See3, YouTube and Edelman have released a new report and guide for nonprofits about using video. The report, “Into Focus: Benchmarks for Video and A Guide for Creators,” is based on a survey of 500 nonprofits and interviews with experts (including me). The report describes current nonprofit use, adoption challenges, and best practices. Free webinars are being offered to share the report. You can download the report here (with email registration) or sign up for one of the free webinars here.
The big takeaway:
Nonprofits overwhelmingly agree that video is crucial to their communications, but many feel they do not know how to use it effectively or measure its impact – yet.
Some more detailed findings from the survey:
1. Video is important, and getting more important
· 80% of respondents said video is important to their origination today
· 91% believe video will become more important in the next 3 years
· 92% value the investment they have made in video
2. Orgs want to make more video, but aren’t allocating the funds to do so
There is a massive disconnect between the belief that video is really important, working and wanting more of it, and allocating the funds to make more videos.
Nearly 2/3 of organizations say their video budgets will stay the same or decline!
3. Metrics with video are hard and is probably one thing holding back investment.
The survey reveals that organizations are counting what is easy to count: views, likes, and clickthroughs. These numbers only have real meaning and value if you understand their connection to the underlying organizational goals that the video was meant to achieve. If, for example, your goal is email sign-ups, how do views translate into constituent engagement?However, when it comes to analyzing the impact of their videos, 76% of the respondents either don’t know how it’s measured or they only track it anecdotally.
When I was interviewed for this report several months, a post I wrote called “Social Media Is Engagement With Purpose” was fresh in my mind and I think the same advice applies to video. To measure success of your video, you need to articulate a goal. But that’s only half of it as KD Paine and I write in our book, “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit.” You have to measure conversions from the video – from views to whatever action you want people to take.
Is your organization using video and getting results? How are you measuring those results?
