Google for Nonprofits Blog

Telling Your Story Visually: Photos

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Last week on Google+, we explored how nonprofits are using photos to tell their stories.

We learned 11 Types of Photos Nonprofits Should Post on Social Media from Nonprofit Tech 2.0: A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits.

We also saw how Feed My Starving Children pairs pictures and quotes to inspire their followers.

Then we checked out how to add unlimited photos and videos to Google+ from your phone and computer.

And Scott Kelby announced the dates for the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk - the largest Photo Walk in the world with walks in over 1,100 cities.

Make sure to join us this week as we share how you can tell your story through video.
Posted by Andrea Xu, Google for Nonprofits Team

Telling Your Story Visually

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

How do you tell people your story? Often, we rely on pictures and videos to explain what we can’t fully describe. But as technology advances, we’re finding new ways to tell our stories visually.

This month, we’ll be focusing our Google+ posts on how you can tell your story through photos, videos, maps, Hangouts and more. We’ll share inspiring stories and new ways for you to tell yours. Join the conversation on our Google+ page or come back to the blog for weekly recaps of what we cover.
Posted by Katie Kellogg, Google for Nonprofits team

New Learn with Google Webinars Help Make the Web Work for You

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

(Cross posted from the Inside AdWords Blog)
It’s almost back-to-school time, but students aren’t the only ones who are getting geared up to learn. Today, we’re announcing our next series of Learn with Google webinars, which will arm you with the tools you need to get the most out of Google’s advertising products and solutions. Over the next couple of months, 13 webinars will teach you tips and how-to’s to help make the web work for your business.

Join us as we kick things off this Thursday, August 9th with a webinar on multi-channel attribution and check out the full schedule below:

Aug 9 at 9am PDT Multi-Channel Funnels: Attribution Across Channels

Aug 23 at 10am PDT How to Kick Start Social with Google+ (Hangout on Air)

Aug 28 at 10am PDT Optimizing your Video Ad Campaigns

Aug 29 at 10am PDT Google+: Enhancing Marketing and Making Social Accountable

Sept 5 at 10am PDT Go Bigger, Faster with AdWords Editor

Sept 6 at 10am PDT Making the Most of Recent AdWords Updates

Sept 12 at 10am PDT Driving Cost-Effective App Downloads with AdWords

Sept 13 at 10am PDT Go Bigger, Faster with AdWords Scripts

Sept 18 at 10am PDT Better Together: Combining Targeting Strategies in Display

Sept 19 at 10am PDT The Importance of Search Advertising

Sept 20 at 10am PDT Measuring the Impact of Online Advertising on Offline Sales

Sept 26 at 10am PDT GoMo: Mobilize your Site and Maximize your Advertising

Sept 27 at 10am PDT Optimizing Display Campaigns: Tips, Tricks, & Tools

Visit our webinar page to register for any of the sessions and to access past webinars on-demand. We’ll be adding new webinars as they’re scheduled, so check back regularly for updates. You can also stay up-to-date on the schedule by adding our Learn with Google Webinar calendar to your own Google calendar to automatically see upcoming webinars.

Whether your goal is to engage the right customers in the moments that matter, make better decisions, or go bigger, faster, we hope that you’ll use these best practices and how-to’s to maximize the impact of digital and grow your business. We’re looking forward to having you in class at an upcoming Learn with Google webinar!
Posted by Erin Green, Marketing Coordinator

Six Suggestions To Get Social

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

(Cross posted from Google+Your Business page)
On the Google+ Your Business team, we love seeing businesses get social with their customers. We’re regularly wowed by the creativity and pizzazz we see on Google+ pages, and we wanted to share how we get social on our page.1. Keep it fresh. Starting the conversation is half the battle, but come back with updates! A makeover, revamped services, special promotions -- all interesting news to your customers.2. Stick around. Seeing responses come in from our new posts makes us smile, and we think you’ll agree. Hang out for a little while after you post news and see how your audience reacts. You can even post quick answers to questions.3. Speaking of hanging out... Host ‘em! We use Hangouts to interact with users in real time, mix up our media, and get a little Googley. It’s the highlight of our weeks. Really.4. Not-so-strictly business. Keep your posts relevant to your customers, but occasionally, offer a little glimpse behind the scenes. It’s fun and personal. We just can’t resist posting about the fun we have every now and then.5. Ask questions? Let your customers know that you want to hear from them. Ask them questions, and learn about what they’d like to see. 6. +You. However you like to get social, your customers are sticking around to hear from you. Let your personality show in your updates, since you’re the star!
Posted by Jade Wang, Google+ Your Business team

Our Roots Go Global: Apply For A RISE Award Today

Thursday, August 2, 2012

(Cross posted from the Official Google Blog) The application for the 2013 Google RISE (Roots in Science and Engineering) Awards is now open. Given once a year, Google RISE Awards are designed to promote and support education initiatives in two key areas: Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and Computer Science (CS). Google grants awards of $5,000 - $25,000 USD to organizations around the world working with K-12 and university students in these fields. This year, our community welcomed more than two dozen organizations from around the world, from Denmark to Uganda and California to Romania. The RISE grants have helped these groups to scale their reach by allowing for more scholarship recipients, to deepen their impact by providing hands on robotics kits, and to ultimately inspire their students by creating a community for CS outreach.

