Did you catch MemoryFox’s January Special Event with Civic Champs? Watch it now!

This special event took place on Thursday, January 18th. Hosted by Carly Euler, our two special guests, Chris Miano and Geng Wang discussed the importance of volunteer stories with an emphasis on video storytelling and social media trends for 2024.

Full Transcript:

I think without further Ado let’s get started we’ll hop right in um because we have so much to cover today and um I

0:06know you all submitted really great questions so I want to get to as many of those as we possibly can so um my name

0:12is Carly I’m the marketing manager at memory Fox um I’m first just gonna kick it off by introducing our two guest

0:18speakers today so first I’d like to introduce Chris manano Chris is the founder and CEO of memory Fox uh he

0:26spent eight years in the Army traveling around the world and learning about the power of Storytelling as a tool to

0:32connect with people across cultures generations and socioeconomic backgrounds since then Chris has made it

0:39his mission to elevate the stories of real human beings and he believes that authentic storytelling that through

0:46authentic storytelling the world can become a more inclusive and Equitable place for everyone so thank you for

0:51joining us today Chris thank you and now I’ll introduce my next guest

0:58which is Gung Wong he um is the CEO of Civic Champs where he leads a team of

1:03passionate change leaders to create Technology Solutions to create a seamless and rewarding volunteering

1:09experience for both the volunteers and the service organizations but prior to Civic Champs

1:15Gung co-founded two company two and sold two companies uh rentjungle.com which is

1:21an apartment search engine and Community elf which is a social media management firm Gung is also a former McKenzie

1:29andcompany consultant and he is a graduate of Michigan State University and Harvard Business School so thanks so

1:36much for coming and joining and being a part of our special event today Gung yeah of course no this is uh this will

1:42be great I’m super excited awesome and then just a reminder for everybody here

1:48um that’s attending we do have a three-part agenda today so first Chris

1:53is going to explore the power of video storytelling and that’s going to include how to collect volunteer stories but

1:59also strategies to actually create videos and then second we have Gung he’s

2:05going to delve into the trends and strategies of how you can share those powerful volunteer stories on social

2:11media in the year 2024 so the most upto-date trends for you all and then

2:17third like I said you all submitted really wonderful questions during your registration and I have a ton of them

2:24that I’m going to ask our two experts today um I’m going to do my best to get to as many as possible

2:30um so again thank you all for registering thank you for submitting those thoughtful questions and without

2:35further Ado I think uh Chris it’s your turn take it all right cool well thank

2:41you Carly it’s so it’s funny we talk about storytelling so much and I always feel like the hardest story in the world

2:47to hear is when someone’s telling your story always have a hard time veteran

2:52thing or if it’s uh but um no thank you thank you for the introductions and for putting this all together all right k

2:59and uh can you guys see my screen all right so um you know I like

3:05to think about video storytelling along this sort of frame right if someone asks you what is your mission can you show

3:13them right it’s always better to show rather than tell video stories and general storytelling content is the best

3:20way to resonate with potential donors and attract volunteers right storytelling is fundamental to who we

3:27are as humans and so I’m sort of a stats nerd

3:32right I I always want stats to back up you know what people are saying so let’s take a look at the stats of why video

3:39storytelling is so important right number one you’ll raise more funds which

3:44is of course the most important one maybe of all right fundraising campaigns that incorporate video receive 114% more

3:51funding than campaigns that don’t on average and that was a study that classy did um a couple years back and I think

3:58that that that makes sense right video really gives you a window into the people and the mission um like like

4:05nothing else second it’s more memorable viewers retain vastly more information when they

4:11see it through video people telling stories to each other is a primal human

4:17function long before people could even read this is how information was transferred from Virgil you know to

4:23Homer to the Epic of Gilgamesh it’s the oldest tradition that we have everybody

4:29has historically has told stories long before they could read or video even

4:34existed and third it is what people crave short form video like on Instagram

4:41or Tik Tok has exploded um as attention spans have sort of dovetailed right um

4:47and so we want to tell stories about our impact that meet the tastes of the times we could Hollow at the Moon about the

4:53way we wish things could be or we could meet the times um you know on their own terms um I feel like sort of in a way a

5:01lot of nonprofits um have been given an impossible task of standing out and like

5:07this increasingly crowded attention economy right and um but authentic

5:12Grassroots impact video with Community generated content it it helps level the

5:18playing field very few if any for-profits can compete with a very beautiful video of a Grassroots um you

5:26know event that you’re having or program and an example of that is one of our customers uh kids health connections um

5:33they collected Community generated video stories to demonstrate qualitative impact um for a grant application and

5:40they wanted to give a window into their mission and it worked and and they got the grant right because they had

5:46beautiful videos like this let’s watch it I love the mentors and love that they

5:52help me and they motivate me and push me up when I’m C now and um I stop or I’m

5:59say say I can’t do it they always say I can’t but I always say I can’t but they

6:04always say I can’t do it never say you can but I love this they motivate me all the time and we’re strong fit kids I

6:13mean like that’s the most beautiful content in the world I don’t even want to call it content it’s almost gross to call it content this is a human this is

6:19a story about a family a person and an organization um you know authentic

6:25engaging video that takes the funders right into the living room takes those volunte te that you want to win over or

6:30make feel more connected um takes them right right right in there when they can’t be there um so you know obviously

6:38this is a pretty cool example and something that that I feel is pretty powerful so hopefully that gets everybody’s juices flowing um we’ve got

6:45a great example and we’ve got some statistics to back up why um you know so we’re going to cover a lot of ground

6:50today and you’ll be telling great stories with video in no time U first thing we’re going to do is we’re going

6:56to talk about how to build a video collection campaign and then some examples of volunteer stories and the

7:01keys to the success of those volunteer campaigns um some tips to get started

7:07collecting great volunteer stories and then types of videos that you can create on your own and and how to actually do

