In my previous post, I presented the first part of an interview with Michael Hoffman, CEO of See3 the parent company of DoGooderTV. To catch you up: DoGooderTV is a video hosting site, similar to YouTube, specifically for non-profit organizations. What follows is the rest of the interview with Michael.

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Carol: What is the social networking aspect of DoGooder TV and what advantages does it have for nonprofits?

Michael: We believe the social networking idea has legs, and not only for MySpace. Our goal with DoGooderTV is to allow people who get excited about an organization’s mission, to share this excitement with their friends, and to seek out others who share their interest. We need a mechanism for “friends telling friends” and then to begin to rely on their friends opinions of worthy causes and organizations.

Relatively few Americans donate money to non-religious nonprofits. If social networking can be tapped to get people to act we are all for it and we want to be a leader in this regard. I must say there are others doing social networks built about issues, such as progressive politics. Where we think we will add something is that our network will be built around video, which we think is a much more interesting frame of reference than say, annual reports.

Carol: Is this a service that is best suited for large, national nonprofits? If so why? If not, why not?

Michael: We have thought a lot about this question. On the one hand, large national nonprofits have likely invested more money in more video, and so they will have a leg up. On the other hand, small nonprofits with a single great video piece will likely benefit disproportionally from being in front a new audience. The large national nonprofits already are reaching lots of people through lots of marketing efforts. The small nonprofit who has a video that gets the attention of a national audience will see a much larger percentage impact.

Carol: How hard is it to create a quality video? Is it something that is within reach of small to medium sized nonprofits?

Michael: Not so hard! A great example is David Pogue from the New York Times. With a home camera and a tripod and free or low-cost software, Pogue makes great little videos about technology subjects. Go to nytimes.com and search for video and take a look. The great thing about YouTube and the explosion of online video is that people now do not expect everything to be super-produced and nonprofits need to take advantage of that.

We offer training to organizations so that staff can produce decent video. It is amazing what half-a-day of training can do.

While professional video is not cheap, I think nonprofits need to look at what they spend on print material and consider whether they would get more bang for the buck with video. There are other things organizations can do that are cost effective, for example, we help organizations create slide shows with voice. Great photos and a compelling voice over can be produced inexpensively and have similar impact to video.

Carol: What is the basic equipment needed for making a video and what tips would you give non-profits for creating a good video?

Michael: Obviously you need a video camera to make any video. There are lots of great cameras out there and I won’t get into specific brands. There are decent choices at every price point. Why spent $3,000 when you can spend $300? In addition to the picture quality, the big thing to think about is sound. People will watch bad video with good sound, they will not watch good video with bad sound. One thing you get with higher cost camera is the ability to have external sound inputs.

In terms of tips, we are working on some video tutorials and hope to have them on the See3 and DoGooderTV sites in a few months. We also offer full-service production as well as camera training and handling equipment purchases. If this is something you believe you need to be doing, See3 can help you get there with a combination of internal organizational resources and our professionals when needed.

Carol: What is the promotion plan for DoGooderTV?

Michael: We are planning an aggressive PR strategy as the primary way to educate individuals about the site. We have a strategy and a staff that will work MySpace, Facebook and other social networks, inviting those with expressed interest in specific issues to come see the video on DGTV relevant to their interest. We also expect that many of our nonprofits will promote the site to their constituents, as a way to showcase their videos, and because they understand that the growth of the whole community benefits all of the participating organizations.

If we look at the growth of other social networks and video sites, the viral aspects and word of mouth are clearly the biggest factor in community growth. If the content is good, and there is enough of it, I am confident the people will be there.

So, in terms of promotion, much of our efforts now are spreading the word among organizations and gathering video.

Since our Alpha site went up in February we have received submissions and interest from a wide range of nonprofits, over 100, who have begun to hear about us through blogs and word-of-mouth. We are on target to have more than 150 organizations on board before the end of October, which is the goal we set for ourselves.

We are now working, with the American University’s Center for Social Media, on the first nonprofit video festival. The festival is being designed as an annual event to attract and honor the best of nonprofit video and to give nonprofits a showcase for all the great video that is out there. We are talking to a wide range of co-sponsors and we will let you know when we have an official announcement with more details. Of course, all the video submitted for the festival will be on DoGooderTV, which will act as the official site of the festival. We believe that the festival, the reach of the cosponsors and the PR it will generate will bring in more video than we have been able to attract thus far.

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DoGooderTV is in Alpha release right now. Michael says that they expect to roll out the beta release in November 2006. Some of the new functionality that will be available with the beta is the social networking portion and nonprofits will be able to directly upload video and categorize those videos. Michael suggests that future functions will be guided by the nonprofit customers they serve.

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