More angry protestors are beaten back by the Basiji, the Iranian regime’s oppressive militia. Neda is an innocent bystander passing through. Not even innocent bystanders are safe. A Basiji sniper bullet rips into her heart. She lays on the ground bleeding to death. Her father cries out for help.

Within days, her face is everywhere in Iran. Protestors hold posters of her face emblazoned with the slogan “we are all Neda.” She’s become an international symbol for the courage of the people of the Green Revolution. A reminder of the brutality of the Iranian regime.

All because of a cell phone video.

Traditional media outlets were almost completely locked out of the events of the last few months in Iran. But people around the world have followed the emotional protest — all because ordinary Iranians captured the destabilizing protests on the street, feet away from the military and militia, with their cell phones.

None of this would have been possible without Twitter, texts and cell phone audio and video.

One of Masterworks’ clients, GAiN, used these same techniques in responding to last month’s devastating earthquake in Haiti. GAiN president, Duane Zook, was in Haiti just a day or two after the quake to assess and report. He sent in reports via phone that were uploaded with photos. The result? Compelling multimedia reports that connected donors in an immediate way to the urgency of the need. Each report was highly trafficked and motivated people to give generously.

Hear Duane Zook’s reports from the field.

How can nonprofits produce gritty video and audio reports? How can they bring their donors to the core of their work?

By using their field personnel as a built-in media corps for fundraising.

As I understand it, there’s cell phone access even in the most remote, far-flung areas. Almost any cell phone made in the last few years has audio/video/image capability.

These cell phones could capture day-to-day compelling stories; giving nonprofits the chance to showcase the heart of their work in a raw and compelling way.

Of course, staff members need to learn that videos of smiling aid workers don’t help raise money. Cell phone video of conditions in a refugee camp or a video of a homeless man who is struggling to survive on the street do. They could provide the most compelling argument for donors to give . . . a window into the real-life problems that their gifts help solve.

You should read it.

No really, you should.

Ok, now that you’ve hopefully read it, think about what that means for your organization — have you fallen to the “siren song of viral?”

As nonprofits are getting more and more excited about new media and are willing to try things, the “siren song” is a very real risk as the hunt for viral often comes at the cost of foundational, basic strategy.

Periodically clients will tell me that their number one strategy for driving traffic and fundraising is viral marketing. A lofty idea for sure. But it’s generally unwise, particularly when the fact is that there are far more proven (and yes, possibly more mundane) things you should be doing — like having a good web content strategy, driving multi-channel integration, instituting a solid email marketing program, and using search engine optimization, among other things.

My advice – don’t forget the foundational basics you should be doing every day in your hunt for the big breakthrough.

And for those fair readers who thought I was buried somewhere between New Castle and Poulsbo, rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, more on that at the bottom of the post.

This statistic comes from a comScore report, but was brought to my attention by The Agitator.

Additionally that comScore report found that the average time people are watching videos is 3-5 minutes, not the 1  1/2-  to 2-minute range we advise the ministries we work with.

But before you fire up the camera for that long-form video, remember averages are often skewed by large numbers at either end of the spectrum. In other words a few folks watching full-length movies, say on Hulu.com, could skew that number up fairly easily.

Bottom line, video engages people exponentially longer than a web page alone. We used to say you had eight seconds to capture a user with a web page, now I usually say its down to two or three seconds. Which means that people, on average, will engage with a video for 80 times longer then they do with a web page alone.

So if three-quarters of the folks on the internet watch video and they engage with it nearly two orders of magnitude longer than just a web page – say it with me now – you need to be doing online video.

Personal Note: I know I haven’t been writing as often, but things are busy both here at Masterworks and at home. Family and work come first, so posting to the blog comes fourth. Second is a two-way tie between bicycling and sitting in airports. Good news, we’ve been working on some exciting stuff that we’ll announce in these pages soon!