Social Media Monday - Vlogging - Make the most of your video content
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>> Good afternoon.
My name is Rashida [phonetic]
and I will be your conference operator today.
At this time, I would like to welcome everyone
to the Social Media Monday VBlog conference call.
All lines have been placed on mute
to prevent any background noise.
After the speaker's remarks,
there will be a question and answer session.
If you would like to ask a question, during this time,
simply press star and then the number 1
on your telephone keypad.
If you would like to withdraw your question,
press the pound key.
Thank you.
Miss Knizner you may begin your conference.
>> Thank you Rashida.
Hi everyone.
Thank you for joining us today for Social Media Monday,
Blogging: Make the most of your video content.
My Name is Suzanne Knizner.
I'm a project coordinator with Campaign Consultation
and I will be facilitating today's event.
Before we get started with the content,
I wanna go over a few details.
Number one, if you lose your connection or phone connection,
please simply log back on or call back
in as you did originally
and you'll automatically be reentered into the event
and we'll just pick up where we left off.
Please note that the lines are muted but will be--
you will receive instructions for entering questions
or asking questions during the Q and A later
on during the presentation.
And finally, this event is being recorded and will be available
on the VISTA Campus Social Media Monday learning page as well
as all of the links will be better presented during today's
presentation will be available at the end as well
as throughout the chat.
Let's see.
That's it.
Now, I'll turn it over to Michelle Bond, project manager
for Camping Consultation
who will introduce today's presenters.
>> Hi everyone.
Thanks so much Suzanne.
Welcome and thank you all
for joining us today for this session.
We're really looking forward to it and also with us today,
we've got Elizabeth Matthews
who is the VISTA alumni outreach specialist for the Corporation
for National service, as well
as Danielle Ricks our social media specialist here
at Campaign Consultation.
And I'll turn it over now to Liz for a few remarks.
>> Great. Thanks Michelle.
Welcome everybody.
Thank you for taking time out during your busy day
to join us for this webshop.
We really believe that these webshops are important
to you all because they can help you understand these social
media tools that are available to you and how you can help
to use them to accomplish the goals of your VAD [phonetic].
So whether you're promoting your organization
or recruiting volunteers or fund raising,
these are all good reasons to be using social media as a VISTA
and of course, it also provides you with the way to connect
with other VISTAs and to share best practices.
And in terms of the world that video plays
in your VISTA assignment, this can be used as a tool
to promote your projects, it's also a great way
to get information out about your organization
and it's also a wonderful way to document your service year.
So, you'll be learning a lot today to help you blog or b-log
or however we're pronouncing it.
[Laughter] Thank you.
>> Thanks Liz.
And again, thanks for joining us.
Those of you who've been with us in the past,
Social Media Mondays occur on a regular basis, every other month
and we introduce new topics as we've mentioned.
And so the key is that we really try to make them
as hands-on as possible.
We have experts in the field and whatever possible and often
and today, we have experts who are VISTAs themselves
who are using these tools to do the work that they do everyday.
So, we're really glad that you're able to join us.
We try to do this within about an hour or so.
We've got a lot of great content today.
So stick with us if you can
if we do run a couple of minutes over.
And with that, I will turn it
over to Danielle to get us started.
>> Thanks so much Michelle.
So today, we're gonna be talking about blogging for your blog,
just what is and how do you get started.
What tools will you need to use it,
to get started with your blogging.
We're gonna have two VISTA case studies for you
to show you how VISTAs is the field are using it.
We're gonna go over some really great blogs
that are gonna show you how they're blogging.
We're gonna give you strategies for using videos
and best practices and some tips.
We're gonna talk about using video for community outreach
and then how you can use video
to build your organization's capacity.
So, as Michelle said, we have a lot to get through in this hour
and we definitely wanna leave time for questions and answers
so you can provide them during the chat today or at the end.
We'll be taking questions and answers from you over the phone.
But first, I'm gonna head it back to Michelle while we try
to get a temperature in the room and see just whether
or not you are blogging and then how you're using it if you are.
>> Absolutely, Danielle.
We try to just get a sense of where everyone is at,
who's joining us today.
So any bottom right hand quadrant
of your screen you should see a place to answer those questions
that are there on the slides.
So if you just take a moment to view that,
we'll gather those responses and share them momentarily
so that we can make sure
that were heading all the right notes in today's session.
So while we do that just a little bit
of an overview, what is vblogging?
A vblog or a video blog as we've reference,
is a blog that contains video content.
Vblogging is becoming more and more popular, obviously,
as equipment becomes cheaper that include supporting software
and also hosting in aggression sites.
They become more prevalent and so really enable us
to have a lot more flexibility at an inexpensive cost.
Obviously books, Yahoo!
and Google have video sections of their own,
many MP3 players put video cameras those kind
of things are available for purchase.
And so with these kinds of technology really
at our fingertips, they allows to all become part
of the content not just consumers of it.
And so unlike mainstream media, such as television
or commercial websites, vblog are for the most part.
Not created obviously to gain money but really
to get your message out and this is really relevant to us
as VISTAs and the organizations that we work
with because the key is really the message.
And so simple authentic, sincere message
in a way that's appropriate to either your organizations
or to the community that you are communicating
with is really the way to go.
And as we'll see in lots of examples today,
they can be a pretty straightforward
and easy thing to do.
>> Great. Thank you, Michelle.
So let's talk about getting started.
The very first thing you want to do is determine a theme,
a reason for your video blog.
Why are you doing it, who are you trying to reach,
and what story are you trying to tell?
And then you wanna gather your tools.
And so that could be a video capable camera
or it could be simply photos set to music.
