Posted by: Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO

Micro-Documentaries has applied for a session at the
 Communications Network Fall Conference and needs your vote

Hi everyone,

Will you help us secure a speaking spot at the Communications Network Fall Conference?

As you may know, the Communications Network puts on a yearly event that provides insight and leadership into the practice of communications in philanthropy. We co-applied with our client, MAMA of the UN Foundation, to host a session this year--Short Films, Big Impact—which will discuss how social and environmental innovators can advance their missions by producing bite-size, poignant, inspiring video content.  

Here’s the catch: The Communications Network has put this year’s proposed sessions up for vote. Sixty-six ideas have been submitted. The top 12 will be chosen. We’ll be at the conference one way or another, but we’d love to be up on stage sharing the message of short film.

In order to vote for our session, please go here. Voting is open to everyone, so feel free to invite your friends to vote as well. The deadline is this Wednesday, May 22.

If anyone is feeling especially inspired to help us secure our spot, we invite you to post one of the Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter messages below.

Hope to see you in New Orleans this fall,

natasha
. . . . . . .
Facebook/LinkedIn posts

1. Can you take 30 seconds to help support Micro-Documentaries? Our friends at Micro-Documentaries and MAMA of the UN Foundation have applied for a session about short film at this year’s Communications Network Fall Conference. Vote here to help them secure their spot!
2. Short film has been a powerful tool that’s helped us move our mission forward. Our friends at Micro-Documentaries have proposed a session at this year’s Communications Network Fall Conference that will help other organizations leverage short film to increase their impact as well. Vote for their session here!
   

Tweets

1. Can you take 30 seconds to help support Micro-Documentaries? Vote here for their session at Comm Network. http://bit.ly/YZCYMb
   
2. Vote to learn about the power of short film at this year’s Communications Network Fall Conference: http://bit.ly/YZCYMb

Posted by: Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO

“Pregnancy is a wonderful window of opportunity. A mother can turn her life around.”
— Martha Ryan, founder and executive director of the Homeless Prenatal Program

I used to live and work around the corner from the Homeless Prenatal Program. I remember walking by the building with the modest sign above the door in the Mission/Potrero area of San Francisco. I was carrying my own baby in my growing belly at the time and was so grateful that a program like theirs was there to care for women in some of life's most unfortunate situations. I didn't know founder and executive director Martha Ryan then, but I knew that what she was offering new families was precious.

We had the opportunity to collaborate with her recently on a production and were most excited to receive the news that Martha was just selected as a CNN Hero. Congratulations!  You are an inspiration and truly a hero for all of us.

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Posted by: Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO

This Friday, May 3rd, I’ll be in Boston for Making Media Now, the annual conference from Filmmakers Collaborative. This is my first time attending, but the event has a reputation for highlighting the latest challenges and opportunities in the independent media community and for providing a valuable forum for networking and learning, so I’m excited to experience it. I’ll be speaking at the first panel of the day, which explores how interactive documentaries are transforming the film industry and connecting subjects, filmmakers, and audiences in novel ways. I hope to see you there!

Posted by: Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO

This story first appeared on the Content Marketing Institute, an online magazine for content marketing education and best practice. You can read the original article here.

As video content becomes a more regular feature of content marketing strategies, we need to ensure that the same attention that goes into preserving the purity of the written content — without tainting it of promotion — goes into producing short films. All too often videos that were originally intended for content marketing end up focusing on the companies themselves, or on the products they’re trying to sell, rather than on the audience and the type of content it enjoys.

Like its written counterpart, the best video content marketing campaign is not about you. Instead, it’s “brought to us by you.” So actually, it’s all about your audience members and addressing their deepest aspirations in order to educate, inspire, and even entertain them.

If you are looking to stay top-of-mind with your audience in order to increase your influence with its members, here are some keys for getting yourself out of the way and, in doing so, leaving a memorable impression. That’s just what Cisco did in its series of short films, “My Networked Life.”

Step 1: Identify the audience for your video content

The first step in any video content marketing campaign is to clearly identify your audience. A company or organization generally has many touch points with different stakeholders, which makes it important to figure out which segment of your audience you most want to engage with your campaign. This enables you to focus your efforts and to communicate with increased clarity.

