Everyone's doing it! Advocacy and educational videos are creating a big buzz for many nonprofits. Video clips posted to YouTube® and other popular video share sites are getting thousands of hits per week. These sites are free, easy to use and a great way to get your mission and message out there.

But is posting to YouTube® always the right path for your video?

To answer that question, consider this: What would you say if someone suggested taking the still photos and images off your website and posting them instead on another website – a popular site that gets tens of thousands of hits per day?

Would you do it? Or would you argue that your own website is actually a better place for your visitors to see those images in context to understand your unique mission?

The same may be true for your videos. Your nonprofit website probably already has compelling text and pictures, and maybe even some interactive features like a blog or “take action” options. Putting video clips on your own site is the next, logical step.

You may be asking — “Isn't it difficult to put a video on our own website?” “Too expensive?” “And where should we put it?” The answers may surprise you:

1. Do we need video?

Probably. Moving images engage and hold attention better than almost any other form of communication today. We all know that from personal experience. YouTube® IS useful for attracting eyeballs to your advocacy or educational video. But, the same videos should also be posted to your own site so you can put related text nearby, engage visitors in a dialogue on your issues or capture their email address for future use.

If you want people to come to your website again for other reasons, it is important to make it a worthwhile visit. Compelling video clips can help.

And, when all the hype about “Web 2.0” settles down (probably sooner than you think), video will have become simply one more basic tool in any nonprofit's tool belt to help build public awareness about your unique issues and programs. Learning now how to make your organization's own website a compelling destination for meaningful, engaging and motivating video will put you ahead of the pack!

2. Is it expensive?

The high cost associated with putting video on your website is due to the fact that video clips use more bandwidth than text. If traffic to your site suddenly increases dramatically and lots of people watch your videos, your monthly web hosting bill could increase dramatically, too. The trick to avoiding a hefty fee is to closely monitor your web traffic to make sure you are not exceeding the allotted bandwidth for your hosting plan. It works just like a cell phone contract. If you go over the amount of minutes your contract allows, the hosting company charges premium rates for the extra minutes.

So, if you plan ahead and monitor traffic to your website, the extra cost associated with posting video clips should be minimal.

3. Is it difficult?

The biggest challenge to putting video clips on your own website is how to make them load quickly and look good. That is primarily a question of how they are compressed. A video is just a file, like a paragraph of text or a photo. But, it a very large file and therefore must be compressed. Compression reduces the size of the data in the file in order to save space or transmission time. The goal is to make your video file as small as possible, yet retain as much valuable information as possible.

With the latest compression software available, your videos ought to load and play almost immediately (as long as the visitor has a high speed internet connection) without compromising the quality of the image. But compressing a video properly is actually more art than a science. It takes time and patience to do it right. A good result means the video does not look “pixilated.” If the compression is done well your video will look much better on your own site than it will on YouTube®.

4. What should we produce for the web?

Anything! You can tell any visual story on the web that you can on a DVD. If you're putting a video on your site to enhance and bring alive a particular section of your web text, then a short clip (30 seconds to two minutes) is probably long enough — but not because of image quality. A long, stand-alone film can look great on the web today. And remember, telling a story is always the best way to capture and hold your visitors' attention.

“Anything goes” is also true today for the question of image size and visual style. In the early days of video on the web, the conventional wisdom was “only close-ups” – no landscapes or detailed scenes. Not true anymore. With today's higher quality video player software, larger screen size and better quality compression ratios, you can put virtually any type of video image on the web without fear of frustrating your visitors.

5. Where should we put our video?

Is your home page always the best location for a video clip? Not necessarily. If you have a multi-layered website composed of many pages, the best place for a video clip may not be obvious. Consider the purpose of the video: Education? Action? Fundraising? Your answer will help to determine where to place the video clip because the most important question is, when and where does your visitor need the information in the video? And, once a visitor has finished watching the video, what do you want them to do next? What additional information do you want them to have? Where might they go next on your site?

As you may already know from designing your website in the first place, you can exercise a great deal of control over visitor behavior based on how your site flows. Don't be afraid to experiment and try something new. The great thing about the web is that it's constantly changing and adapting to new technology and new ideas. You should, too!

Enjoy the buzz!

For more information about producing or placing videos on your website, please contact Five Star Films, Inc. at 301-320-4460 or info@fivestarfilmsinc.com.