7:14it um some real hopefully practical applications of how how how to make video work for you so we have a simple

7:22framework that we use at memory Fox to help develop video strategy and when I say simple it is super super super

7:28simple I was very busy they don’t need to remember all these things um it doesn’t have to be hard and video is

7:34accessible to everybody um especially if you use this sort of tried and trud strategy so step one before you even go

7:41talk to someone start at the end result what are we trying to accomplish here is it for a social media campaign a donor

7:48report for a grant for a Gala um what type of content would be best a

7:54slideshow a single video a snippet for Instagram stories all of that is going to sort of shape the way that you’re

8:01going to conduct this campaign and if you start at the end you’ll save yourself a lot of time rather than

8:06rather than the reverse um you know start at the end is always a best practice step two what type of content

8:14will satisfy the requirements for step one do we want testimonials or do we want Maybe video of the mission in

8:20action um do we want videos from Mission beneficiaries do we want it from volunteers donors Etc staff um who feel

8:29passionate about the mission you know start thinking about what the actual inputs are going to be and then finally

8:36the call to actions um in a lot of ways maybe the most important part the questions that you ask because great

8:42questions result in great answers and bad questions will cause people to lock up and and you’re really just going

8:48you’re not going to get something that you can use um so really to wrap it up like I said it’s very very simple what

8:56do you want to accomplish what type of content will help you achieve achieve that and then what callor the actions

9:01will help you get that content now this is just the the the the ground floor of your campaign but once you have this

9:07part all wrapped up the rest is all just in the execution but without this um you’re going to waste a lot of time

9:14doing things um that that aren’t really getting you a lot of gains uh so that short form video that

9:20we showed you earlier right that they were able to win that Grant with they use this that simple format right

9:26they’re a very busy organization they don’t have time for all these complicated um you know steps right keep

9:32it simple keep it focused and it worked well for them um Carly is actually going to drop

9:40in the chat uh a link to some of the resources that we have so you can build

9:45your own campaigns just use this template um if you’d like and you know let us know if you have any feedback on

9:51it because we’re always kind of working on this um so we have some questions from the audience that we took

9:56beforehand I’ll kind of go through these right now so how do we encourage our current volunteers to provide content

10:03like videos and photos I’m sure you’re all wondering this right now right it’s easy to say but the execution is much

10:08harder and so we have some examples that I think will hopefully crystallize some things for you so uh Arbor Day

10:15Foundation amazing organization right they are wildly successful with collecting content from all of their

10:21tree planting events because they’re extremely organized um we find that organizations who truly care for the

10:28cont content and the stories that volunteers contribute they actually get a higher partici participation rate

10:35because the organization knows you’re going to be a good Steward for it and they’re not just wasting their time um they also tied the collection campaigns

10:41to a specific outcome for example they designated a corporate sponsor for each of the collection campaigns uh American

10:49Express FedEx Verizon and that helps makes it a little tangible for the

10:54storytellers um they’ll give them a purpose and will definitely increase your respon rate um now it is a little

11:01more work you know obviously to be organized at the beginning um but there you know it’s going to pay dividends in

11:07the end um in both your response rate and the quality of your end

11:13product uh slow Food Bank um they use memory fox in several ways including for

11:19volunteer retention and recruitment um their key to success is consistent

11:24recognition and I’m sure if you’re a volunteer manager you’re very you’re thinking about this all the time right

11:29is making volunteers feel rewarded and that they’re a part of the team right that they’re a part of the community um

11:36they post a monthly volunteer Spotlight on their social channels and their newsletter and being featured makes

11:42their volunteers feel appreciated right as as as one would expect um so every

11:47time you do a program or every time maybe once a month or in your newsletter highlight a volunteer um have a story

11:55from them or a story about them and I think you’ll see a lot of um they pay a lot of dividends in terms of volunteer

12:01retention and just generally um making them feel like more of the

12:07team um and then this one is really cool there’s this organization maybe some of

12:12you have heard of it’s called re to cross America and they do refre Lings on in cemeteries uh across the us over 3 th

12:214,000 uh cemeteries across the uh country and um their key to success uh

12:28is multiple touch points they were able to collect over 8,000 pieces of content

12:34from over a thousand contributors um imagine trying to do that right with like Google Sheets and email right um

12:42and and people submitted photos videos beautiful beautiful things that they use now throughout the entire year but the

12:48key was is they followed up multiple times they didn’t just have one ask or one on the newsletter that says like hey

12:55send us your videos that’s okay but a direct ask and then following up if you

13:00don’t get a response um no one ever gets annoyed from asking to tell their story usually not right they feel strongly

13:07about the organization it’s not asking for a donation right you’re always asking for donations ask for something a

13:13little different um you know and and and this is a great way to do it right but follow up following up is the most

13:19important thing and that’ll increase your response rate drastically all right so next question

13:27how do you get volunteers to actually participate in videos also a very difficult thing I’m sure many of you

13:34have experienced um we like to we like to think of it as like generating a domino effect especially at your

13:40programs and events is set up like a booth now typically you might set up a photo booth or something but consider a

13:47story Booth um you know where you can set up and have PE you people be standing in line people waiting to get

13:53through they’ll be talking about it throughout your you know at the event to other people generate that enthusias M

13:59for it and you will see that people will now be interested in come on over so make sure you tell that person after

14:05they hey tell others um you know we’re trying to get as many stories as we can today and they’ll go tell others um but

14:11create that domino effect that keeps people um that that brings a little attention to

14:17it this is extremely important um designate a Content collection Champion

14:23someone whether it’s a volunteer or employee or you know it could be anybody right but their job they’re going to

14:29have a list of the people who are going to be at the event um the type of content that the the communications

