on with my life.

But, the biggest lesson I’ve taken from this is that it’s not good to get too plugged in. When my phone was stolen, I was so lost in my own world that I had no idea of my surroundings. For better or worse, it’s important to look up every now and then. And now that my phone commands far less attention, I have a lot more time to do that.

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Meanwhile, our friends in the professional news business (especially local TV news) seem to have the opposite approach to life. “Could your new kitten kill your children? Find out at ten!”

Why the contradiction? Why is it that when we write our own headlines we spin everything toward the positive, while the most popular news outlets do the opposite?

Does Facebook bring out the inner PR agent in each of us?

We carefully weed out only the best, most complimentary photos of ourselves and our family, share the high peaks of life, and minimize the low ones. Our grumpiest moments are converted into cryptic messages that only the closest friends can decipher: “Jane Doe is done.” But across the board, it seems that if something really great happens, you’ll see a photo album dedicated to its celebration.

All of this positive spin on our own lives made me wonder what would happen if skimming headlines of major news outlets read more like a Facebook news feed? Would anyone read the news? Or is cheery news only interesting when it comes from people we care about (along with those people from High School who we think we remember and can’t bring ourselves to “ignore”).

What would the alternate universe look like? Which approach do you prefer?

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In sum, they followed seven keys to inspiring word of mouth:

1. They had an excellent story–it was a tragic event of historic proportions. And everyone was talking about it, and how they wanted to help.
2. Their supporters could show their involvement in a visible way–by donating and then asking their friends to do the same.
3. They offered something new to talk about–more than 100 world-famous celebrities gathered for a star-studded benefit concert.
4. They let their supporters be creative by donating through any possible medium–text message, tweet, Facebook causes, and more. They asked for people’s involvement and organized volunteers interested in rolling up their sleeves and helping in Haiti.
5. Anyone could participate.
6. In return, donors were given thanks and could feel that they became part of an unprecedented donation drive.
7. They made it clear how to spread the word–every badge, button and highlight on the Web site leads visitors to either donate or encourage others to do so.

In all, the power of the buzz brought in $57 million in donations, which will be used to help a nation recover from a disaster that left more than 230,000 dead, 1 million homeless, 380,000 orphaned, and 63 million tones of rubble in its wake.

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Look out folks, it's on the rise.

Foursquare is what some in social media circles are calling the Twitter of 2010. It is a social media game that rewards you for logging your location at any point in the day.  Eating a burrito? Tell the world where and when! The more you do, the more “badges” you earn. If you are the person who has logged the most visits to a specific place on Foursquare, you will win the additional honor of becoming the “mayor” of that location. Smart locales are playing along and giving out freebies to their “mayors.” Taste D-Lite lets customers accrue extra points on their TastiRewards cards for Foursquare check-ins and tweets.

From January 2010 to February, Foursquare passed the 1 million mark on Twitter (you can opt to have all your posts on Foursquare automatically post on your Twitter stream as well). In that month’s time, the number of check-ins doubled–showing remarkable promise. It list of seed-money investors include some of the most innovative minds in social media, including Digg Founder Kevin Rose, who endorsed the site to the tune of $1.35 million.

Some cite the brilliance of Foursquare in the fact that real-life social interactions become a virtual game. The person who wins the game is the person who is best able to show the world that he/she has the most interesting life.

So why do I think it’s such a bad idea?

Don't people realize the power they are giving to others when they reveal their whereabouts & spending decisions?

Because so far, the only benefit I can see in Foursquare for the common man–the Joe-the-Plumber, if you will–is that it’s entertaining.

Who really wins in Foursquare? Marketers, big businesses, anyone hoping to use your personal information to make  buck…oh yea, and the FBI. And trust me, there are bucks to be made in this. I hate to be a fear-monger here. I swear, I’m not one of these “all change is bad” people. I am a quick adapter. Half my family has me to thank for their Facebook pages. But I also believe that information is power. And by making public every location where we spend money, we are giving incredibly powerful information away for free.

Twitter, which some would argue does the same thing (see cartoon on left), you have the option to generate meaningful conversations (albeit short ones), show off expertise, track breaking news, donate to a cause, and much more. You can also remain anonymous if you need to (on Foursquare, you can’t be a “mayor” unless you’ve posted a profile photo). No one ever needs to know your location in order to tweet.

Time for the Twitter vs. Foursquare Face-Off

Looking at this from a different angle, let’s take John Bell‘s five key questions to determine the viability of a new technology as a “groundswell” threat.

• Does it enable people to connect in new ways? – Yes, both Twitter and Foursquare present creative connection tools for people around the world.
• Is it effortless for people to use and signup? Yep. and Yep.
• Does it generate enough content to sustain itself? You bet.
• Is it an open platform? Of course.
• Does it shift power from institutions to people? This is the key question. In Twitter, the answer is an unequivocal YES. During the Iran elections, voices resonated worldwide because Twitter gave them a mobile platform. With Foursquare, I would argue that the institutions are the ones who still hold the power. Users feed information that otherwise would have been painstakingly cataloged by expensive marketing research firms and sold to big businesses in order to improve their bottom line. At most, you could argue that it shifts power from big institutions to smaller institutions. Those mom-and-pops shops who can’t afford market research can log into Foursquare and see what kinds of people are coming regularly, and try to capitalize on them.