There are a lot of popular video camera brands
out there the iTouch, the iPod, the flip video,
and Sony just release a brand new video camera as well.
And as I said photos can be used also.
And then you want to find a host site
and there many free web services, YouTube, Blip.TV, VO,
and we'll go over some more later on in the webshop.
And finally, you wanna prepare plan and shoot, getting started.
You wanna prepare a plan and shoot, decide who
and where you will shoot and what the final product would be.
You wanna start shooting with the final edited product in mind
and work your way backwards.
And then you want to post, publish and distribute.
So you wanna save your video or photos
to your computer via video software.
For PCs that would be QuickTime--
I'm sorry, for Macs that would be QuickTime and then for PCs
that would be Windows Movie Maker say
that [inaudible], Windows Movie Maker.
Then you wanna edit your video and you may want
to include titles, transitions, music for effect
or you can just do it on one take then edit it that way.
We do recommended that you use a title at top of your video,
it helps a lot to identify what the video is and what's coming
up and creates a great establishing shot.
Then you're gonna have to compress your video and you do
that through Movie Maker, iMovie, there's Avid free DVD,
the Final Cut, all kinds
of different surfaces depending upon whether
or not you're using a Mac or PC and you can Google those to find
out what would be most appropriate
for your particular computer
and then you're gonna upload your video to your blog
or publish it online to YouTube or one of other sites--
free websites that I mention before.
And then finally, you're gonna share your blog via an RSS feed.
And there are several, there's SpeedBurner, Google Buzz,
or even YouTube and then you can also share it
to your social media sites and we're gonna talk
about that a little later on in the webshop as well.
But it looks like the poll is over and Suzanne is going
to gather some information for us.
And lets us know where you guys are in your vblogging process.
>> Okay. Well, it looks like in a role your are responsible
for sharing your organization's mission first and for most,
closely followed by marketing and communication
and also building the community
and recruiting volunteers in that order.
It looks like the majority of you do not have a blog
and that gives us a lot to work with today.
So we're excited you're here with us.
And you are obviously not using video in your blog,
if you don't have blog.
And last but not least the majority of you are using--
hoping to use video content and website postings
and in social networking.
>> Great. As Suzanne said then, we are very excited
to have you here because this is new information for you
and yehey, yehey for us to be able to share with you.
So one of the first things that I wanted to do was go
to this particular blog, this is CNCS United We Serve blog.
And I'm going to share my desktop with you.
So Suzanne is gonna give me rights or I can just-- can I?
>> I'm gonna take [inaudible].
[ Laughter ]
>> And this is an example obviously of a well-develop,
well-produce blog but even
on this site the greatest thing is just how easy it is
to use video.
So again this is Corporation for National
and Community Services United We Serve blog.
And this was posted, originally appeared
on the White House blog on March 17th.
And I just wanted to play a little bit of this for you.
And here we go.
[ Noise ]
>> Hello everyone.
For over 200 years Americans
of all faith traditions have come together,
put their shoulder to the will of history
and made this country what it is today.
And I know that is we go forward it's gonna take all of us,
Christian and Jew, Hindu and Muslim, believer and nonbeliever
to meet the challenges of 21st century.
As a Christian who became committed to the--
the church while serving community, I know that an act
of service can unite people of all faith or even no faith
around a-- common purpose of helping those in need.
In doing so, we cannot only better our communities.
We can build bridges of understanding
between ourselves and our neighbors.
That's why to the White House Office of Faith-Based
and Neighborhood Partnerships,
we're launching the President Interfaith Service Challenge
for college campuses and the neighborhood
that surrounds them.
It's a pretty simple idea and you can learn all about it
at whitehouse.gov/ interfaithservice.
We're challenging students, administrators and citizens
to work together on year long service projects
that straighten their communities and unite people
across religious and cultural lines.
You might build houses together,
or organize community-wide clothing or food drives,
or dream up a new way to address an issue
that affects your neighborhood.
But one thing is clear, while we may not all believe the same
things, and we don't have to, we can certainly agree
that together, we can make a difference.
>> So one of things that I wanted to point
out here was how simple that message was.
But also that when you're doing vblogs, you can take one
of two approaches, and one is that you can write less content
and let your video do the talking for you,
or as in the case with this particular blog, you may want
to write around the video.
And a lot of the information that our President shared
with us in that particular video is also here on the vblog.
So in case people didn't get in the video, it's there for them.
And also we were-- talked about sharing faith,
have included away for them to share
on their social networking sites or Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube even on their mobile site.
And as you may have notice he did a plug
for the website during the video as well.
And I think Michelle wanted to share few things
about how VISTAs can take a very simple message like this
and use it for your own purposes.
>> Thanks Danielle.
Yeah, just the idea that in this case obviously, you know,
our President is sited in a room,
it could be in the oval office, could be in another office
in the White House or even outside of that.
There's a very simple--
obviously, the flags in the backdrop and, you know,
it's basically a head shot that pant in
and out a little bit throughout his message.
And so it's really all about the words that he's saying.
And so similarly, with regard to VISTAs, you know,
you might have an update
that you wanna share with your community.
And so, you know, you might outside and have the groups
that you're working with in a background.
Or you can be just similar idea with your head shot there
to be also sharing a message if it's about an upcoming event
or something like that.
So really let your content dictate what's there.
And also, you know, for those of you
who may not necessarily be using blogging to talk
about activities related to your service project but more
to actually share your experience,
say with your friends and family,
who may not fully understand what your day to day is like,
we'll show a couple of examples to that effect later on.
But the key is, you know, it's really about the message
and it's about what is--
makes sense for the topic that you're discussing and also
for those you're speaking with.