Now, the RISE Awards have expanded to include applicants from Latin America and the Asia Pacific region, bringing our total to six continents and 243 countries. All eligible nations are listed on our website. The growth of technology is undoubtable, and the impact technology will have on our future is equally undeniable. We believe it’s our duty to support students who have the uncanny ability not only to consume technology, but also to create it. We believe that inspiring the next generation of computer scientists will enrich the lives of not only individual students, but also the communities and countries they live in. Show us what you can do to get students excited about STEM and CS! Submit your application by September 30, 2012. Awardees will be announced by January 2013.
Posted by Roxana Shirkhoda, K-12 Education Outreach Specialist

Five Steps To Optimizing Mobile-Only Campaigns

Thursday, August 2, 2012

These days, it seems like people are always on their mobile phones - shopping, waiting in line, even when hanging out “live” with other people.

Mobile users aren’t only texting, but are searching for the latest cat video, emailing old friends, blogging their latest meals and more. Mobile has become an indispensable part of our daily lives and mobile search is also on the rise.

So what does this mean for nonprofits trying to grab people’s attention? Creating a mobile website and mobile targeted AdWords Search campaigns are a great way to get noticed in today’s mobile world. Here are five of our best practices to get you started:

1. Create a mobile site: Mobile sites are designed to fit on a small screen and help users reach information quickly and easily on their phones. Remember to make content easy to read and keep navigation simple and thumb friendly. Through GoMo, a Google initiave that provides tools and resources to make mobile sites, you can create your own site in minutes.

2. Create mobile-friendly ad text: Use call-to-actions in your AdWords ad text that target people searching on their phones. Phrases like “Donate On Your Phone” or “Call Us Now To Volunteer” show users what to do next on their mobile device.

3. Link ads to your mobile site: Make sure that your mobile ads lead users to your new mobile site. If you created your mobile site with GoMo, you’ll need to add a mobile redirect, a script that can tell when a user is on a mobile phone and then takes them to your mobile site, to your existing site.

4. Optimize your keywords: Users behave differently on their mobile devices, so keywords often perform differently too. Start your mobile-only campaign by adding your existing keywords. After three to four weeks, look at your clickthrough rate (CTR) and conversion rate (if applicable). If a keyword has a low CTR or zero conversions, consider pausing the keyword or experimenting with new ad text.

Keep an eye on your See Search Terms Report and/or Google Analytics data to see what mobile users are searching for that leads them to your site. These will help you find new keyword combinations and abbreviations you may have been unaware of.

5. Add mobile sitelinks: You can help users navigate through your site and find additional material by adding sitelinks to your mobile ads. Providing links to volunteer applications and blogs will give website visitors a better understanding of your site and allow them to reach that content quickly. Recent studies show that campaigns with mobile sitelinks experience a 30% higher clickthrough rate than those without sitelinks.

Using these five steps, you’ll be a master of mobile in no time. After all, by 2013, more people will use their mobile phones than PCs to get on the Internet (Gartner, 2010), so let’s get ready!

For more mobile resources, check out the Google Mobile Ads Blog and GoMo by Google.

Posted by Katie Kellogg, AdWords Team

Announcing Google For Nonprofits Updated Website!

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Your time and thoughts are important to us, so we’re always looking for ways to improve your experience. Now, find exactly what you’re looking for on the updated Google for Nonprofits website.

The new experience is designed to make it easier to navigate the Google for Nonprofits application and enrollment process. You can see how the process works and get started on an application by checking out our Join the program page.

We also wanted to make it easier for you to find other resources that will help you make the most of Google tools. You can find get started guides and video tutorials in our brand new learning section. Or if you’re more interested in community resources, you can check out our new case studies and other community resources. If you have specific questions or feel like you need a little more help to use Google products for your nonprofit, we’ve assembled a set of help resources for you.

We’re excited to hear what you think of the updates to the site, and we’d love for you to share those thoughts directly on our Google+ page.

