Almost everyone today has the ability to tell a story visually. Smartphones come with built-in video as do most digital cameras. And if you want to get a bit more techie, you can purchase a flip-cam or digital video recorder for not much money but with great features.

Audiences today expect to view their stories. YouTube statistics bear this out.

• More than 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month.
• More than 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube.
• 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

Cisco predicts that 60 percent of the Web’s data will be video within four years.

Videos can be used to create awareness. They can be used to say thank you. They can be used to ask for money.

Before you create your video there are 3 things to consider

1. Clear message: What is the main point you want to share with your audience, which leads to point 2.
2. Audience: Aiming for the general public is not what you want to do. You need to identify a specific audience or demographic.
3. Call to action: What do you want the person to do? It can be as simple as sharing the video with their friends to raise further awareness of the topic. Or it could be asking for a financial donation.

What story will you tell visually?