In Cisco’s case, its audience includes tech players, investors, entrepreneurs, engineers, and others. For My Networked Life, Cisco decided that it specifically wanted to focus on chief information officers (CIOs).

Step 2: Figure out what your audience cares about

Once you’ve identified your audience, the next step is to decide what type of content your audience will find inspiring, informative, or enjoyable. This requires that you probe into what your audience really cares about. What keeps them up at night or inspires them to get out of bed each morning?

In Cisco’s case, the company decided that what keeps CIOs up at night is this question: “How can I anticipate the needs of the future workforce?” The implications of this are significant; if CIOs can get it right, they will give their company a competitive advantage when it comes to recruiting the best people and building the best teams. Cisco identified this aspiration, then set out to create content that illuminated it in exciting ways.

Step 3: Create video content that aligns with your audience’s cares

Next up, create content that appeals to your audience’s aspirations. The key here is to get in the mode of producing something that will be a gift to your audience. Think of your favorite magazine. Do the articles leave you wondering what the magazine is trying to sell you? Not likely. They probably leave you feeling like you have just received a gift — of education, inspiration, insight, or entertainment.

In Cisco’s case, in order to align with CIOs in a meaningful way, Cisco traveled the world, from India to Brazil, Canada to South Africa, to capture stories of how young people live, work, and engage with technology today. The idea was to appeal to CIOs by offering them intimate, thoughtful, detailed insight into what they could expect from the next-generation workforce.

Cisco found a way to connect with its audience of technology decision makers by capturing how 20- to 30-year-olds across the globe are exploring new ways of working and being accessible. The series brought CIOs into the homes and lives of these young people, and provided a first-hand view of their experiences.

How did this video content speak to Cisco’s goals and communicate the ways technology can impact audiences around the world? Consider the words of one participant, Shilo Shiv Suleman, from Bangalore, India: “I’m allowed to be a digital gypsy of sorts… My office can become a small little grove under a giant banyan tree.”

Step 4: Resist the urge to make a cameo appearance

The more editorial a video content marketing campaign is, the more successful it will be. In turn, the more it gets tinged with a promotional impression, the less effective it will be.

Here’s a simple gut check: Watch the film. Does it make you wonder what they are trying to sell you (promotional red flag!) or do you enjoy it as a gift (editorial check)?

Don’t plant images of your product in the video, and don’t put your logo at the front of the film. The best place for your brand in video marketing is at the end, using a simple, elegant, and understated credit, like: Brought to you by [your name]. That creates an aha! moment for the audience, which will likely forge a connection between their sense of gratitude and your business. It will also make them more likely to engage with the next episode in the series. And even if viewers are not in your target audience, to the extent that the piece is produced in an editorial way, they will be more likely to share it with their friends and social graph — people who may be your target.

In the end, Cisco’s campaign was produced as a gift to its audience, rather than as a direct promotion. By offering insight and encouraging thought, discussion, and dialogue in the tech community, it functioned to build the Cisco brand powerfully and elegantly. So next time you approach video content marketing, consider what your audience really cares about and what films you can produce to connect with them along those deepest aspirations. And remember: Keep yourself out of the way.

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Posted by: Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO

Announcing a new Production Hub in the South Pacific that makes it easier for us
to document your work in the region

One of the great blessings of producing short films for purposeful organizations is that good causes have no geographic bias. In addressing disease, poverty, education, nutrition and a myriad of other important issues, our clients are as likely to send us to the remote corners of the Earth as they are to the center of its urban metropolises. We film wherever our clients are making an impact, which means our work is truly global.

To that end, we’re launching a new Production Hub in the South Pacific to better serve all our clients who are doing important work in the region. Micro-Documentaries Production Hubs make it easier and faster to film local projects and help reduce travel costs to surrounding locations. Our new hub in Sydney, Australia, joins a group of eight existing hubs that span from Europe (Madrid and London) to South America (Santiago, Chile) to Africa (Cape Town, South Africa) to North America (San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles). We’re excited to add a ninth hub and a new continent to the family!

Let us know if you have any projects in the South Pacific that you’re eager to document on film.

Posted by: Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO

“If we’re able to invest in our youth now and give them alternatives to these negative pathways, our whole society benefits.” ––Robin Galas, Garden Program Director, Gateway Community School

Each year GlobalGiving, the online marketplace that connects funders with lesser known purposeful organizations and projects, hosts a video contest among those nonprofits who have posted a funding opportunity on the GlobalGiving site.

