As I've been (mentally) exploring the many ways for my NPO to effectively use social media tools, I've also been paying close attention to what others are doing. A great example of a non-profit on Flickr came up just the other day, when Houston's Opera in the Heights extended an invitation for local amateur photographers to a photo shoot for its upcoming production of Madama Butterfly.

The whole thing was easy enough to arrange (I imagine). The organization put out a call to a large, local photography group on Flickr and had its lead actress get in costume for less than half an hour. About seven of us (yes, that includes me) showed up for the opportunity and took some fantastic photos of the young geisha exhibiting her range of emotions.

The plan? We'd post the photos to our Flickr accounts and in Opera in the Heights' group pool for the organization to use them as promo shots for the show. No need to hire (and pay) a professional photographer; the organization has more than enough great shots they can use for free. Awesome.

I started thinking about how that scenario could work for The Blood Center. Generally, my organization can be a little uneasy about photogs coming in, even ones from legitimate media outlets. It's because photographers like to focus on cool-looking things like blood and needles - while we try to focus on donor-staff interaction and recipient stories, things that make donors feel good about the act of donating. (Not that pictures of our collection and laboratory equipment in action wouldn't look really neat.)

I wish I was leading up to some great revelation about how this idea can apply to us... but so far, I'm still thinking. I know the Austin Blood and Tissue Center had a "tweet-up" recently and was talking about doing one again, and something like that naturally lends itself to photo ops since many Twitterers also fancy themselves photographers.

We could invite them to our events, but I honestly don't know how creative you can get at an awards ceremony or what appeal that would hold for a photographer. Do we stage something like Opera in the Heights did with their photo shoot? And can we use stage makeup and props? No worries, I joke... I think.