Posted by Leslie Hernandez, Google for Nonprofits team

Face Blurring: When Footage Requires Anonymity

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

(Cross posted from the Official YouTube Blog)

As citizens continue to play a critical role in supplying news and human rights footage from around the world, YouTube is committed to creating even better tools to help them. According to the international human rights organization WITNESS’ Cameras Everywhere report, “No video-sharing site or hardware manufacturer currently offers users the option to blur faces or protect identity.”

YouTube is excited to be among the first.

Today we're launching face blurring - a new tool that allows you to obscure faces within videos with the click of a button.

Whether you want to share sensitive protest footage without exposing the faces of the activists involved, or share the winning point in your 8-year-old’s basketball game without broadcasting the children’s faces to the world, our face blurring technology is a first step towards providing visual anonymity for video on YouTube.

Blurring faces on YouTube is simple. Once you’ve chosen the video that you’d like to edit within our Video Enhancements tool, go to Additional Features and click the “Apply” button below Blur All Faces. Before you publish, you will see a preview of what your video will look like with faces blurred. When you save the changes to your video, a new copy is created with the blurred faces. You will then be given the option to delete the original video.

This is emerging technology, which means it sometimes has difficulty detecting faces depending on the angle, lighting, obstructions and video quality. It’s possible that certain faces or frames will not be blurred. If you are not satisfied with the accuracy of the blurring as you see it in the preview, you may wish to keep your video private.

Visual anonymity in video allows people to share personal footage more widely and to speak out when they otherwise may not.

Because human rights footage, in particular, opens up new risks to the people posting videos and to those filmed, it’s important to keep in mind other ways to protect yourself and the people in your videos.

YouTube is proud to be a destination where people worldwide come to share their stories, including activists. Along with efforts like the Human Rights Channel and Citizentube that curate these voices, we hope that the new technologies we’re rolling out will facilitate the sharing of even more stories on our platform.

Amanda Conway, YouTube policy associate, recently watched "Russian court refuses to free anti-Putin punks."

Let Us Help Turn Your Video Views Into Action

Friday, July 20, 2012

(Cross posted from the Official YouTube Blog)YouTube Nonprofit ProgramGoogle+ Hangouts on AirThe first training will be at 9am PT on July 31, 2012. Here’s how to joinDirections To join in the conversation during our Hangout On Air:

Make sure you have a Google Account and Google+ profile or page setup.

Add YouTube Nonprofits Program page to your circles. We'll add you to our circles, then invite you to the Hangout on Air.

This Hangout on Air will begin at 9am PT on July 31, 2012. Additional trainings will take place at 9am PT on the last Tuesday of every month.

Log onto Google+ and you'll see an invite to join the hangout in your notifications (upper right hand corner of the page in a red box). Click through to the conversation!

If the link is not available in your notifications, click the hangouts icon on the left hand side of the page and look for a hangout called "YouTube Nonprofits Introduction" among the hangouts available for you to join.

If you'd rather just watch and listen, and don't want to be recorded:

Point your browser to the YouTube Nonprofits Program Google+ page and click on the Hangouts On Air thumbnail.

Navigate to the YouTube for Nonprofits YouTube Channel and click on the live feed. This is the best option if you do not have a Google account.

Second, we recently announced that we will allow YouTube users to link to a Change.org, Donorschoose.org, RocketHub or Causes page via a YouTube annotation. An annotation is a little dialogue box that pops up in a video and allows video creators to convey a message. In the past, these annotations were only able to link to a YouTube video, channel or search result. Now they can link to the four sites above, in addition to Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We’re excited to see how you use these new features to encourage audiences to sign petitions, take action and donate.
Ramya Raghavan, news and politics manager, recently watched "Water in Adina Faso"

Maps For Good: Google Earth Outreach Developer Grants 2012

Thursday, July 19, 2012

(Cross posted from the Lat Long Blog)Google Earth OutreachawardedDeveloper GrantsGoogle I/O2012 Google Earth Outreach Developer Grants programMaps for GoodSave the ElephantsAXS MapLearn moremaking use of tools like Google Maps Engineapplications on Android devicesBe inspired by how mapping can help spread your nonprofit’s messageGoogle Earth OutreachDeveloper Grants programPosted by Tanya Birch, Google Earth Outreach team

For Nonprofits Blog

Telling Your Story Visually: Photos

Telling Your Story Visually

New Learn with Google Webinars Help Make the Web Work for You

Six Suggestions To Get Social

Our Roots Go Global: Apply For A RISE Award Today

Five Steps To Optimizing Mobile-Only Campaigns

Announcing Google For Nonprofits Updated Website!

Face Blurring: When Footage Requires Anonymity

Let Us Help Turn Your Video Views Into Action

Maps For Good: Google Earth Outreach Developer Grants 2012

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