DoGooderTV Gives Nonprofits Their Space

I have been meaning for a while to write about DoGooderTV after receiving an e-mail from someone affiliated with the project, and now that things have calmed down a bit I have a chance to catch up with the topics I had put off for lack of time. DoGooder.TV is a site that seems to be a combination of YouTube and MySpace for nonprofit organizations (still in alpha version according to the logo).

Registered nonprofits can upload up to 100MB of streaming video to their page for site visitors to view. When individuals see the videos and are moved to take action, the site provides ways to donate, volunteer, and create a community around those organizations.

Is it effective? Too soon to tell. Just like on YouTube, there are videos that are interesting and well-made, and there are videos that are of no interest to anyone except the director of the nonprofit that made it. Certainly, the video medium has the potential to evoke a strong emotional reaction when done well. But are the kinds of videos that nonprofits typically make compelling enough for an average person to seek them out?

You can’t expect to just load your video onto YouTube and see the
number of views take off. To get viewers and generate buzz, the video
needs to be unusual in some way — whether it’s a humorous angle, a new
way of looking at an old issue, something that hits close to home,
something unexpected… The standard 5-minute organizational promo
video is not going to do it. If DGTV is just more of the same old approach, it will be DOA. If, however, the nonprofits post content that is fresh and exciting, it has a much better chance of breaking out.

Another question is whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing for nonprofits to segregate themselves away from where the action is. If a nonprofit already has video(s) created, or has decided to create something new specifically to distribute via social media, should they choose to upload it to DoGooderTV or to YouTube? The answer is yes. Right now the audience is at YouTube but perhaps eventually DGTV will be known as the place to go if you want more information on a particular nonprofit or a specific health/social issue.

I think the best direction that DoGooderTV could take would be to become a showcase for PSAs and television ads created on various health and social issues. Posting ads on YouTube has been a strategic decision by many brands/agencies to reach more viewers than they could reach on television, but not all agencies are as forward-looking. According to FutureLab’s blog, when marketing blogger Coolz0r posted an anti-drunk driving spot on YouTube and referred to it in his blog, the Irish agency LyleBalie served him with a DCMA take-down notice for the ad and YouTube suspended his account. Perhaps DoGooder.TV would be considered to be a more appropriate venue for that sort of ad (though for those who are stuck in Command and Control marketing, any use beyond the actual medium for which the ad was created may be too threatening).

On a side note, one not so minor annoyance when I go on the DoGooderTV website is that their featured video automatically starts playing with the sound on, which I find very annoying. They should either have the video wait to start until someone clicks it or start the video with the sound off and let people increase the volume if they want to hear it. A pet peeve of mine is when websites load and play sound files without my permission. Of course I would never do this, but what if I were web surfing while talking on the phone or on a conference call? It’s a good way to guarantee someone will never come back to your site.

I’ll be keeping an eye on DGTV. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

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