Click on the button below, or go here, to register. It’s at Fad Gallery on Thurs 27 May, and it’s free!

For our views of the year check out Mortartown (my blog) or Alex’s blog.

In part one of our making videos tip we’ll be looking at making short videos using your mobile phone. This is the shorter version you can download the full pdf help sheet here. Feel free to add your own tips, suggestions and links into the comments.

Making a video for social media purposes is easy and quick. It’s a good way to communicate messages to a lot of people or a targeted group of people. A simple way to do this is to film a video on your phone and upload it to one of the many social networking sites.

Videos are a great way to communicate with members and non members. Research shows that people are more likely to watch a quick 30 second video than read the equivalent amount of written text in an email. We live in a visual culture and we should take this into consideration when planning communications.

Twitvids are easier to make than a more professional video and less is expected of them in picture and sound quality by the audience. But although less is expected of them visually and sound wise, thought should go into the content. They should still be used strategically and as part of a campaign plan.

There are many ways to incorporate twitvids into your campaign. Use them to show that the union is active and on the ball. Use them to respond quickly. Use them to interact with members.

Scripting
Even though twitvids are made on the fly they should still stick to your campaign key messages. Your subject should know what they are going to say before you start filming. There is no editing so they need to get it right in one go. The best short videos have only two or three sentences worth of talking. Having a call to action in your video is also good.

Keeping your audience interested.
Keep it short. 30 seconds maximum. Nobody wants to watch three minutes of the same shot of someone talking. You need to keep your audience interested and engaged.

Composition
Even though you are filming on your phone you can still make interesting shots and rather than just pointing the camera directly at the interviewee think about more interesting options.

Different angles and compositions engender different impressions. Person in the middle of the frame is more balanced and calm, to the side is more dynamic. Shot from below looks more powerful and dominating than from above; shooting from above limits double chins. Know what you want to achieve with your twitvid and plan your shots accordingly. Another handy tip is you can limit camera shake by holding your elbows close into your body when filming.

Lighting and sound
Filming on a phone limits your control of lighting and sound but keep the following in mind:

Backlit
Don’t place your subject with the sun behind them. The camera sensors will adjust for the sunlight and your subject will be in the dark.

Sun in the eyes
The opposite of backlit is to place your subject facing the sun. This is just as bad as you’ll end up with squinting subjects. Find a semi shaded spot or with the sun shinning on them from an angle.

Don’t take a shot in the dark
A bit of a no brainer, don’t try to film in a dark corner. Take 30 seconds to think about your video before you start and choose a location that is a little brighter.

Background and location
Use an appropriate background. Showing someone in an office gives a different message than showing them out the front of a school.

Noise or Sound
You can have the best looking video ever with great content… but what was that they said? If you can’t hear your subject it’s a wasted effort. Try to find a quiet spot when filming and get your subject to speak clearly.

Signals
Work out a hand signal to tell your subject to start talking. You don’t want the video to start with your voice saying “Go!”

Speaking to the camera
Make a choice about whether you want your subject to talk to the camera and let them know where to look when talking.

Check before you upload
Play your video back on your phone before you upload. Can you hear your subject? Does it look ok? It only takes 30 seconds to re-shoot it on the spot to fix your issues.

Uploading?
Once you’ve got your video “in the can” you’ll need somewhere for it to go. There are several options for where to upload your quick video. Work out before hand where you want to put your videos up and make sure you have the technology and skills to upload on the go. Use what you have already got. Remember that videos uploaded to youtube or vimeo can easily be embedded onto websites. Below is a list of options and depending on your phone and your unions needs.

Vimeo: www.vimeo.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com
Twitter: (Upload videos using Twitvid) www.twitter.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com
Ustream: (used for live streaming) www.ustream.tv

Many peak bodies or national union offices are adept at the lobbying process and regularly send representatives and delegations to parliament. They are practiced and know their way around the often arcane parliamentary traditions.

However, some of the most effective lobbying takes place away from the hallowed halls of Parliament and in the parliamentarian’s electorate office. Local MPs take special interest to events in their electorate, especially ones involving job losses or gross injustice. Even conservative parliamentarians who traditionally do not line up with unions can be allies.

Over at AlexWhite.org, there are two basic pieces of advice for rank-and-file union member delegations to visit MPs.

1. Members of Parliament get lobbied every day: don’t assume you’re the only group talking to them about your issue.
2. Most MPs have limited amounts of time: if you can’t get your point across in 15 minutes, you’re probably wasting your time (and theirs).

Read the entire post here.

The post is based on research by a number of Australian unions, including the ACTU and NTEU.

Members want union communications that are:

• Positive, proactive, forward looking, friendly
• Authentic – no cliches
• Not adversarial or victimising (they don’t want to be made into victims or to have to fight their employer)
• People focused (centred around members, colleagues, peers, the community they serve)
• Professional and of a high standard

Read the full post here.

We at Creative Unions recently used the website Usabilla to run our usability test on this site. This online service allows you to upload an image file and then invite up to 25 testers to check the image – for free. (You pay for more than 25 test subjects.)

This service can be used for more than just websites.

Here is a copy of one of the posters that Atosha designed for the NTEU strikes last year. The poster has been put through Usabilla and people have been asked to click on the most important features for them. As you can see, a heat-map has been generated over the areas that received the most clicks (that is, is perceived as the most important).

Users can be asked numerous questions, and can leave notes and other comments – multiple pages (or posters) could be tested at once – meaning that you could test variations on the same poster. (The poster here is an example only; testing wasn’t carried out before it was printed.)

What this means is that unions can test their main communications materials (leaflets, posters, advertisements) on small groups of members (between 5-10) before hundreds or even thousands of dollars is spent on printing or publishing them.

Jackob Nielsen, a respected expert on website usability, suggests that only 5 usability testers are needed to find approximately 90% of problems. By using Usabilla on communications materials, unions would be able to learn whether their communications would be effective, and how it could be improved or clarified.

The best bit is that this excellent service is all for free.

Microblogging is like normal blogging (blog = web log), but shorter. Whereas there is no limit on the number of words in a normal blog article, microblogging typically will be limited to no more than 250-500 words. The most famous microblogging service is Twitter, but there are lots more, including Tumblr and Posterous.

A microblog could be useful for a union that doesn’t have time to maintain a fully fledged blog and a host of other social media tools. Microblogging can therefore be a social media bridge between blogging and Twitter.

Eric Lee from LabourStart has written about how Posterous (a microblogging site) can be used for union campaigns. Over at Alex White’s site, there are some other union microblogging suggestions for campaigns:

Posterous can thus be used for short updates on the union’s activities (or on a specific campaign’s activities). This shouldn’t be simply an automated list of media releases and emails. Rather, it should be made up of similar content that you would put on Twitter, Facebook or a blog: Quotes from members, photos from rallies or members meetings, short videos of speeches, or copies of campaign material (such as posters or leaflets).

So long as the microblog follows the Four Pillars of Social Networking, it can act as a replacement for maintaining separate Twitter and Facebook accounts.