SOLUTIONS
INCORPORATING VIDEO FOR ASSOCIATION COMMUNICATION By Liz Stevens, contributing writer, KSAE Magazine
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t’s time to get ready for the association’s close-up. Some nonprofits may have dragged their feet about using video as a communication tool, but nowadays everyone is more comfortable in front of the camera. There are Zoom meetings, classroom webinars, remote court appearances, virtual happy hours and video birthday parties. Videos really are an effective way to communicate. They make it easier to grab attention and build an audience, and savvy nonprofits are learning about the value of “lights, camera, action.” In an Association Management Center (AMC) blog1, Carly Mangus, assistant editor and resident video editor, Creative Media Services at AMC, explained the value of video for associations. “Video is the most effective way to reach your audience,” Mangus wrote, “as it establishes trust, communicates your brand and delivers information more effectively than any other medium. It shows the personality of your organization and makes the audience feel more connected, not only to the cause or mission, but to the people making it all happen.” Mangus noted that in a world where attention spans are measured in mere seconds, internet video can keep watchers’ attention for nearly three minutes. “Visual content is more likely to be engaged with for longer periods of time and shared on social media,” Mangus wrote, “and video content is more likely to rank your organization on the first page of a Google Search than standard text.” So, video defies the attention span threshold, boosts one’s Google Search placement and often is shared.
A creative-minded association can use videos for many types of communication. A video can contain a message from the board, an overview of the association and its mission or a Q&A session fielded by the association team. A video could describe a new campaign, lay out the success of a just-finished push or feature the benefactors of an association’s well-met goal. In “How Your Association Can Use Video to Engage Members,”2 Brianna Lawson wrote that associations can use videos to present their professional education offerings. Lawson also stressed that videos can be a new way to convey content or to target a hard-to-reach new group for membership. “Video can attract new members, especially younger ones,” Lawson wrote. “Featuring videos of members from your association talking about what they are excited about that relates to the industry allows younger individuals to more easily identify with your association – because they share the same interests as your current members.” And Lawson pointed out that a video might be a terrific way to simultaneously build brand awareness for the association and spotlight important advertisers and sponsors. There are plenty of avenues for sharing association videos. One of the easiest ways is to post videos on the association’s website and to ask staff and volunteers to share videos on their social media platforms. Videos can be included as links in emails and email newsletters. Popular social media sites on which to share videos include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. continued on page 32
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