Wouldn't you love to create a video for your cause that everyone would pass around and talk about? That's the usually unfulfilled promise of the web.
One reason it so seldom actually works out the way we'd like is the videos we create just aren't "contagious." Nobody shares them because they lack that shareable quality.
ListenIn Pictures blog has Top Ten Tips for Creating Contagious Content:
- It's Not About how Good the Idea is, It's About how Shareable it is.
- Identify Yourself Authoritatively.
- Self Reference is Not Contagious. (...don't talk about what you do, talk about why you exist and why they should join your movement.)
- Positivity Works.
- Know How People Share.
- Banal Information is Not Transmissible.
- Do Something Unexpected/Have a Twist.
- Make it Timely.
- Aim for Combined Relevance. (Tap into other things your target audiences loves or cares about)
- Uncomplicated Language is Contagious.
These are good tips not only for videos, but any communication you'd like people to care about.
The one overriding tip that covers all of these? Don't make it about you. Make it about them.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 30 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you'll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com. 
