Talance Friendly Web Tools Blog » youtube

YouTube and Volunteer Programs

Talance — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:28:45 +0000

Come to the 2009 Massachusetts Conference on Service and Volunteering from the Mass Service Alliance June 4 in Marlborough, MA, and you can hear Monique Cuvelier of Talance, Inc., present on how to use YouTube in your volunteering programs. You’ll see some examples of organizations that are doing it well, and how volunteers can help spread awareness.

It’s the special session on social media at the end of the conference. We’ll also be doing a drawing for a $300 Talance gift certificate, which you can use for web development or web strategy consulting, and a copy of Jill Friedman Fixler’s excellent book Boomer Volunteer Engagement: Collaborate Today, Thrive Tomorrow, published by Volunteer Match.

Plus you can pick up a free – yes, free! – copy of our 2009 Massachusetts Non-Profit Social Media Report at our table in the poster session.

Hope to see you there!

© Talance for Talance Friendly Web Tools Blog, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us digg reddit email facebook
Who's linking ? Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under social media.

You may also enjoy the following related articles:

June Talance Newsletter: YouTube, Conference, Blog Favorites

Talance — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:50:28 +0000

[Welcome to the Talance Friendly E-mail Newsletter. This is text of the issue our e-mail subscribers just received. Sign up on the lower right-hand side of the Talance homepage.]

Hi, Friends!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a video worth? And how much is that video worth if it travels virally, propelled by someone other than you, and saves you effort and boosts awareness of your organization?

In short, a lot.

Many of you have figured that out already. You turn to YouTube to learn about other organizations, for tutorials and movies from your friends and colleagues. And you’ve seen that free and wide-reaching video-sharing sites not only let you tell a story through moving pictures, but they open up the conversation to your fans. This means they can sing your praises for you, and you have a chance to build a stronger relationship with them.

We’re so excited to be presenting on just this topic at Massachusetts Service Alliance’s 2009 Conference on Service and Volunteering on June 4 in Marlborough, Mass. Learn more and register here: http://www.mass-service.org/

Our own Monique Cuvelier will be presenting the closing session, Using YouTube in Volunteer Programs. We hope you can come and learn a bit about engaging volunteers through video and share some of your stories. We’ll also be holding a drawing for a $300 Talance gift certificate and a copy of Jill Friedman-Fixler’s book Boomer Volunteer Engagement: Collaborate Today, Thrive Tomorrow.

If you can’t make it, but you’re on Twitter, you can follow the discussion at #MCVS.

Twitter Webinar – Free

Remember that Talance is offering a 30-minute free webinar on Does Twitter Matter for Non-Profits?, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 from 2-2:30pm Eastern. Learn how you can make sense of this madly growing tool and how it applies to you.

»Register for this free webinar now!

Reader Q&A

Have a technology question? Ask it, and we’ll answer! We answer a reader question in the blog every week for the benefit of everybody. We’ll review your question before posting (don’t be shy about asking – no question is stupid!) and get back to you with a response.

»Ask a Tech Question

Blog Favorites

The most popular recent posts on Talance Friendly Web Tools Blog. Make sure you’re reading http://talance.com/blog and sign up for the news feed.

Reader Question: How Do People Find Me on Twitter?
Description of a few ways people might be finding you on Twitter.

Do Your Own Social Media Survey
The best way to figure out what social media to invest in is to ask the people you’re trying to reach.

Spring Clean Your Website
How to tidy up the messiness that worked its way into your website over the winter.

Who Uses YouTube
Everybody knows it’s full of 15-year-olds lip-synching to pop songs. Right? Wrong.

Why is your synagogue using Twitter?
It’s happening ever so slowly, but more and more synagogues are beginning to experiment with Twitter. Why are you?

Make a Better Website with a User Survey
Set up a questionnaire survey to find out what your audience thinks is most important.

Every Door on Your Website Is an Entryway
One of the mistakes people often make is assuming visitors come to a website only through the homepage.

Working Your Out-of-Office Reply While You’re Away
Get a little fancy with this message and do a bit of promotion while you’re at it.

Need Some Help?

Talance has helped clients launch scores of projects, ranging from websites to online newsletters to CRM projects. Please click here to schedule a time to talk about your next project or to request a proposal.

Find Us Fast

Read About Talance

Receive the newsletter. Subscribe Now!

Join Talance on Facebook.

Send to a friend. Don’t keep this good stuff all to yourself. Click that Forward button.

You may also enjoy the following related articles:

Use Video for Awareness Campaigns

Talance — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:00:23 +0000

Video is a fabulous way to spread awareness, so think about blowing the dust off your YouTube account next time you want to drum up support for one of your organization’s programs.

International Medical Corps is an organization that’s spreading awarness of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, and it’s been tremendously successful with thousands of views and thousands of comments.

Are you planning some kind of event or have a fund drive that you can get help for by putting online?

You may also enjoy the following related articles:

Who Uses YouTube

Talance — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:44:25 +0000

Everybody knows YouTube is full of pimply 15-year-olds lip-synching to pop songs and babies who laugh funny. Right? Wrong.