>> Great. And one of the things Michelle talk about was how
to let people know what you're doing in your service,
your family and friends.
And you can tell a simple story and promote your VISTA project,
promote what you're doing, tell your story, often use it
as an archive and a documentation of your year
of service many ways and one of them of course is do a vblog.
This is the americorps.gov NCCC vblog and one of the videos
that I wanted to highlight and we really
like was this particular one, the Blog Teaser Trailer.
So I wanted you guys to take a look because in addition
to using video, the primary focus is this particular video
is the photos that they used.
So this is AmeriCorps NCCC's video.
Take a look.
[ Video Clip ]
>> Great. So one of things that I wanted to point out with
that video is that music was the key,
that's what pulled at your heart string.
There the-- NCCC, I said double C before, sorry,
NCCC used music for this video.
They're making people's dream come true by building houses
and a good push to this video were photos.
And it just told a great story
about the work that they're doing.
And I think it's a great way to use videos part of the blog
and again this is part of their blog
so I'm gonna scoot up to the top.
It's not all video but video is embedded in there.
And it just a great example
of how you can just take some photos and pull
on people's heart strings and get the emotion
out of folk really easily.
Would you agree Michelle?
>> I would.
Sorry, I was on mute nodding my head,
[laughter] neither effective.
>> Okay. So maybe you don't have a blog to even vblog on.
It's not about you.
We really did there still a way for you
to tell your AmeriCorps story and so Stephanie Ross is one
of our guess today and she is on the line and she's gonna talk
to us about how you can tell your story through video
and photo even if you don't have a blog
that we are hoping we can encourage you
to do one after this webshop.
Go ahead Ross.
>> Great. Thank you so much.
Yes, this year-- well actually the past couple of years
for AmeriCorps we-- right after the AmeriCorps we've--
we have launched a video and photo contest.
And this year we decided to do it a little bit differently
and make it a video and photos submission process
and it's gonna be a year long project.
And it's revolved around Capturing My AmeriCorps Story
which is basically your AmeriCorps story.
And its gonna be a collective collection
of everybody's AmeriCorps story told through video and photos.
>> And each month we're gonna have a different theme.
Submission are gonna begin mid-April.
And so learn more and once submission start you can go
to facebook.com.board/ americorpsweek.
And when you're on the page you can click the tab
which the tabs are now located underneath the profiles photo
on the left side and it's gonna be "Tell Your AmeriCorps Story"
and there will two button around there.
One, you can submit a photo and then you can submit--
or you can submit a video.
And you don't have to be a Facebook member or a YouTube
or Flickr or any member of any sites.
You just need to push the button and upload your photo
and if it's a photo and we prefer jpegs.
If it's a video we prefer videos that are 60 seconds or less.
And how does this gonna work is basically each month we're gonna
be introducing a new theme.
And for one year and the first theme,
which gonna begin mid-April, it's gonna be "I Serve
in AmeriCorps Because" and you fill in the blank
and videos creative as you can and as expressive as you can
and our goal-- it's not necessarily a contest,
we just want to-- it's a great way
for you tell your story about, the good work that you're doing
and why you're doing it.
And if you do it every month, I mean that's a great way
to start your own blog.
I mean you can add this to your blog, encourage people to come
over and share their story.
It's a good way to get started.
So again, this is gonna begin in mid-April
and you just visit our Facebook page
or the AmeriCorps Week's Facebook page and then click
and tell your AmeriCorps story.
And I think-- I think that's-- I just covered it all but we--
[inaudible] that's really encourage you to do it.
>> That's great Stephanie.
So you're saying this starts mid-April, correct?
>> Correct, yes.
>> And if they go to the page now, what will they see?
Is there anything they can do now or should they wait
until mid-April or what would you like them to do?
>> Well, you can go to the page
and it's just basically an introduction right now.
And we will be put-- definitely go
to AmeriCorps Week's Facebook page and like it.
That way you can stay up to date.
We're gonna be sending out notification
through our Facebook page once it's live
and we estimated it's gonna be towards the end
of the next week, early around 15 or so.
So, but right now it just a little teaser,
kind of introduction and basically what I just talk about
and then we'll post it live and you'll have those submit and so
that we can start collecting.
>> Great. You heard here first folks.
>> Yes, right, you did.
You did.
>> We're in the cutting edge of information.
So go to that Facebook page and like it and then you'll be able
to get some up to date information
on your video sharing and your photos sharing.
And it's a great way for you to acclimated to using these tools
and using this form
of communication before you roll out your vblog.
And so speaking of that-- thank you so much, Ross.
>> You're welcome.
>> Speaking of that, we're going to go over to another,
one of our sites, and this is our YouTube channel.
Now, we've done a whole social media Monday webshop on YouTube
on how to upload videos, how to tell your story,
the benefit of having video channel,
and some of the challenges that I have in that channel.
And so we're hoping that you check that one out.
For this particular purpose, however,
we wanted to show a couple of things and one of them is
that when you do take your video awhile back we walk
about at the beginning of the webshop.
Sharing your video and hosting your video.
And one of things that we recommend
that you do is go ahead and put it on external website
in addition to your blog.
And YouTube is one of those channels where you can do that.
And you can actually go ahead and upload it here first
and then go back to your blog
with the particular video player from Youtube.
What say you Daniel, what are you talking about?
Okay let me show you.
So you would upload your video,
once you've compressed it to YouTube.
And it will be right here in this section, My Videos.
Can everybody see that?
Are we all in the same page?
Okay, great.
So once you click on My Videos,
the video that you uploaded will be here and you can see
that these are our videos that have been uploaded over, oh,
the past couple of years actually.