14:35manager the marketing director wants from that event um you know and then their job is to go execute on that you

14:42will definitely 100% get better results rather than just putting up QR codes that link to a campaign where they can

14:49submit videos or just hoping that people will do it right put have someone wear

14:54the hat and they’ll go around and make sure that it happens um

15:00um another one ask great questions to get great stories we talked about that a little bit earlier but here’s some good

15:05examples so instead of tell us your story you might want to say put a little

15:10meat on it how has your life been impacted by volunteering with this organization right make it feel a little

15:17more crystallized tell us about the volunteer work you do well that might be open-ended and they might not be able to

15:22answer that question tell us about the first time you volunteered with the organization how did it make you feel

15:29right like that’s a that’s a real mey question that will get a great answer and then now you can use that to attract

15:34other volunteers and or or you know if it’s donor facing attract donors but really think about those questions and

15:41and and how you can get to the heart and the core of why they do what they do um

15:47and so these are some you know we’re talking about volunteer stories right so here are some specific ones that we’ve seen customers use um you know specific

15:54to volunteer collection campaigns so one volunteer experience you’ll never never forget your initial inspiration to

16:01volunteer all those types of things that make you feel that make them feel warm and fuzzy and they want to share um you

16:08know we’ll be sending out this presentation so don’t feel the need to take notes or anything like that but I just want to hit some of these um you

16:15know because they’re they’re they’re they’re pretty straightforward but they’re but they’re it’s all in how you craft it and this one’s my favorite um

16:21because it’s Carly and Carly’s amazing um she has a mantra you know they can’t

16:26say yes if you’d never ask and sometimes it can be a little you get afraid to ask people for their story or you don’t want

16:32to you don’t want to add a task to their list of things to do and things like that um but but Karly is fearless and

16:39that’s why we love her one of the reasons we love her um she reached out to an actual Vietnam Medal of Honor

16:45recipient named Colonel um Barney Barnum and he Ser actually served as assistant Secretary of the Navy so this guy is a

16:51big deal right and uh she fearlessly asked him to uh attend an event and of

16:57course he did and he shared his story and he helped them raise funds and he made a donation himself and none of that

17:03would have happened if she didn’t have The Bravery um to ask so don’t not be

17:08afraid to ask someone their story people love sharing their story um now we’ll talk a little bit in the Q&A about take

17:15collecting stories from people who may not want to share their story um and the nuances of that but we’ll we’ll get to

17:21that later um but yeah it’s about creating that culture of Storytelling so that you’re you’re always collecting and

17:28telling stories along multiple channels and and getting to people who can help you with your um you know help help

17:34spread the word um from another one from the audience just trying to learn the

17:40most I can about creating effective inexpensive video content right I mean that’s pretty much the what it all comes

17:46down to so selfies selfie videos are are some

17:52of the most engaging content on social media right you see it all the time when you’re scrolling on Instagram Tik Tok or

17:58whatever me Tik Tok basically is that’s what it is um so here are some tips you

18:03can actually follow Carly on Tik Tok we have a Tik Tok account now so if you although I was very much averse to that

18:09I think as sort of a ly um but uh no it’s it’s been great and we get a lot of cool engagement on it but Carly likes to

18:16share a lot of tips on how to do things like take selfie videos and things like that so if that’s something you’re interested go ahead give her a follow

18:22but here are some top tips I mean keep it short right that might be the most important one out of all of this is keep

18:28it short people just don’t have the attention spans anymore um and be concise right get right to it um but

18:35make sure the audio is good make sure the video quality is good um but that can all be done with phones now so it’s

18:40not no nothing nothing difficult about it so I do want to touch on this now so

18:47Anonymous video idea so let’s say you have a mission beneficiary who might be a child or a victim of of some sort of

18:53abuse or um you know or may just not feel comfortable telling their story plenty of veterans have a difficult time

18:59telling their story right but you still need it for fundraising so you can do a lot of different things here you could

19:04record a voiceover testimonial that goes over a picture right or just is somehow

19:11Anonymous um use visuals that sort of relate to your mission right showing hands showing maybe a teddy bear or a

19:18painting or something that evokes some sort of symbolic uh core feeling from

19:24them um but doesn’t doesn’t doesn’t show who the person is right tytin a knot leaves falling packing a

19:31suitcase um or you could tell the stories of an inanimate object is that might because that tells the story right

19:36a delivery food truck a hammer a brown paper bag these are just examples right but they all evoke sort of that imagery

19:44while keeping the story tell Anonymous you still need to do tell those stories

19:49um to get the uh effects that you need and so finally composite videos these

19:54are really fun and I I think car Carly put in put in one of our that we

20:00did now planting now feeding now shelter and Aid on Veterans on families ohe the

20:07joy to be made to the top of the story page to the top of the wall now dash

20:13away Dash away Dash away all that’s just an example we took a little oh so going we took a little clip

20:20of a longer one that we shared on Instagram and I think Tik Tok too maybe um and Linkedin but you know mash up

20:27these videos and you can make a nice recap of a program or event um by having

20:33you know a dozen volunteers talking about how great the event Was Then mash them up into a composite video you know

20:40and and and use some of these tips a lot everybody wants to read the words um but but yeah composite videos are amazing

20:46and really consider them we’ll talk a little bit about tools um later on how to do that but um yeah so I think we got

20:53the first part started um I’m going to go ahead and kick it to Gung and he’s going to take it from here to the uh how

21:01to actually put your stories into motion and get them out into the world awesome thank you Chris that was

21:08that was awesome um I think I I’ll be uh um sort of reflecting on some of the

21:13things that uh that you’ve already mentioned as as well so um again my name

21:19is Gang Wang I’m here with Civic Champs um and so one thing real quickly right

21:25we we shared in my background is I used to own a social media management agency called um Community elf and one of our

