Posts

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Why I Film Myself Working

If you follow me on Facebook (or Snapchat: wester_brad) you may know that I’ve started to film myself working, but you probably don’t really know why.

I am a marketer and it is great for marketing and branding.

Vlogging is great for marketing. It’s easier to document what you’re doing and show people than it is to write full articles explaining what you’re doing, why you are doing it and how they can do the same. Writing that all out takes a lot of time, so if you’re looking to save time – film yourself. Video content is also very powerful on your website and throughout all social networks, but it is especially powerful right now on Facebook.

I wanted to learn how to take and edit video.

I’ve been working with cameras and editing photos and video since high school. I really enjoy it, but I am not that great at it. I used to think because I could do it, I knew what I was doing – at least the basics. …then I met professionals – people who film and edit video for ESPN, marketing agencies, freelancers, etc. I quickly realized I knew NOTHING when compared to them. I learn by doing, so I decided I need to film and edit a lot more video, and I’m always watching and learning from others.

But the real reason I film myself each week is so I can watch myself work.

Sounds weird, right? …well I have a good reason. And no, I’m not trying to be the next Gary Vaynerchuk (Follow him though!)

While filming myself each week does give me an opportunity to improve my filming and editing skills and the videos do help me with marketing – these aren’t the reasons I do it.

I simply get to see myself working – and that’s awesome.

6 months ago (almost to the day) I was walking into the hospital for my second brain biopsy. 6 months ago I was unable to read. 6 months ago I was frequently struggling to carry on normal conversations and was often using the wrong words and didn’t even realize it.

Today, I’m able to read. I’m able to carry on conversations much better than I have been able to in 9+ months. I’m driving myself again. I’m back at work. I’m so much better than I was a few months ago and every video is a reminder of that.

I’m not back to “normal” – to where I was before my neuro issues began. And I won’t ever be exactly back to that same spot. Portions of my brain have been damaged and have “died”. That means it is expected that I won’t ever have 100% of my abilities back – but that won’t stop me from living the life I want to. I just need to make some adjustments.

My most common struggle is simply using the correct words when speaking. I’m getting better with it. I’m paying closer attention to when it happens and trying to identify if there are triggers that commonly cause the issue. I’m also testing myself and seeing what I can do to help myself improve and be able to recover from situations when I begin to struggle with using the correct words.

Filming myself working gives me the opportunity to watch and learn while I go through this process of retraining my brain.

Back in February, I shared an Instagram post mentioning that I was looking forward to speaking at digital marketing events again. Over the past few months, I’ve been honored to have been offered the opportunity to speak at a few different events – some of which would even be paid speaking opportunities. I’ve turned all of them down. I simply don’t feel ready for that yet. I’m always nervous before speaking events, and now I’m scared.

 

I’m scared because I know some of what triggers the neurological issues I have, and let’s just say speaking at an event would hit several of them. Especially triggers that often leave me struggling to use the correct words when speaking. Having an issue speaking, while being a speaker at an event terrifies me – but that won’t stop me.

Fear can feel strong, but I believe we are all stronger.

I’m not going to let my fear stop me from doing what I want to do. I was scared to start speaking, but I gave it a shot and started despite my fear. I didn’t let fear keep me from starting, I’m not going to let it stop me either. So I’m preparing. I’m testing my abilities and getting myself ready. I don’t know when it’ll be or what I’ll be speaking about, but I will be speaking at events again – soon. I don’t plan on letting fear think it’s willing by waiting too long.

So, for now, I’m filming. I’m seeing how I do, how I am improving, identifying my struggles and working on solving them. I don’t need to be perfect, I never will be. I just want to be more prepared than I am today. It’s like athletes watching game film – it helps you learn so you can be better.

Fear won’t win. 