And if you quick on the hyperlink right here
which will appear once you've uploaded your video.
[ Pause ]
>> And then you'd come on down.
You'll see there are different ways to share this video.
Yo can share it through Tumblr, blogger how convenient
if your blog associated on blogger.
Hi5, Live Spaces, Bebo, StumbleUpon,
you can share it to, instantly,
from YouTube to your Fcebook page.
You can also send it to Google Buzz and you can tweet it.
But for your vblogging purposes you can actually embed it
into your blog.
So this media player that we're seeing right now would be
embedded into your blog and you can have different sizes
for the player and as you can see, I'm not sure
if you can see what's happening, but as I click
on different sizes for the player the code is changing
and you could also customize your code.
And it's really simple.
You just gonna go back up here once you decided how big you
want your player to be.
Right click, copy and paste it, dump it into your blog and,
viola, the prayer will be there or you.
Now the other thing we wanna to point out since we are
on our page, are VISTA Volunteer Reporter's Project.
And so that's what we just showed you, some of the things
that were uploaded and, Michelle I'm gonna hand this over to you.
>> Great. Thank you.
We're gonna take a look at one here shortly
but for just a couple minutes,
I'd like to ask Liz if you're there?
Yup. Hey Liz, so you're-- -
you've been involved with the VISTA Volunteer Reporter Project
for the last year or so.
Can you tell us a little bit about how we get started
and what the purposes behind it?
>> Sure. So last year in 2010,
as part of VISTA's 45th anniversary,
we decided we wanted to collect stories in a variety of formats.
So through photographs, written word
and then also through video.
And we were lucky to have one of our VISTA alums
who wrote a proposal actually to slip video camera.
And they ended up donating five cameras
to the corporation, to CNCS.
So were very excited about that.
So we put out a request for VISTA Volunteer Reporters.
And after selections were made, the reporters including Mike
who you were seeing there and William who's
up on the screen now, came up with an interview--
introduction video and then also supplemental videos
about their service and variety of topics after that.
So the reporters who are responsible editing
and approving the content is-- I'm sorry, they're responsible
for editing it and then the approved content is posted
on this VISTA's YouTube channel that you've got
on the screen right now.
>> Great. And so you mentioned that there's a variety of topics
that reporters have and profiles in their videos.
What kind of stories are you looking for?
Or I guess what makes a good video particularly
for this project?
>> Sure. So we're looking to stories
that demonstrate what VISTAs do on a daily basis as well
as to provide a record of their impact overtime.
And this impact could be on the VISTA personally and themselves
on their project, perhaps the individuals that they're serving
or the community and that they're--
that they're serving in.
So overall, we really would like the videos to help promote VISTA
because believe it or not a lot people don't know what VISTA is
or that it sill exist.
So, just some general proportion there
and then showing the impact and the value of serving.
So we'd like to keep a history of the experiences
of our VISTA volunteers through video.
>> Sure, that's a really good point.
I mean a lot of folks often don't fully understand what,
you know, AmeriCorps is much less,
you know, the VISTA as well.
So that's great and are you still looking
for other volunteer reports to [inaudible]?
>> As a matter of fact, I am.
Oh I have two cameras right now that need a home.
So this position of a volunteer reporter requires a strong
interest and perhaps also a background
in multimedia production although does not required.
But really just a strong desire
to create compelling stories through video.
We ask that the VISTA have permission from there supervisor
and that ideally this is a compliment to your VAD
and not taking time away from your assignments.
And we also ask that the person be self-motivated
and well-organized because, well, their support here--
head quarters and through the other VISTA reporters except
to the reporter to meet deadlines
and have a quality end product.
So we are expecting applications now
and the winners will be announced during AmeriCorp week
which is May 14th through the 21st.
And when we get back to the webinar, I will go ahead
and post in the chat room the email address
where folks can send me an email in order to request
that application if they're interested in being a reporter.
>> Wonderful.
Alright, well, let's some--
Danielle, we're ready to take a look here.
>> Sure. We're [inaudible] to take look and, you know,
for the VISTAs who are on the line, you guys have--
or in the cutting edge of two new projects.
So we hope that after this we have some more VISTA voluntary
reporters for Liz and some folk signing
up for the AmeriCorp website Week.
So, here we go with an introductory video.
>> Hello, VISTA world.
My name is William Dowd,
and I am a Massachusetts Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA.
I know it's a mouthful, but I've sort of learn
to get used to when I say it.
I'm really, really, excited
about producing these video blogs over the next three months
and the short documentaries about some of the work
that VISTAs are doing in Massachusetts
as well as my own work plan.
Currently, I reside on the north shore of Massachusetts
in the city called Lynn, where I'm hosted
by North Shore Community College.
Over the past 11 months,
I have been developing a community service,
center in laying down the foundation for one.
So a lot of my work has been going out to the community
and finding out what some of the needs are.
Lynn is the third most impoverish city
in the commonwealth of Massachusetts.
And it's been a pleasure serving in this role and I'm excited
to do it again next year.
>> So one of the great things
about this video is its simplicity,
and that you don't have to be a major producer,
to do you introductory video.
But as you grow and as you experience more with your tools,
of your camera and with the video and uploading,
you can get a little bit fancier.
But I just wanna let everybody know
that you can make a very simple introductory video
and it will tell the story.
And so now, I'd like to introduce you all
to my Mike Ewing.
Hi, Mike.
>> Hey.
>> And Mike, let us know where you are now?
>> Sure. So I'm currently serving here at CAN TV,
which is Chicago Access Network Television,
which is a public access station here in Chicago.