Those people are all there, but there’s a different audience than you might think. Interestingly, the age breakdown is pretty even among all age groups. Surprisngly, the 55+ sector is a little bigger than the 18-and-unders, according to research from Nielson/NetRatings:

What this means is that YouTube is relevant to all kinds of people who are interested in non-profit causes, synagogues or churches. It certainly was relevant during the last election. Your people are probably already there. Are you?

You may also enjoy the following related articles:

Me, Robert Pinsky and a YouTube Plea for Money

Talance — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:54:10 +0000

It’s not often that yours truly gets to share the stage with anyone, much less a fancy pants like poet laureate Robert Pinsky. But here I am, helping my friends at non-profit JBooks.com, try to garner money through a YouTube video plea. (Look for my Oscar-worthy eye-roll.)

Watch and enjoy:

You may also enjoy the following related articles:

“Thirsty Koala” Lesson in Online Donations

Talance — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:04:49 +0000

Nothing wrenches the heart like a dehydrated koala. I know I’ve watched the koala drinking water on the YouTube Bush Fire Tragedy Crisis video at least a dozen times since it went up.

It’s sweet and heartrending, but it’s also a great lesson by in the power of the video, the web and asking for money when you need it. This isn’t just a YouTube video. It also contains a plea from Victoria, Australia’s RSPCA for animal welfare donations and a note that international donations are welcome. It’s working. People from all over the world have given a money – sometimes just a few dollars – to help. It’s adding up to a lot more support than this koala would receive if it hadn’t starred on the web.

But it’s also a lesson in making sure your backend is capable of handling a sudden influx of support. The RSPCA servers are having trouble accepting all the donations that are coming in. If you have a cause for money (especially if it involves a desperately cute cuddly animal that drinks from a bottle while holding your hand), make sure you have a backup plan for taking donations when they’re offered.

See the video:

You may also enjoy the following related articles:

Top Five Social Networking Sites

Talance — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:28:07 +0000

I spend so much of my time on social networks that it’s hard for me to remember that not all nonprofits use them. But you should! Social networks, like those below, are an ideal way to create community, distribute information and learn from others. Plus, these are all free services, and free marketing is a nonprofit’s best friend.

So, as part of our end-of-the-year-top-five-blow-out, here are our five favorite social networking sites:

Facebook: We love Facebook is the community-based Pages and Groups. But we especially encourage charitable organizations to set up a Facebook Cause. This lets you easily spread the word about important issues and lets you take donations online. (See Talance on Facebook.)
MySpace: What we love about MySpace is its size. It’s the third most trafficked sites in the United States according to Alexa, so it’s a great way to make connections and send out buzz. Non-profits can use the blogs to distribute alerts and updates.
Twitter: Twitter wins our hearts because it’s so fast. This microblogging site lets people follow updates without the bulk of a blog. Nonprofits are using it in great ways – such as sending out calls for blood donations. (See Talance on Twitter.)
Flickr: Sharing photos seems innocuous enough, but there’s power in those images. We’ve seen church groups post compelling images of their missionary work and nonprofits post images of their events, which can create interest in future events.
YouTube: If photos are powerful, videos are even more so. We love the way YouTube brings images and sounds to your network. Look the Living Darfur official music video, which has received more than 2 million views. Activist Naomi Klein has created a powerful network for her Shock Doctrine. Movies are powerful things.

© Talance for Talance Friendly Web Tools Blog, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us digg reddit email facebook
Who's linking ? Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under social media.

You may also enjoy the following related articles:

STAR Opens You Tube Channel

Talance — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:51:53 +0000

Very nice! Our friends at STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal) have launched a new YouTube Channel to promote their programs and to aid in their ongoing quest to educate synagogues in the powers of technology.

I believe one of the tools they use to put together their web videos is the Flip camera, which I’ve mentioned here in the past.

Check it out and click Subscribe so you can receive updates from this great organization.

You may also enjoy the following related articles:

A Rabbi Meets YouTube

Talance — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:00:31 +0000

I’m always looking for ways to demonstrate how technology is relevant for our clients. So when I happened across this detailed explanation of how Rabbi D. Nimchinsky brought along his digital camera to snag some videos and upload them to YouTube during an 8th grade field trip to Washington DC, I was delighted.

The good rabbi says:

The results were very gratifying. Each day we received numerous emails from parents, teachers and other students commenting on the trip, the video bloggers, and the students in general. It built up a good deal of enthusiasm and excitement about the trip which the kids were thrilled about when they called their parents or friends in the school.

Look at this detailed how-to on the AVI CHAI Educational Technology blog.

You may also enjoy the following related articles:

Great Idea from a Reb on the Web

Talance — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:03:05 +0000

Major props to Rabbi Eli Garfinkel for using technology in a creative and forward-thinking way. The Ask My Rabbi Show lets the inquisitive anonymously send their Jewish-related questions to the reb, who will answer them in front of a camera and post the answer online.

My question: why aren’t more Jewish organizations thinking so creatively about web technologies?

© Talance for Talance Friendly Web Tools Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg reddit email facebook
Who's linking ? Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under social media.

You may also enjoy the following related articles: