What can YouLearn from YouTube?
What if they called a panic and nobody showed up? That's kind of what happened in a recent NonProfit Times article, Social Networking: Brands Become Vulnerable in Cyberspace. The thesis of the article tried to be something like this: Donors, volunteers, and others can do anything they want on social networking sites like YouTube.com. That -- gasp -- means we aren't in control! They could do anything! Anything at all! And so on.
Fortunately, the nonprofit leaders (from the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association) interviewed didn't share in the panic. They properly responded with the sanguine attitude that attention is good, even when you're not totally in control, and the danger posed by out-of-control messages is pretty small.
But that hardly dissuaded the intrepid NPT reporter! In a sidebar headlined "Edgier Images Shoot Through YouTube" (unfortunately only in the print edition), he raised the specter of edgy material appearing on YouTube in behalf of nonprofits:
YouTube.com flashes in the face of viewers as a new form of information where edgier and more dramatic material tries pry open the emotional depths.
Really now. Any marketing or fundraising we do ought to at least try to "pry open the emotional depths." The stuff we talk about, the causes we support matter a lot! They're worth getting emotional about. Even edgy.
The truly scary thing isn't what might happen on YouTube, but what's already happening in direct mail: Bland, dull, unemotional material that's been vetted to death by lawyers, brand experts, and other bureaucrats. That pap doesn't have the power to motivate and excite people -- and its residual power to awaken them to duty is waning every day.
It's so bad, the amateurs on YouTube can do better work!
So be thankful if someone cares enough about you to put something edgy and dangerous about you on YouTube. Check out their work. Learn from them. Do what it takes to be as interesting and emotional as they are. And by all means, don't worry about what they might do! Worry more about what you aren't doing.
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