And what I'm doing is basically and actually I work
with nonprofit to help them use online video and social media
to kind, you know, connect with the people they're trying
to reach in the community and provide service
and also promote themselves, so.
>> And this is your second year as a VISTA, correct?
>> Exactly, yeah.
This is my second year but I'm on a different place here
for my second year, [inaudible] nonprofit.
>> And one of the things I love
about what you did Mike was you set up a wiki, helping people
with their video best practices.
I'm sorry.
I'm trying to find a way to share
with you 'cause I know you're coming up next.
>> Oh, sure.
[ Laughter ]
>> So, hold on.
Here we go.
Alright, I'm passing the ball to you
>> Okay, great.
>> Mike you've got it, and if you would share your desktop
with us and just take us a tour, some of those best practices.
>> Okay. So, yeah, I put together this wiki as part
of my project because-- in working with these nonprofits.
I found it's really important
to give them some supporting materials and things like that
so they can access really easily.
So sort of-- this page here is just outlines a few best
practice that apply to all videos.
But in particular when you're thinking about these
about these vblog type videos, you know,
these best practice can really help you, you know,
kinda guide you as you get started.
So some of these, ones atop here, I mean,
length is definitely a big thing,
one most of the research says
that when people watch online video, they can decide
within the first 30 seconds
if they're gonna watch the whole thing.
So, you know, you kinda need to jump right into it
and gonna make your compiling cases [inaudible] as possible.
Some other points here, you know,
having these some sort of high energy video.
And what that really means is, you know,
making sure that you have people in it that are being engaging
and maybe offering some, you know, jumping right
into offering some sort of tips or hands or things
that can be really useful for people.
Let me just kinda scroll down here.
The second point, promote your organization.
And what that's really about is the more I work
with these groups, the more I find out that--
I mean, there really a treasure trove of stories.
And it can seem like a daunting thing to get started
with a video blogging at first.
But really if you think about, you know,
how many knowledgeable staff members, or how many people
with really interesting stories
that your organization probably tells you everyday,
you realize that there's, you know, lots of stories
that it can happen too as you sort
of start doing this video blogging.
Another thing that's important too is whenever you're doing
these online videos to make sure
that you're mentioning your sites your website in that,
you know, the video isn't just standing by itself,
but it ultimately serves a purpose of, you know,
driving people to your website or your Facebook page,
or your Twitter, or something like that.
Now, sort of ties into what we see here in this next section.
You know, engaging your viewers is really important and,
you know, it's exciting to [inaudible] here
that AmeriCorps starting that for people like us
to submit our stories to them because--
I mean that's just a really great strategy to get people
to solicits stories to you.
So thinking your organization,
you can easily make the same appeal
that AmeriCorps is now doing to us.
What sort of last quick tip I would like to make is,
I think a lot of people tend to focus on the content
of your videos more than another really important aspect
which is making sure people can find them easily online.
And what that usually entails is, you know,
making sure you have a good title and a good description
and good tags for your videos.
Because, you know, some people tend to just upload a video
and not give it a proper title or anything like that.
But when that happens,
no one can find your video online unless you think
of how typical users sit down--
you know, the people that you're trying to connect,
they're gonna sit down to Google most probably
or a different search engine and type in a few search terms
and that so they're gonna find your vide
so making sure you spell out those--
and then you'll see them we you upload the video,
the title, the description.
And tags which are basically key words that sort
of classify your content.
And the one another resource that I see--
I found about recently, but that I've heard really great things
about here is YouTubes have their own keywords
suggestion tool.
And I know trying to think of keywords to use
in your descriptions or your titles or your tags
of your videos can be kind of a challenge for a lot of people.
And the great thing about this is, since it's tied
in with Google, you can just go here and, you know,
maybe type in a couple issue areas
that you're organization deals with, you know, maybe healthcare
or something like that and then does the work for you
and recommends the most popular search terms
that people are actually looking for.
And specifically, looking for when I'm looking
for videos 'cause those can be different
than what people are just searching
for generally on Google.
So those are some of the major things that I've learned
over the past few months since I've been working
with these nonprofits.
>> That's great.
I just wanted to go up to one thing where you say--
if you could roll up just a little.
>> Absolutely.
>> And where you talk about the call to action
and then you can use video to call to action
for your project or your mission.
>> Absolutely.
You mean, the sorts of ways you can do that or?
>> Yeah, have you done that in any of your videos
or any the people that you're working with, with the VISTAs
that you're working with?
>> Yeah, the more immediate and easier, call to action is
for people that seems to be that's the--
they found the most access that way.
And actually one other thing to mention is I don't mean to take
about YouTube so much,
but YouTube has this great thing called the YouTube
for nonprofit.
And if you apply for that you get some really great especial
features including, you know, you can get--
and this is probably covered
in the YouTube Social Media Monday workshop but--
>> It is.
>> -- view exactly.
So-- But in a nutshell and you can go there
for more information, but the call to action,
you can do there, you can actually have link basically
on your videos that people can click,
they can send them to your pages.
And those from what I've--
from my research and the people I've talked to they found--
people found a lot success with that.
You know, other than that,
just making sure you're mentioning your website 'cause,
you know, thinking people are probably watching these
on their computer to make sure that, you know,
you're encouraging them to take the next step,
and not just watch the video and just leave it there, you know,
encourage them to share it, say, "Hey, you know,
feel free to share this on your Facebook
or leave a comment below or, you know, we love hear from you."
>> Great. Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Mike.
>> So do I send it back to you or [inaudible].
Alright.
>> I'm taking it back.
[ Laughter ]
>> Great.
>> Wonderful.
