Livestreaming exploded for Nonprofits in 2020
Insights from the Tectonic Video report that analysed 778 nonprofits social media videos
“BE MINE” - chances are that you might have used the phrase more than once. But the phrase is not just dear for humans. Animals also love and in there own unique way they express their love.
In fact, they show more than humans. In the last one month, I have discarded more than 10 eggs from the four pigeons who have been trying to capture my terrace garden.
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
On the eve of Valentine’s Day folks at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden showed some special love for the animals. Even the lion has a valentine’s day greeting, the poor guy didn’t find anything to eat. Must be wondering about the madness that human’s show.
The organisation posted another ongoing Facebook Live video from inside the zoo talking about the four Texas Tortoises(each one of them 12 years old) and the food that they are being fed.
Along with the live video, the second oldest zoo in the USA also did Facebook Fundraising.
Livestreaming has transformed the Nonprofit video landscape
Livestreaming on social media, specifically Facebook Live, exploded in 2020.
Of the top 100 most engaging video posts on Facebook, 51 were livestreams. And livestreaming accounted for a significant number of top engaging videos on Instagram and Twitter as well.
The above data is part of the recently released report - “How the pandemic changed nonprofit video forever” from the folks at Tectonic Video.
The report is based on the Nonprofit Video IndexTM, Tectonic Video’s proprietary data set of 778 nonprofits selected at random from a database of more than 10,000 501(c)(3) organizations.
“With the help of a social media analytics company, we collected one year’s worth of video post data from each nonprofit’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter account to identify trends and establish benchmarks.
The Index measures nonprofits’ video post engagement rate (calculated by adding together likes, comments, favorites, retweets, shares, and reactions per video post, and dividing by audience size),” says Tectonic Video.
The report also finds out that the number of video posts from nonprofits across categories increased significantly, irrespective of the operating budget, audience size, our production capabilities.
“At more than 60%, Facebook saw the biggest increase, followed by Instagram at 33% and Twitter at 29%.”
With the world going under lockdown - livestreaming on social media became the default and the below image shows that.
However, with life getting slightly better or we accepting the pandemic saw a drop in the video posting but the engagement growth remained constant.
The massive growth in video increased engagement and didn’t affect much audience growth.
Videos are majorly for engagement on any platform. Much has to do with how each platform calculates engagement. This is where the smart integration of fundraising with live streaming comes into place that is possible both on Facebook and Instagram.
Production value does not correlate with engagement
Last year Doug Scott founder of Tectonic Video had shared: Nonprofits who have always worried about the production and execution costs associated with videos have some good news.
“Every nonprofit video maker dreams about what they could do with more resources. Fortunately, creating engaging social media videos doesn’t depend on production value. It turns out engagement isn’t about how flashy your video is. It’s about the story you tell.”
The above finding from 2019 was more so applicable in 2020 and I believe this will be the case with Livestreaming going mainstream on social media.
Due to the rise of livestreaming, COVID-related filming challenges and travel restrictions, and the growing acceptance of selfie-style videos, the overwhelming majority of the most engaging videos were first-person, unscripted, single-take videos. There were also a number of instances of celebrities, largely stuck at home during the pandemic, recording selfie-style PSAs in support of their charities.
Video gets attention and engagement because consumer loves them and even social platforms are pushing them too. You may recall how Facebook pushed live streaming across all its platforms once the world was locked inside their homes. And simultaneously enabling fundraising while doing live streaming. The trend that gave a push to the creator economy is going nowhere.
So nonprofits should invest in video, that goes without saying. While the basic technology for video shooting should be in place but no one is demanding a 4K HD video. Just make sure you have the “WHY” and storyline in place. Otherwise, it will be another junk on your page and you would be wondering why no one is watching them.
If you happen to read the report I would recommend you to go through the top 100 Nonprofit Video Index to find some inspiration. Don’t be surprised to see the top 10 pages all to be connected to animals.
“This year we found that video content posted by animal-related nonprofits was not only the most engaging overall but 19 of the top 20 ranked nonprofits in the Index were zoos, aquariums and humane societies.”
Perhaps the pandemic made us realise the importance of keeping nature and animals alive.
P.S. I have been discarding those pigeon eggs because cleaning the entire balcony every day is a tough ask.