21:32uh my favorite campaigns we did was actually with the nonprofit called the dignity and respect campaign um and so

21:38this is a long long long time ago um but during that campaign we were able to

21:44grow their Facebook following right from um 820 to over 10,000 um in just four

21:51months right and then at the at the end of the year they were at 160,000 uh or so followers at the time

21:59um everything changed when you know Facebook changed their algorithms and you couldn’t get the sort of the organic reach that that we used to be able to

22:04get but um but it was it was great it was it was you know sort of our first forray um you know the the other one

22:11that comes to mind less nonprofit related is uh we were managing Mark

22:16walberg’s uh GNC line of supplements called get marked um and so that was

22:22really you know that was a little bit uh uh fun and different but it’s um you know we would have people m message

22:28about like prompt promp proposals and things like that so um but I I think it’s important

22:35for for me right just to kind of set the stage as we’re thinking about recruiting volunteers or engaging

22:41volunteers um uh on on social media right and so one of the things I like to think about just taking a step back real

22:48quick right is just to think you know across the marketing funnel right so like what what does marketing do like

22:54why why have these social chanels right like these are the these are sort of the uh things that we’re looking for right

23:00so we’re driving awareness we’re trying to get interest where we want people to be involved we want to retain them we want them to share our mission and video

23:07I think uh is so powerful in that it actually can touch every stage of that

23:13funnel right um but I think generally when you think about social right you’re

23:20really thinking about the top or the bottom of the fallone so the top is really driving awareness right and

23:26thinking about uh sharing or getting that people to to reshare your stories right and so so as you’re thinking about

23:34your strategy and what content to do having I think that context especially if you’re making the video just for

23:40social um this makes a difference right so you’re like okay well the purpose is to get awareness all right how am I

23:46going to do that right if the purpose is not to necessarily Drive involvement or right get it retention Now video right

23:53across the board does all of that U but but just you know keeping that in mind right I think the other thing from a

23:59context standpoint that I thought was really interesting is um volunteering

24:04and and sort of the interest of volunteering is kind of at an all-time high right and so this is just Google

24:10search Trends you anyone can look this up today but you could see right in the PES how many people are searching for

24:15the word volunteering opportunities near me And so in you know January 2018 this

24:20is you know sort of the line Bo boom and then of course everyone knows what happened here um I’m pretty sure this is

24:27March of 2020 right here uh right and there’s you know a little bit of Spike

24:32above as people were trying to you know you know help neighbors helping neighbors came back down again um and

24:37then really you know you know as we came out of covid right s towards this uh you know people got really excited and now

24:43we’re really higher than ever right in terms of interest and so the opportunity I think is there as you’re sharing and

24:50driving awareness that people are interested in hearing about these stories and want to know how to get

24:55involved and participate and the storytelling I don’t need you know Chris is the expert here right but you know

25:01it’s it’s really about compelling narratives right conve conveying that mission impact and values sharing those

25:07personal emotional accounts of that story um all the things that Chris has already said so I won’t die uh stay here

25:14but in terms of the platforms as we think about storytelling and with recruiting

25:21volunteers on social right here’s you know the basic platforms that we think about there’s LinkedIn Instagram

25:27Facebook Twitter right um I think a couple things I would highlight right is

25:33LinkedIn probably is underutilized in my mind right um it’s it’s for

25:39professionals right for the most part but if you think about volunteering other than you know for kids

25:45volunteering is very much of that part of that professional portfolio for a lot of folks they talk you know people will

25:51list where they volunteer they it’s part of that resume right and so and it’s one

25:56of the few places that’s built for recruiting right and that’s usually for

26:01recruiting employees but it’s really not all that different for recruiting volunteers right because there’s so many

26:08filters that you can use on LinkedIn right who lives around me right what are their jobs um and so you can even

26:15customize your message right like hey you know Chris I see uh you like you know you’re a big supporter of CH you

26:22know um causes that support children in in the Buffalo Community right that’s

26:28amazing right and and uh you know we have this nonprofit we’d love for you to come out to to uh to to volunteer one

26:34day right that is like a compelling message because you you took the time to know me my interest and and and you

26:41found me right and that that you can do on LinkedIn you can’t actually really do that on the other platforms so um

26:46Instagram is fantastic and that is highly visual right so from a storytelling standpoint you know videos

26:52you can put that on Instagram um Facebook is sort of the deao I think the

26:57challenge with Facebook is um one it’s fewer younger users and now it’s really

27:02hard if you’re not already on there with a big platform to grow that platform

27:08without really using ads um they they they’ve kind of made it a payto playay

27:13sort of platform right um and then Twitter right I you know I’m a little bit mixed here I think for National um

27:20organizations Twitter is fantastic um for for maybe your local organizations it’s a little bit less effective right

27:28and so what what does it what does the data say as Chris said earlier right in terms of nonprofits using different

27:34platforms so 99% of nonprofits have a Facebook page right um Twitter uh

27:40Instagram super popular YouTube LinkedIn Tik Tok Snapchat so Tik Tok right very

27:46uh you know relatively uh unused you know Snapchat almost almost none right which makes sense it’s very you know

27:52much a uh personto person Communication channel so this is sort of what it looks like um at least according to statista

27:59right uh my sense is that these numbers might be a little bit higher than what we’ve seen um but you know a lot of this

28:06is self-reported and so you know the person that’s filling out this form might be you know someone that’s on this

28:11webinar as an example who might be more prone uh to to be using platform but you can see you know directionally where

28:18people are at and where uh maybe there’s um opportunity including YouTube right

28:24um and so if you think about video again YouTube obviously being a really great platform another platform that I like to

28:31highlight that people don’t think about as much that I think just like LinkedIn could be really great uh for nonprofits

28:37is actually next door we when we unlike donations where we can donate to anyone

