Do you know that YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world after Google? With a smaller budget, your nonprofit can reach more people on YouTube than traditional media. An estimated 24,000 nonprofits worldwide use YouTube to connect, share impact, and push campaigns. In Africa alone, 38 percent of nonprofits, including Foundations like the Tony Elumelu Foundation and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation utilize YouTube. Learn how to build a global audience network and increase your organization’s YouTube subscribers using these ten proven techniques specially tailored to suit nonprofits proposed by Ben Relles, Head of Comedy, YouTube:
Shareability
Create videos that are easy for people to share. The content should be compelling, relatable, topical, and valuable. Great titles and short video length also encourage viewers to share your video.
Conversational
Let your content address the audience directly. A portion of your video should speak directly to the viewer. Asking questions intermittently or a quick thank you message at the end of the recording encourages participation.
Interactivity
Give room for viewers to contribute to your content. Think of ways to incorporate audience feedback into your content so viewers feel involved in the creation process. Make videos based on viewer’s comments and suggestions and acknowledge the source.
Consistency
The composition, format, and structure of your video should be consistent so viewers have an idea on what to expect. From the voice of the speaker to the duration of the video, the audience should be able to rely on certain recurring elements of your video. Moreover, YouTube rewards consistency as it recommends consistent and regular videos to viewers.
Targeting
Design your videos to appeal to your target audience. Is your video for a potential donor or a board executive? Design the content to suit the needs of the type of audience your organization wants to attract.
Sustainability
Maintain a regular stream of content. Keep to the schedule and do not leave a vacuum after sharing great content. Look out for the most shared content and create more of it.
Discoverability
Learn about the kind of subject matter people want to watch. Use YouTube’s playbook to find topics viewers search for and create content based on it.
Accessibility
Make your videos easy to connect with. Hook viewers within the first few scenes of you videos. Every episode should be appreciated by a viewer, it just might be the first material they have ever seen about your organization.
Collaboration
Partner with others to build content. Collaboration means you can leverage on the viewers of other brands which ultimately increases your viewership. Feature guest personalities or collaborate with top YouTube channels that can give you the kind of subscribers you want.
Inspiration
The mission and values of your organization should be translated into all videos. Use call to actions or catch phrases to make the inspiration of your content clear.
YouTube encourages nonprofits to use the platform to create awareness, raise funds, and share success stories. Enroll in the YT Nonprofit Program and make the best out of YouTube’s benefit package for nonprofits.