And also just-- I think we mentioned,
but Mike has also been one of our volunteer reporters
on the project, so be sure to check out.
He's got a few videos up there on the VISTA Outreach Channel
as well and not just on youtube/vistaoutreach.
And you can view all of the videos.
They are posted by reporters as well as also archives
of Social Media Monday and other videos
that have been posted by the staff.
>> Great. So we're moving
on to our second guess and how are you?
>> I'm great.
Thanks.
>> Go ahead.
So go ahead and tell us your title, where you're serving
and what you're doing?
>> Sure. Hi everyone.
My name is Anne Jonas and I'm the Community Outreach
Coordinator at the Participatory Culture Foundation.
And we're a nonprofit that really works
to build the capacity of other nonprofits particularly
around media and technology.
And the particular project that I worked on is called
"Miro Community" and it's a platform that allows you
to bring together videos from across the internet
and it's pretty much the easiest way to build a video website.
So I worked on managing that and doing outreach around it
and helping people build video communities.
>> And so one of the things I like when we talk,
and with the fact that you really wanted to reach
out to people and talk about content development
and aggregating content.
A lot of people have no idea what those two things are.
Can you speak to that a little bit first?
>> Yeah. So, I think a lot of times when people talk
about video blogging, you think primarily
about creating the videos and putting them up
and talking to other people.
But I think that another critical component
of video blogging is developing a community.
A lot of times the most successful video blogs really
exist within an ecosystem of people
who are creating other video blogs
and developing a conversation.
So, one of the things that Miro Community does is this thing
called aggregation, which means bringing together videos.
They can be from all different sources and having them be all
in one place so that you can create that community
and have a centralize base that people can--
that you can send people to.
So just to give an example, if you are working
within particular community, let say you're working on education,
then you might wanna build a site
where you have your video blog about the work that you're doing
with your organization and you might also have a video blog
from other nonprofits working in the same arena
in the same community.
And that allowed you to kind of build that conversation instead
of having it be more one way just pushing put into--
from you to your viewers.
>> And then this helps people get there marketing
and communications message out as well?
>> Absolutely, I think that, for one thing,
as I'm sure we mentioned before,
this video is a more visceral experience and allows you
to really connect with what's going in your work
and in your community.
And when you're interacting with other people for doing some
of the work or blogging about similar thing,
then you're getting out the message about your organization
and what you're doing and you make them more interested in you
by being more interested in them.
[ Pause ]
>> Wonderful.
So, Anne, I think that Danielle is gonna pull up something
for us in a second here.
But I guess, you know, you've touch on this a little bit,
we're talking about, you know,
the visceral experience of video.
And I'm wondering what the advantages
of having video connected to your website specifically.
>> Absolutely, so for one thing, it's called with the same as SEO
which I'm sure we're also familiar
with the Search Engine Optimization.
One thing that I found really interesting is
if you have a video and particularly a series of videos
and you've been following those tips that Mike gave
about having good keywords, having good descriptions,
having good titles, then those videos and that quickly floating
to the top of Google search results
and other similar sites search result about those topics.
So again, just use my example if you're working on education
in your particular community and you have a lot of videos
that have the word attend and the name of your community
in your series that when people are looking for education
in your community, that's gonna pop right to the top.
So I think that that's one thing to be aware of.
And I also think that it really shows people particularly,
if you're working with a variety of organizations
and pulling them together, it really shows people
that you're interested in the community,
that you're not just interested
in what you're doing [inaudible],
and that you're committed
to developing those ongoing conversations.
And right now, what we have on the screen just
to process a little bit is a video from someone that we work
with that Access Humble [phonetic]
which is a public access station and so [inaudible],
he's a VISTA there created this video
about their use of Miro Community.
>> It's a great example, I think of their use
and of the Miro Community.
I think it will tie everything together
from folks who want to see it.
So let's go ahead and play a little bit of this.
>> Hi, [inaudible] student, I'm an intern here at Access Humble.
>> Hi, Sam Kaplan [phonetic]
and I'm an AmeriCorps volunteer here.
And this how we use Miro Community and why you like it.
So first of all Access Humble has a unique relationship
with the internet archive, archive.org,
so that all of our shows that air
on our channels automatically get uploaded there.
And because archive.org produces an RSS feed, we just load
that RSS feed into our Miro Community site.
And now, basically any show that airs
on our channels automatically shows up in our Miro site
which we think is pretty cool.
>> Another cool feature of Miro is the widget feature.
We've been using this feature to sort of spread awareness
about our sites since it's relatively new.
We've been asking other local websites and blogs
to post our widget so that people can see the videos
if they maybe missed it on the channel
or for some reason can't watch it.
And this is sort of-- this has been really beneficial
because we-- recently we saw a video of a local protest
that aired on our channel and got lots
of views on the Miro site.
And then people start producing their own YouTube videos
about the issue.
So we really thought a community dialogue developing and,
you know, happening through the Miro site.
We also like the user feature and we've been using
that to feature community producers who produce shows.
So we have locally produced science fiction show
for example.
And we created a user for that show.
It's called Bobby G, Space Monkey.
So when you click on that user page,
it shows you all the episodes of that show,
which I think is kinda nice as well.
Another great thing about Miro is that integrates really well
with other websites like social media sites
that people already using.
So when you-- you know, when you look at one of our videos
in our-- on the Miro page, you see the video
and then right next there's a button to post it
to Twitter, to Facebook.
So this is the way that, you know, people can sort
of share these videos really easily and it, you know,
by seeing sites that they're familiar with
and sharing devices that they already used to,
it helps them be more comfortable with the site.