28:44any causes globally nationally Etc volunteering is by definition a very

28:50local activity right you can’t you know it’s it’s very hard and most people don’t volunteering uh outside of their

28:58local community and next door is a platform that’s all about your local community right neighborhoods

29:03specifically but you know really around like your city and and and so thinking about um and I know one of the things

29:10that they’re trying to do is really to make the platform more positive and

29:15there’s very little uh uh there’s there’s almost nothing else that is more

29:20positive than bring the community together in volunteering right like you know we can all agree that uh you know

29:28uh people that are in need of Housing and need of food a need of shelter in our communities you know we we we can

29:34all support that right um and that and that you know maybe have next door you

29:39know get away a little bit more uh from you know the the complaints from the neighbors sort of things right and so I

29:45think this is actually another place you know recruiting volunteers promoting your events um that that folks should really check

29:51out and then a couple you know guy you know again we’ll have the slides here shared out but you know just a couple

29:58tips if you will right and so um if you think about um trying to be efficient

30:04across the board right and you’re saying hey you know I wantan to I want to post but I I don’t want to do custom things

30:10for every platform well some of the things that you can think about is there are limits right for certain platforms

30:17and so if you are on Twitter uh maybe you start with Twitter as just a piffy

30:23like little snippet right because then you don’t have to rewrite it for Twitter right um or or if you’re on Instagram

30:28right the square image is is optimal and so you optimize for that and then you could use the same image in other places

30:36um number of images again Twitter has this for Max um do links work they don’t

30:41really work and so think about like hey do you really want to embed the links or how do you want to manage that um and so

30:47in terms of scheduling right that like can you actually schedule or not and so hopefully some helpful tips another one

30:54that I think is is interesting right is you know what is the average engagement as a duration of videos increase and so

31:02really we would say you want to aim for at least uh so five minutes or less right because you really start to you

31:08know you’re getting into this 25% uh you know people that stay through the entire uh duration uh and then up to 60 seconds

31:16is really ideal we you know we think for short form video content right um and on Tik Tok you know maybe even shorter but

31:2260 right try to keep it in that minute um a couple things uh we one of

31:28my favorite folks here in the sector is mallerie she’s does a fantastic job and one of the things I think I really

31:34admire is her social media posts right and so um PRI Texs she I think she does a really nice job of that right remember

31:41not everything you post actually gets shown right on on social media it’s

31:46really that that top little snippet right and so mallerie does a great job because she makes sure she catches your

31:51attention like a gazillion mistakes so like oh well I’m now interested to click see more and read more and Carly you’ll

31:58see your name right here too um you know some other ones right

32:03you know the images of course are great because uh you can’t really clip the image right and so image actually gives

32:10you a lot more real estate and videos is the same um so that’s another reason to use imagery or or videos um but again

32:17right make sure you have something uh piy up here that that you’re able to um

32:22support uh what you’re trying to share all right um the next little piece

32:28here is Chris uh already did a really great job

32:34around uh you know how do you create stories what are the things that you can do uh one of the things I think is

32:41really interesting though um when you’re looking at these videos and and trying to interview your volunteers I think an

32:47opportunity that you can leverage here is really talking to objections that people might have especially around

32:53volunteering so oh I can’t volunteer because I’m too busy I can’t I don’t have the time it’s too

32:59far away right um I don’t have the skills I don’t think me I I can’t help

33:04people you know I can’t help veterans right like what do I know and and or like hey I’m really shy I don’t want to

33:11be in front of lot you know and so you have all these objections and yeah you can you can write about them and that’s

33:17fine but a video from a volunteer is so much more powerful right I can just

33:22interview you and say hey Chris real quick I know you used to be concerned

33:29about time constraints and volunteering here you know how did you make that work for you and CH oh yeah you know I was

33:35concerned but know the flexibility is great I could just carve out an hour here and there and then now you’re

33:40selling not only the experience but you’re addressing that objection someone has potentially

33:47volunteering with you right and you can put that on on your social profiles here um here’s a a few other ones Fe of

33:54commitment distance travel health concerns and you know know some talking points that you might have here as well

34:01right and then then and then and then the next thing you know I think that’s important to remember is as whether

34:08that’s uh recruiting for volunteers or other ways to engage on social media is

34:16that people don’t remember what we do right like like you we always think

34:25people know what we do right or Mission and why we’re here and and maybe you feel like you’ve been you know shouting

34:31it from the rooftops and everyone should know this right everyone knows what Habitat for Humanity does everyone

34:37should know what Boys and Girls Clubs I’m here to tell you even those brands that is not true right people might have

34:46even heard of the brand but they might think habitat yeah it sounds yeah I think it’s a nice siiz nonprofit it

34:52sounds it’s one that I might support it’s like oh no they build homes like oh right like it’s a no D to us but coming

35:00back to that I think is is um is an easy way right to to have you know to have uh

35:06content but also um you know don’t think that you’re oversharing that mission

35:11right um and the other thing to to think about is connecting through post back to

35:16your mission and so even in those objections or or other videos you have right the ones that Chris Chris uh

35:23shared with you you can Circle back to your mission right and so one of my friends who’s a startup owner that I

35:28really admire you know he talks about you know he landed in the US the other day he’s going through custom and he’s

35:34talking about this you know beautiful story about being an immigrant and da D what that means to him and the company

35:39he has helps uh hourly workers right and he brings it back to that and he says

35:45you know every time I come back I’m just reminded how lucky I am I think about my parents sacrificing you know doing

35:51hourly jobs to bring me to and that’s why I’m committed to our mission of you know making the deathless economy the

35:57best it can be like oh you’re like oh wow you know but all of your volunteering stories in some way can

36:03connect back to your mission right and so trying to do that again and again and again I think is is is um uh is

