You’ve produced a video for your organization, and you’ve released it to the world. Now what? This may not be your first time at the rodeo, and it certainly won’t be your last. Each video project adds to your portfolio of communication tools and informs the production of the next. So take a moment to evaluate what was successful and what missed the mark. We explain how in part 3 of our 3-part series on working with a video production company.
1. Return to Your Stated Goals and Audience: We can’t stress enough how important it is to clearly define your goals and audience prior to commencing production. It’s step one in the creation of an effective video RFP or Inquiry, and the most critical part of the pre-production process. But it’s also the best way you can evaluate your video’s success. If you had a clearly stated goal of “raise $100,000 dollars” or “get 1,000 views in one week,” then you’ll be better able to gauge how your video performed.
2. Vanity Likes or Meaningful Engagement? Early in the explosion of video content for the web, everyone was eager for their videos to go “viral”; the more social media likes, the better. Now organizations are seeking meaningful engagement over “vanity likes”. Meaningful engagement may be donations, sign-ups, an expression of awareness, or donors and partners understanding your work more clearly. Consider closely what meaningful engagement looks like to you and use that as your evaluative measure before counting the number of likes and retweets.
3. Poll Your Audience: Select a few viewers and ask what they thought of the video. How did they feel after watching it? What did they learn? What action were they inspired to take, and did they have the tools to take that action? You should be producing your video with specific audiences in mind, so it’s critical to get some feedback from those audiences to know what worked and what didn’t. Not only will that information help you evaluate the success of your video, it will be incredibly valuable for your next video project.
4. Consider Dissemination Strategy: As you evaluate, consider if any failures in reach might have more to do with the strategy surrounding dissemination. Are you using all the tools at your disposal to drive your audience to the content? Video storytelling can be a powerful tool, but it has to be leveraged. Video doesn’t play itself; it needs a venue and method to be shared. This can be as simple as sharing the video through your own channels – email, website, social media. It can also involve looping in existing partner organizations to spread the video, or even finding new ones that may find the video useful. Distribution is a critical step, so don’t wait until the end to have a plan. Otherwise you may be left with a video that no one knows exists.