My question is: Do the benefits outweigh the negatives? With Foursquare, they do not.

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What do you think about the longtime debate of how society is impacted by the Internet? Are we all doomed to bowl alone?

Craigslist and outdoor markets both form communities, but in very different ways. Many would argue that a physical community will always be stronger than a virtual one, but even the biggest fear-mongers for the evils of technology admit to a certain cohesion that forms online.

Robert Putnam is famous for arguing that technology is eroding society. In a review of Craigslist, however, he opens up the definition of community to something that can be meaningful–even when when entirely virtual. The paper ends with a quote from Craig Newmark:

People started telling me that they felt connected in some kind of community

sense. I used to be doctrinaire about definitions and I didn’t feel it was

a community site, but I eventually said, if people feel connected, it must be

a community.

So how does your definition of community change when all the interaction is online?

I had a recent experience that made me think of community in a new way. I was eating breakfast with my sister, her family, my husband and my in-laws at a popular outdoor market in my neighborhood when my husband got a call on his cell phone. “Do you have a white dog with black spots?” Our stomachs flipped as we ran over to the place where we had tied our dog. She had snapped the metal clasp on her leash and attacked another dog in this very busy outdoor farmer’s market. One woman had broken up the fight and had blood on her hand. Completely oblivious, our dog was lying on her back, wagging her tail as two policemen and a crowd of people surrounded her.

As I spoke with the policemen and the woman who had broken up the fight, different people from the market came up to me, incredibly upset at my dog and wishing horrible things on her. Other people put their arms around me and responded to the people who were yelling. All of these people were complete strangers. But they were also members of my neighborhood “community.”

In all, everything worked out ok. No dog or person was hurt, the policemen moved on and so did we.

But it left me with a tangible sense of this word “community” that we hear so much about. When people care so much about their neighborhood that they will yell at a stranger for violating the peace, that makes a community. When others strangers will comfort each other and speak for someone they think is getting the short end of the stick that does feel like community.

Does this type of community form online?

How do you define community? What communities do you feel most strongly connected to?

Much of what I have observed online is like-minded individuals forming online communities. The backlash for those who express alternate opinions is often biting. People can be very harsh online.

Additionally, it’s much easier to skip out of an online community, than a real one.

That said, Craigslist truly does form a community of diverse individuals after a common goal. Without Craigslist, my house would be sparsely furnished. And I would never have met as many people in my neighborhood without it.

So what do you think? Can the word community be used in the same way for the organization online and your physical neighborhood?

What does “community” mean to you?

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Read this list to find out how NOT to practice PR 2.0

10. Invest your entire budget on the latest technology so you have nothing left for staff time or training to put the tools to strategic use.

9. Automate as much of your content as possible so you never have to worry about visiting all those different social sites (what was that called again? Tweeter?) this way, all your sales pitches can reach as many people as possible with the click of a button.

8. Never respond to criticism or negative comments (this only stirs up trouble–plus, it’s hard.)

7. Don’t worry if the people following you on different networks are interested in your content. There is power in volume. Surely, someone somewhere will swallow your pitch.

6. Focus on producing as much content as possible at all times. With all your other systems completely automated, this should be no problem.

5. Send as many long press releases to as many recipients as you can. You want to make sure that these press releases include every detail about your products and services as possible. You should also be sure to repeat important points several times. Most people aren’t very smart.

4. Never link to a related company’s web site. That will just boost the competition.

3. Increase your follower count on social networks by setting up automated follow based on as many keywords as you can think of. Granted, you’ll soon be following millions of people, but you won’t be logging onto the actual sites ever anyway, so you don’t have to worry about the clutter. Plus, some of those people are bound to follow you back eventually

2. Measure your success by quantity, not quality. It is more important to get millions of people viewing your sales pitch than a few hundred passionate advocates posting their personal experience with your product/service to their own networks. You don’t want to lose control of your message or let them water down your perfect pitch.

1. Ignore all this social networking stuff online. It’s probably just a fad.

The straight and narrow path to successful public relations on the social web includes making sure everyone knows you are human, not a machine.

If you’re sensing a common theme in this list, you’re right. It seems that many professionals mistake the ease provided by social media as an excuse to mindlessly accumulate followers without putting much thought into it. This is not the case. If anything, social media requires an even more personal touch in order to be effective. People are incredibly adept at spotting mechanical responses. This is why the point is repeated over and over in Solis and Breakenridge’s book. It’s also the underlying theme in Groundswell, a book by Forrester Research execs Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

Small organizations like this one can put this to practice easily by finding a few key opinion leaders and learning what they want to hear from you. When you can get a sense of what type of information will be useful to your key contacts, you can start to build meaningful relationships and cultivate them.

Ironically, the key to succeeding in our increasingly wired world is making sure everyone knows you’re human.

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