36:12worthwhile and the last thing um that I think is really interesting and sort of

36:17uh couples well with a topic that we talk a lot about is when you’re recording these videos you are actually

36:25hearing the words that your volunteers use to describe you to describe what

36:30they do to describe the reasons that they volunteer to describe the impact your organizations has on others has on

36:36them right and that’s really powerful in that I think again so many of us are so

36:44deep within um our organizations we’re so embedded all the time on how we talk

36:50about it how we think about the organization that just listening to what

36:55words they use use can be super powerful and then you can borrow that right as

37:01you’re writing your py little you know tweet or or Instagram caption right use their words because those words are much

37:08more likely to actually resonate with other volunteers because that’s how volunteers describe and think about you

37:16right and so language Market fit is a sort of slightly more structured way to

37:22uncover that language right and so um and and and there’s you know a process right you could draw some headlines you

37:28know ask your 5-year-old or whoever right do you understand what I just wrote right um and then you can do some

37:33testing and this last piece is really optional right but I think the whole idea just like leading into the language

37:39that people use um and we have a webinar so we’ll put the links uh in here as well so if

37:45you want to learn more about Mar language Market fit we you you know feel free to watch our previous webinar that

37:51we did um and then Chris talked about this as well right like creating these

37:57emotionally charged moments and capturing that on on video right um one

38:02of the best examples I like to think of is sometimes you can make things very simple and I I often use this example

38:08with the tomato soup can because we just had um you know toy dries food drives um

38:14and and a lot of times we’re just like picking up food we’re dropping it off da d d right like it’s it is what it is but you you can make small tweaks to that

38:21experience to make it emotionally uh sort of uh something that people remember right so you can ask people

38:28bring your favorite canned food right favorite thing and then when we get

38:33there we’re going to go around in a little circle and we’re going to share that story and by the way we’re going to capture that on video of course right um

38:41but but but now when I think about the organization in this act of dropping off

38:46the food I don’t just think about like oh yeah you know it’s a thing it’s away for me to clear out my pantry right but

38:52it’s like oh I also connect it to this like very powerful moment where I talked

38:57about like my grandma and how you know this this item or maybe my love of Oreos right like I now connect it to like oh

39:04I’m actually giving something I personally love to somebody else like I’m sharing something that’s very cool

39:09right um and then of course right we want to measure

39:15impact and you know we could go into a full webinar on this but I think the the interesting thing for me here is really

39:21thinking about two things what matters for your organization why are you doing

39:27all of this to begin with is it to recruit more volunteers is it to drive awareness and

39:34to whom like who do you want to drive awareness with and so first thinking through that like why am I doing this

39:39and then identifying how do I measure my success with that and an easy way could be right um I want my social channels to

39:47drive new volunteers recruitment well you can have a Google form right that

39:52captures that information specific just to your uh social social media channel so you know everything that goes through

39:59that form is from social right and that way anytime you get something you could say hey now you know when I posted

40:04content or I did video content that Chris is telling me to do hey it actually worked right I got I got a a

40:10bunch more uh response from folks um but this I think is important right and and

40:16you know there’s obviously more complicated ways you could do um you know attribution tracking on Google

40:21analytics Etc but there’s also like very simple ways right like you could just of a form that people fill out after they

40:27see something right um or it could be that you’re you’re looking to drive awareness right and and so and and with

40:33who and a lot of times these platforms have analytics so you could say Hey you know who who is your audience where are they from and you could say hey I just

40:40want to look at my LinkedIn People based in Buffalo how many people based in Buffalo follow my

40:46LinkedIn and that’s my metric for Success right and I don’t actually care about the 2,000 other people that

40:52happened to you know like us right um and then finally a couple other

40:57things real quick right is replacing stock images with authentic videos right

41:02I think uh authenticity is is sort of very much invoke these days so U replace the left with something like the right

41:09is great um and then another great volunteering opportunity is actually to

41:14be a volunteer photographer or videographer it’s relatively simple a lot of people have a passion for taking

41:21pictures right um and so you could leverage that skill set um and and by the way then you don’t have to do it

41:27right you have someone that’s dedicated and like Chris said um someone that’s uh tasked to be that collector of of

41:33content for you so that’s it let’s we we’ll I’ll stop sharing I’ll let sir

41:39Carly uh head over to the Q&A here for us wow thanks so much for all of that

41:46information um Chris and Gung that was like fact after fact it was amazing I

41:52feel like hopefully everybody um you know when you get the recording and you get the slides later you can go back and

41:58you know rewrite down all those things that you probably jotted down um but yes let’s hop into Q&A because like I said

42:05we had so many great questions um so let’s hop right in my first question is for Gung this one was submitted by

42:12Michael and the question is how do you handle crossplatform attribution

42:18tracking and what tools and workflows do you employ so I know you just talked a little bit about that but um

42:23specifically crossplatform attribution yeah attribution is is can be tough

42:28right like um and it and I think generally uh most marketers I think do

42:35the hard part is if you want to say oh well they saw our Facebook page and they came from Twitter and and I’m gonna I’m

42:41G to Devy it up and every everything gets like a 20% attribution I am more of the p uh

42:47perspective that like first come first serve like they saw us first on Twitter so Twitter gets gets get you know gets

42:54the you know um wins right and in terms of like where I’m going to Tribute things um what we you know so again for

43:01folks that maybe uh don’t have the budget or want to start simple right like a form collection is is is a really

43:07easy way to do that you could see exactly um Google analytics will tell you where people are coming from if

43:13you’re just looking at website traffic um and so you can see like hey people are coming from Facebook they’re coming

43:18from Twitter Etc uh if you want to get a little bit more sophisticated right like you could use platforms like a HubSpot

43:25like a Salesforce um that that allows you uh to see for any constituent or uh

43:32you know where where their Journey has been over time right they’ll say like hey they they they landed on your uh