>> Yeah, and we've been actually using twitterfeed.com
to automatically tweet every time a new video gets uploaded
and that's been good for us as well.
I think at the end of the day, it's really just
about replicating the TV watching experience
for our viewers because not all of them get cable and all
of the people would do, not all
of them even watch our channels at all.
So really it's about reproducing that experience
on the Miro Community website.
>> So those are some things we like about Miro
and we look forward to seeing its changes
and new features in the future.
>> Yeah.
>> And if you have questions for us you can reach me
at Sam@accesshumble.net and we would be happy to talk
to you guys more about how we're using this site.
>> Great. So, I'm going to give right back over to Suzanne.
And Anne just-- I had a quick question for you.
So that video that we saw, I see that that was hosted
on the YouTube channel, do I have to be a member of Miro
to watch their Miro Community video community?
>> Sure. So the way that Miro Community works,
one of the advantages of it is
that you don't [inaudible] associate it
with any particular website.
You can bring in videos from YouTube
which we have talked a lot about.
You can also bring in videos from Blip.TV or Vimeo.com
or internet archive as Sam mentioned,
and anyone can watch them on the web.
And one thing that we wanted to do there is not box people
in to only using one service.
In particular, YouTube has a lot of advantages
but it also is a really large community, and there are a lot
of reasons why people might use other services as well,
and we wanted to say that people don't nee to be limited
to one particular platform in order
to be building this video community.
So, in particular, let's say you have a volunteer
who has a video blog on Vimeo
and then your video blog is on YouTube.
Miro Community is the way that you can have both
of those come together and automatically update
on one centralized site.
>> I like that, and one of the things we wann point out is
on YouTube you're limited by how long the video can be,
or do we have those same limitations on some
of the other sites do you know?
>> If there is a lot, I think
that Blip.TV has a longer period.
Vimeo doesn't have a particular length restriction.
I think it's more about size,
then they often have higher quality videos.
So that's another reason.
It really isn't on what fits your needs
and I really encourage people to look about the restrictions
as far as what you can do and also what kind
of community is there and who your audience is.
If you're, let's say you're looking to find volunteers
who are really great video makers, well,
those people not always but oftentimes,
they hang out on Vimeo.
So it's really worth looking at both what are your needs
and who's your audience who you're trying to reach other to
and where can you find those people.
>> That's-- that's great information.
Thank you so much.
Stick around you guys 'cause we may have some questions for all
of you doing the Q&A section.
We wanna go on over to tips now.
So, as you're just getting started,
I know this is lot information that we're sharing with you
and you may not be all that comfortable
with editing right now.
So, do the one take wonder thing, do the one take
to avoid editing and that also "keeps it real"
and very authentic which Michelle spoke
to a little bit earlier.
And we talked a lot about length,
capture the interest early on in your blog and keep it short,
3 to 5 minutes, and 5 minutes is on the long size, you guys.
None of the videos that we file today were over 3 minutes long.
So, the shorter the better, try to get your message--
message in very quickly.
Location, location, location.
Look for a quite spot with as much lighting
as possible if your indoors.
And you also might wanna think about going outdoors
and using natural light if you can.
Clothing, this is the same that holds true
for broadcast television.
No tide patterns on shirts, solid colors,
simple patterns rather than wavy lines and checkereds.
And then relax into it.
Start off your vblog with something easy
that will relax you and relax the person
that you're interviewing.
You wanna keep it simple.
And you can build as time goes on, as you get better
at your producing skills, as you get better at your taping skills
and editing skills, you can get fancier
and more fancier as you go on.
So, we'd like to now take your questions,
and that can be questions from any of our guests today,
Elizabeth, Stephanie Ross, Mike, or Anne, Michelle and myself.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
>> Rashida, could you give us instructions please.
>> Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question
on the phone line, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad.
We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster.
>> In the meantime if anyone wants to submit their questions
in the chat section, we will be checking those,
so please feel free to do so.
>> Once again if you have a question, please press star 1.
>> And I would be curious for those of you on the phone,
how are you-- are planning on using your blogs.
Now that we've given you all this information,
do you wanna start your blog,
do you wanna start off using Facebook first, what you felt
about the Miro Community.
We wanna make sure that we've given you what you wanted
in this webshop.
So if there's something that we haven't covered or you would
like us to repeat, please let us know.
You can either put it in the chat
or go ahead now discuss over the phone line.
>> We do have a question from the line of Lorrie [inaudible].
>> Wonderful, thank you.
>> Yes, quick question and comment.
I guess I'll start with the comment.
I'm planning on using this.
I'm a third year VISTA, so doing the blog
for next year I wanna highlight once a week local agency
or nonprofit in the area that's actively recruiting volunteers.
I would love to take a video within the last few months
of my term to each location and kind of do a recap
with the volunteer coordinator about their services
so students can see right through the blog what that sites
and service looks like.
That's one way I wanna be able to do this, I don't know.
If I'll actually be able to, I always tend to put a lot
on my plate and I hope that I can get it all done.
Being a third year, that's the difficult part just kinda--
who's gonna continue on with it if-- if it gets too big.
But nonetheless, I'm really looking at using more video
with the blog because I think a lot of--
we've been having really good turn out rates
through our [inaudible] with our blogs through the university,
so it's kinda continuing with that.
My question is more towards all of these wonderful links and all
of these to kind of review down the road,
as I'm getting a little bit further into the process,
that's gonna get sent to us, right?
[ Laughter ]
>> Absolutely, all these useful links are gonna be provided
at the end of the presentation and when the archive
of this particular webshop is done, you'll be able
to go to the VISTA campus.
And that I think will be available to you
in just a moment and at the end as well end in the chat.