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Nonprofit Marketing | Engaging Donors Panel

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing a few nonprofit marketing techniques on the Engaging Donors Panel Discussion at IMPACT Funding Symposium hosted by The C2 Initiative. I’ll be sharing my advice for nonprofit marketing techniques with 50 organizations that range from social services, environmental, education, health & wellness and economic empowerment.

Other Panelists on the Nonprofit Marketing Panel

Laura Rossman, Moderator
Bethany Booher: 618 Creative
Dana Workes, Dana Workes Creatives, LLC

When speaking at the PRSA St. Louis Career Development Day, I took some time to prepare and decided to write down and share some of my thoughts and share them as a blog post. I received a lot of feedback for that post, and will continue to do the same for upcoming events, including the IMPACT Funding Symposium.

Nonprofit Marketing Techniques

What are the best marketing tools for nonprofits in order to share their mission?

Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Buffer, SproutSocial and all the other social media management platforms help make managing social media easier… but, by far the best marketing tool nonprofits can use is their smartphones. Take photos, take videos, use Facebook live video, use Snapchat, use Instagram and Instagram Stories to show how donations really do make an impact. The transparency of the behind the scenes content will serve as constant reminders and visual proof of donations making a difference. This will encourage people to donate for the first time and continue to donate again and again.

How important is the website in encouraging donors and what things do I need on my site?

It’s not important. Your website doesn’t need to convince people to donate. People don’t search for ways online to donate money. You have to reach out to them and motivate them. Spend your time creating content and distributing it through social media and other influencers.

That being said, your website needs to do one job that is very important – and it must do it perfectly. Process donations and capture user information. Your website should be branded to match your social profiles, everything should match in terms of color, photos, call to actions, etc. Make sure that when a donation call to action is clicked on social media, it is obvious they have found the proper website. The donation process needs to be quick and work flawlessly. Be sure to ask for email addresses, phone numbers and mailing addresses. Any information that will help you with future marketing efforts. Avoid demographic information, it is already available to social media and Google analytics. Don’t make the donation processes longer than it needs to be. In fact, you should always be trying to make it shorter and faster.

How can we effectively use social media to create outreach for our organizations?

Use your smartphones to capture the behind the scenes moments. Share how donations truly do make a difference. Be as transparent as possible. People want to be sure their donations are being used to support the mission and not being misused to benefit others.

What’s the best ways to create a brand for our nonprofit?

Always focus on the mission. To be perfectly blunt, people don’t care about you. They care about the mission. Create a branding style book that will help you with creating matching social profiles, website, mailers, etc. That way your audience can quickly identify your pages. Outside of that, just stay focused on the mission and let the rest of your brand grow organically.

How can I make the most of the annual giving day campaigns…nobody knows about us?

Don’t focus on those days. Annual giving days are overrun with posts from nonprofits both big and small. Everyone is releasing content and competition on social media is crazy high. Social media algorithms are forced to pick and choose what content to show and what to push to the side. Annual giving days are the perfect time to repurpose and reuse content. On those days pick your top performing content from the last year, and reuse it. Post every hour and try to push through the noise – but keep in mind there’s still 364 other days to get donations.

What can nonprofits do to create content that make people want to give to our organization?

Content that shows transparency and connect donations with real success of the mission. Focus on engaging content. You’re competing for attention against all kinds of other brands and updates from friends and family. Keep an eye on social media trends and what the platforms are pushing. The more content of a certain type your seeing in your newsfeed (live video, etc.) the more likely it is to be performing well in Facebook’s algorithm. Use that to your advantage. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, just be observant and keep an eye on what works for others.

Featured Photo is from one of my favorite nonprofits, The Foundation for Photo/Art in Hospitals.

Mission

The unique mission of the Foundation is to place large, framed photographs of nature and beautiful places from around the world in hospitals to give comfort and hope to patients and their families, visitors, and caregivers. Studies show that nature art has a beneficial effect on relieving a patient’s stress and anxiety. The photographs are intended to provide color and an atmosphere of compassion where healing is encouraged.

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