43:38your page right you could use um uh some tools like intercom as an example also

43:44tracks that so that’s the little chatbot you see in a lot of places but they’ll still still note you know Chris came and

43:49this is the third time he’s been here and you know maybe he’s a you know question mark you know or a or a fox

43:56icon for a little while but then as you know who he is right it’ll actually tell you that oh this is actually Chris and

44:01here’s his his email um those are some other tools uh that I think are interesting right there’s obviously a

44:08social specific platform but um those are uh my sense is for the vast majority

44:16of nonprofits probably a little bit overpriced and and and overpowered yeah I think that’s a really

44:22good point like maybe your CRM that you already are using has these kinds of tools and maybe you just haven’t um you

44:27know implemented them yet and that’s definitely something to look into that’s great advice okay my next question is for

44:35Chris um and this is actually a combined question from Brooke and Clarissa so uh

44:40the question is how can a person who has no experience in creating video or using

44:46editing software succeed in creating effective video and I think um to just

44:52keep going with that what’s a good free software for editing video cool yeah this is talking my language

44:58because I despite running a tech company I’m not very techsavvy I can admit that

45:04you’re not supposed to tell people that no I mean there’s a lot of cool tools out there and there’s probably

45:10ones that I’ve never heard of um you know but the top one’s right iMovie if

45:17you have IOS clipchamp is sort of the new one on the Microsoft side of things

45:22um but honestly my answer is very straightforward canva canva canva um I

45:29highly recommend everybody get themselves their free canva account um that they can get as a nonprofit there’s

45:36a little there’s some hoops you have to jump through um but it’s definitely worth it and you’ll be able to create a

45:42ton of because it’s not just creating like a mashup video right it’s also creating a cool fa something that goes

45:48on Facebook or Instagram and you can shape it to the different types of content and package it in all these

45:54different ways and I think it’s just canva is just such a home run that I highly highly recommend it um and even I

46:01can use it so it’s it’s pretty I tried to get into like Adobe and I tried to teach myself how to use all these

46:07platforms and I’m like no this isn’t happening so I just use the easy ones

46:12and uh we actually have it what caused us to build a canva integration memory

46:17fox actually integrates with canva because of this because it’s so amazing we’re like we could build our own video

46:23editor we’re like well we could make a simple one but canva does a really good job and you can just drag your content

46:30right into canva and then you can um make all kinds of really cool stuff so um I could talk about canva all day so I

46:36won’t but uh my answer is canva I you well you know I love that

46:42answer I’m on canva I’m I’m I have to be like a super user probably at this point um and I guess just expanding on that um

46:50over to Gung are there any other tools that um that might be good for people if they just aren’t techsavvy

46:57man you know I feel like Chris already stole my thunder there so um I’ll I’ll just reiterate like we love Cambo as

47:02well I think the templates you know Stacy in the chat mentioned that right like um and the fact that it’s actually

47:08free for nonprofits right like it’s it’s not super expensive you have to pay for it but it is not insubstantial in the

47:15fact that they uh they give it away for nonprofits is really kudos to them and and you know something you know that you

47:21know everyone should really take advantage of I love that okay let’s see

47:27back over to Chris this is a question from Jay um is quality of phones good

47:33enough to to create video content yeah this is a great this is a great question because I’m not sure memory Fox would

47:40necessarily exist if it wasn’t true uh because 99.9% of our content is

47:46collected via phones um no you can do amazing content now and I think a lot of people are learning that if they haven’t

47:52learned it already um you know certainly there is a place for videographers and

47:57video editors and agencies that can give you that really really once a year maybe

48:03twice a year the the holy cow that’s a great video but 99% of the time the rest

48:09of the time just cameras I mean just use your cameras on your phones um and in a

48:14lot of ways it’s a cheat code right because you are collecting from your

48:19mission beneficiaries it is user generated content and there’s a reason that it is the most coveted content um

48:27you know big Brands spend millions billions of dollars a year trying to present themselves like

48:33nonprofits um using all kind you know to make be authentic and be all these things no you guys are the authentic

48:40ones like this is what we do is everything we do is authentic and so in

48:45a way that raw video that raw content performs better because it’s authentic

48:52and I think a lot of nonprofits feel like they need to compete with Nike they need to compete with these big Brands

48:58and you do not just get your story out there phones are good enough to collect great content and um and and and that’s

49:06how you stand out in the attention economy is like good Grassroots video that is your cheat code um and I I think

49:12you know we do everything we can to help you do that um but definitely be doing it on your own

49:17too that’s such a good point yeah you can really it’s really DIY I mean most people have a smartphone at this point

49:24it’s super easy to do you know if you’re just thinking about oh this is a great event maybe just pop out your camera get

49:30a photo you probably already took photos anyway but you know let’s let’s submit it to the nonprofit afterwards yeah the challenge with smartphones is not that

49:37they’re not taking high quality content it’s it’s how do you get it from people

49:42right you could set up a Dropbox you can have them text message it to you but like I’m in a text message group with my

49:48parents and my family and I ruin every video because I’m the only person with an Android so and me like so text

49:55message really isn’t great email is not really that great there’s my sister Danielle yes it’s true but yeah so like

50:03it becomes more about how do you get that content from people rather than the video

50:08itself well Danielle’s gonna kick you out of the family um at least the group

50:13chat um my next question let’s kick it back over to Gung we H have a question

50:19from Justine the question is how do I create a balance between captivating reals that portray volunteerism

50:26uh or events versus educational posts about our organization so is there an ideal um ratio or what would you say to

50:34that g um I think I saw that question come through earlier and Justin may even have

50:40an answer in part because it’s it sounds like for her um they have a pretty big discrepancy on like which ones really