And you'll have the entire presentation, all the slides
and all the links will be available for you.
>> Okay.
>> I do have a question for you.
Do you have a blog that's up already
that you're gonna feed the video to?
>> You mean with as far as my future plans?
>> Well, what you wanted to do right now
for the next few months, is there a blog
that you're already gonna feed the video to or this?
>> Yes.
>> There is.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay.
>> And the blogs that the videos would actually be embedded
into would not actually start being released until fall
of 2011, actually when I would no longer even be
in this position.
>> So you're talking about sustainability
and how do you keep this going, and one of the ways is one
of those free hosting sites that we talked about.
I know we talked a lot about YouTube.
But, Anne also mentioned Blip.TV and Vimeo and there are others.
And it can start now on those particular channels
until you're ready to have them embedded in blog
and it will just live on and in to me.
And you know, one of the things that you can do
as you're doing your exit is come up with strategies and,
boy, wouldn't this be great for you as a part--
as a parting gift for the next person who's coming to the door,
whoever you're handing over this assignment to with some tips
and you can use the tips that were right here in this,
in this webshop on how they can continue on with the video,
and how they can continue recording.
>> Anne, did you have a comment to Lorrie's question?
>> Yeah, I just wanted to jump in and say both
on the getting overwhelmed and on the sustainability aside,
I think often when we think about video blogging even more
than when we think about blogging,
we often sometimes think, oh, I have to do this [inaudible].
And I found that it can then even be more effective sometimes
to build the capacity in your community and request
that other people guest blog or guest blog for you.
And particularly when you're talking about videos,
if you're concerned having the-- the time to do it all yourselves
and you want a profile of those other organization,
one thing to do would be to set out a framework
for those organizations and say to them, "Hey,
can you make a video framework and send it into me?"
And I think that can sometimes be scary
but I've actually found it works really well,
and it can sometimes be the kick that people need
to start video blogging themselves.
So I think that-- that people can sometimes [inaudible] all
around with that strategy.
>> Thank you.
>> Do we have any other questions?
>> Once again ladies and gentlemen,
if you have a question please press star 1.
>> While we're waiting on that.
And you brought up a great point, because you can--
even in your blogging, whether it's video or not,
it's great to ask somebody to help and to guest blog with you,
it takes the pressure off.
>> Yeah, it also keeps it, you know, interesting for your--
for your viewers and for other people who, you know,
have different voices you have
that share a similar message or a similar mission.
>> Right. And the blogs don't have to be long.
They can be a 30-second blog.
They could be a 1-minute blog.
You don't have to chop up so much that you have
to think today oh my gosh, they all have
to be these big pre-produced.
Believe it or not, 3 minutes is a long time.
So you can start up with a 30-second
or 1 minute straight cut one take video,
put it up on the blog, wipe their hands up
and then walk away and you still have great content
and great information.
>> Any other questions before we move on with the presentation?
>> No ma'am, no further question.
>> Alright.
Thank you so much.
[ Pause ]
>> Alright, well, we do wanna remind you as always
that while you're out there using these social media spaces,
just remember that the same rules that apply to you
as a VISTA carryover into that space, so please restrain from--
refrain from any political activity
or lobbying via social media sites.
And of course to be [inaudible] when appropriate
as you're representing VISTA.
Of course we also want you to stay safe
and protect yourself in your organization.
And there are some tips for doing so and this is information
that we do include at the end as well.
I just wanna make sure that while you're
out there doing great stuff
that you're taking care of yourself as well.
>> And to learn more about using our social media many websites,
you can go to our archives for all of our webshops
and the video recording will be there, the slides are there
for download on a PDF form for you.
And all of the archives of everything that we've done,
I'd encourage you guys on the phone to go ahead and look
at the YouTube one in particular which would be a great one
for you as you start blogging.
The link is right there for the resource center.
We also wanna keep the conversation going,
so if something comes to you a little bit later on,
you can go ahead into this link that's provided there,
go on to the VISTA forum, ask a question.
One of the experts will get back to you and will make sure
that we keep this going.
We wanna be here with you throughout your service,
so don't think this is a one time thing.
We know that this is a lot of information to digest
and we're here for you,
so please do ask the questions in the forum.
>> Thanks, Danielle, and also our online folks too
that you should see the evaluation there on the site,
so feel free to fill that out while we are wrapping up.
We do appreciate your feedback and really try to, you know,
continue to integrate that as we develop these sessions.
So we do appreciate that.
Also, I wanna remind you that we offer campus tours
on a regular basis and that information is available
on the VISTA Campus.
So if you're new to VISTA or maybe new to the campus,
we will take you around, show you what's there,
how it's organized and how to find the particular tools
that you're looking for to help you throughout your
service here.
>> And then as mentioned, we gave you a lot
of links during the chat section and they're all here for you,
and these are hot links that will be available
so that you can go to all of the sites
that we presented during the webshop.
And in addition, we have our VISTA social media useful links
and this is where you'll find us online and information
about the Hatch Act [phonetic] Michelle talked about,
staying safe online the VISTA Campus course page and so forth.
>> And we just want to of course,
thank you for joining us today.
If it was your first time,
we really appreciate you checking it out.
And if you've come back, that's fantastic.
We hope that you will be with us again next time in June
when we look at tools that are specifically for VISTAs
in regard to social media.
So we'll spend some time on the campus looking for--
looking at the tools that are specific
to engaging audiences online and then we'll also explore a couple
of other thing, so we hope that you'll join us.
And you could find that information also via the chat
and following this session.
Again, thank you so much and we encourage you
to continue the conversation online.
>> This concludes today's conference call.
You may now dis--