This year more than 65 organizations entered films into the competition, and we were proud to learn this week that Hidden Villa was named one of the five winners. Hidden Villa is an educational organization set on one of the prettiest pieces of land you’ll ever see—a 1600-acre sweep of open space in the foothills of California’s Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco. Here disadvantaged, delinquent, or at-risk youth can come and learn about the environment, stewardship, and social justice while participating in sustainable farming and other activities meant to promote self-confidence and healthy lifestyles.

We send a hearty congratulations to the folks at Hidden Villa and to their partners at Microsoft, who sponsored the microdoc.

We also encourage you to consider similar opportunities for your organization’s short films. Contests like the GlobalGiving Video Contest provide a great forum to increase viewership and circulation. One of the perks of winning the contest is that Hidden Villa’s microdoc gets circulated on GlobalGiving’s Facebook page and Twitter feed, which have 41,000 Likes and 58,000 Followers respectively. That’s a lot of additional audience for your cause.

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Posted by: Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO

If you work in the non-profit world, odds are that you already know of TechSoup for the donated or discounted hardware and software that it distributes to purposeful organizations. You may even be reading this post on one of its refurbished computers.

This month TechSoup is hosting the 2013 Digital Storytelling Challenge, which encourages nonprofits to submit short films for consideration by a panel of digital storytelling savants. There are prizes on the line, but the real goal is to help organizations hone their messages and share digital storytelling tips with other contestants.

We encourage you to participate. You have until midnight April 30th to submit your microdoc. The entry form is here.

We also encourage you to attend a series of webinars that TechSoup is hosting alongside the digital storytelling competition. This Thursday, April 11, is the webinar Your Digital Story from Creation to Consumption, which focuses on maximizing the reach and impact of your digital story.

On Thursday, April 18, comes a second webinar Menu of Storytelling Options and Services from Small to Large, which will explore the skills that purposeful organizations need to tell their stories in a compelling fashion, no matter their size or budget. I’ll be one of the presenters. I look forward to seeing you online!

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Posted by: Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO

Showcasing films of social innovation in Times Square last week.

Here's the close up!

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Posted by: Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO

“Experts and crowds can produce valuable insights, but too often nonprofits and funders ignore the constituents who matter most, the intended beneficiaries of our work.”
–– Fay Twersky, Phil Buchanan, and Valerie Threlfall, Stanford Social Innovation Review

The current issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review has a fascinating article about the importance of beneficiaries. Nonprofits and foundations, the article argues, all too often look to experts for the latest research or crowdsourcing for popular support while overlooking the people who matter most—their intended beneficiaries—who can offer powerful feedback, point out problems on the ground, and inspire future solutions.

As if you needed more encouragement to produce short films of the insight gems of your beneficiaries. Indeed, when it comes to film, there’s nothing like first-hand experience from your beneficiaries to illuminate your audience on the issue at hand or to offer insight on solutions needed for a better future.

Join this webinar on April 10 put on by SSIR to hear more about this topic.

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Posted by: Natasha Deganello Giraudie, CEO

“Our purpose in submitting the film was to have all these brilliant minds together to further research and unlock the mysteries of Nodding Syndrome. I want to thank everyone at your brilliant company that created such a masterpiece to share!” — Dr. Suzanne Gazda, Co-Founder of Hope for Humans

The children are ordinary boys and girls, going to school, playing games with their family and friends. One day without warning a drowsiness comes over their eyes; such is their sudden fatigue that they can fall from their feet—into a ditch, into a fire—and not have the strength or presence of mind to pull themselves out. These are the horrors of Nodding Syndrome (NS), a rare neurological disease wreaking havoc in the geographically isolated region between Northern Uganda and South Sudan. Hope for Humans is on the ground marshaling support for the affected children and for the parents, who must eke out a living while literally holding their children up.

“It has totally messed up my livelihood,” says one Ugandan woman who has lost five children to NS. “I don’t even get sleep, I don’t go to the garden (to farm). It’s difficult to cook since I have to carry them sometimes, and I don’t have anyone else to cook for me.”

The cause of NS is currently unknown, as is the cure. Hope for Humans aims to rectify that, while delivering much needed love, support and medicine to the communities in need.