50:46resonate right um you know I my my thought is right like having a mix is

50:52great but but really coming back to that what I I said earlier around like why why are you doing this right like no you

50:58know all all of us have um uh a gazillion things we could be doing right

51:03and I I think video is a fantastic way to get your story out there um but understanding you know the driver of

51:10that right and so you know let’s let’s say you know your um your post from your volunteers really drive more clicks and

51:17more interest and engagement right um but does it also help you with recruiting right does it help you with a

51:22thing that you really care about and if so then you know go make that 90% right

51:28of of what you’re posting right like I’m I’m very much into the you know double down on the thing that’s that’s working

51:34for you right and and and and and and um and and what you could also do right

51:39like I said earlier is tie it back to your mission right it doesn’t have to be just one or the other right that

51:45volunteer story you can easily say hey like a quick followup right and how does that tie back to the Miss how does that

51:51you know right um and so I think you can you can probably do a little bit of both

51:56but um you know follow you know you what do you want to get out of it and what does the metric tell you that is the

52:02best solution right definitely um okay I know we are

52:08wrapping up but I’m just have a quick last question for Chris um Chris this

52:14question came from Stacy um and we are wondering should a volunteer fill out a

52:20consent form to be placed on the organization’s website or on their social media channel

52:26you’re on mute gota make sure I’m on mute for the kids upstairs uh no everything is about

52:33consent consent is the maybe the most important thing you’ll do in the whole process um and and consent is not it it

52:42it is not in perpetuity it is you collect consent originally and years

52:48later if you choose to share that content again you need to go get a consent again especially if it’s

52:53something that’s if it’s not you know but I mean if it’s something sensitive consent it it does not exist in a a

52:59single state of time it is you need to continuously do that and make sure when you get consent you you drop it in that

53:07folder that you’re using where all the content is so you keep everything together because you might need that consent but always always always consent

53:14we try to make it easier memory Fox we’re always kind of trying to build that more but um yeah digitize it get it

53:22in your share Drive make sure you don’t lose it because consent is ethical storytelling is the most

53:27important piece of all this and I got to give a shout out to Carly because she’s about to release our ethical

53:33storytelling white paper um and survey from that we collected from a lot of

53:38thought leaders throughout the industry um and uh I think you guys will really Gung I think you submitted too so we got

53:45really good info on there and I think you all will really enjoy it because the ethics of Storytelling is something we

53:51didn’t really address too much today but it is just as important as the rest of it and so I can encourage you to check

53:57that out and um really take a look at your practices well yeah thanks I love um

54:04that we are trying to talk more about ethical storytelling I think the whole sector is going in that direction so that’s really exciting um but now with

54:11our final few minutes I do want to kick it back over to Chris um who is going to share just a little bit about memory Fox

54:17and then we will wrap up with Gung doing the same about Civic Champs because you guys are here um obviously representing

54:22wonderful Brands and um I’m sure audience would love to hear a little more so over to you Chris yeah just real

54:29quick I’m I’m glad we have the opportunity to do this because obviously we we put a lot of work into it but it’s a very simple straightforward platform

54:36right it is a platform that helps you collect stories from your community keep them all organized in one place and then

54:42share them along alls all of your well really package it and then share it along all of your fundraising channels

54:48so you can see there in your the share stop we have the canva Integrations you just drag your stories right into there

54:54and then you can you know do what you need to do to package them and then get them out into the World building a lot of cool stuff we’re trying to figure out

55:00how to integrate Ai and all kinds of things to be able to better serve and better track consent and make sure that

55:06you’re following best ethics practices when sharing your story I think as we kind of push into this AI world it’s

55:13going to be more and more difficult and we want to really be your ally when it comes to that to make sure we’re all doing things the right way and not being

55:20exploitative um so yeah if you ever want a demo or anything like that um feel free to check us out on the website

55:26email me personally or get a hold of Carly or someone on our team and we’d love to show you how it

55:34works Co and I’ll share my screen here too um and similarly do something very

55:40quickly here in the last minute or so that we have um and so Civic Champs right we try to be there for every stage

55:46of the volunteer process for volunteer managers and so we have a lot of platforms one of them that you’re seeing

55:51here is our mobile app right and so allows you to do seamless check-ins like people can just tap you know check in

55:58pick the opportunity it starts a little timer um will automatically check people out at the end of the day we also have a

56:04kiosk uh for people to use if they don’t you know they don’t have a phone and of course you as an admin can also manage

56:10all your volunteers as well um you know other things that we do as an example right so if you’re thinking about at the

56:16end of this the day we collect feedback um and so you’re thinking about retention of your volunteers this could

56:21be really critical right knowing if someone didn’t have a great experience but also if they did have a great experience right um You these are your

56:28Champions these might be folks that you want to ask for those video testimonials um as well um and to reach out to them

56:35and then finally right we bring all of this back and really easy to use dashboards with you know really powerful

56:41filters the ability to see all this content um you know with big metrics at the top that you can easily pull for any

56:47date period right and so um again like Chris uh you know we we work super hard

56:52on this but uh if folks are interested interested in in reaching out um you know feel free to you know contact us

56:59you know here’s my contact information again we’ll share all this out with everyone um and the last little promo we

57:05we’ll toss out there is you know uh for our webinar guests we always offer a sort of two-month uh free uh for for

57:12webinar guests and so if you book uh through uh before February 15th um you

57:18know that’s sort of the the offer that we have right now but with that yeah thanks so much

57:23Carly and and Chris for for doing everybody this was great thank you all for coming um Chris and Gung Thank You

57:30For Preparing so much really great information for our audience and thank you all for committing um a little

57:37portion of your January to us I know you’re all very busy so um we’re just really appreciative of that um and have

57:43a wonderful rest of your day and good luck as you uh fund raise all year long

57:49tell great stories that’s right thanks everyone have a great day