Just Story It

Some descendants of Holocaust survivors are having their concentration-camp numbers tattooed on their arms, a practice that provokes mixed reactions and a lot of conversation.

While this article is not directly related to business, it is a terrific example of a story trigger. When I write about story triggers, people often ask "What the heck is a story trigger?"

A story trigger is an icon, art work, symbol, phrase, or artifact that reminds people of a story and stimulates the telling of one. Sometimes a company's logo can be a trigger story.

This article is a perfect example of a story trigger. Once you read this very powerful post, you will understand the power of story triggers.

Corporate cultures and the story fields that they hold, are full of stories that are known and repeated throughout the organization. Many of these are important to keep and promote. They are gems that lend themselves to story triggers. Sometimes a company's values, vision, and mission could benefit from story triggers (although most values, vision and mission statements are deadly dull, not memorable, and need to be storified).

Hopefully this article will spark some ideas about how you can start developing and using story triggers in your work/business/corporate culture.

Thank you to colleague Lori Silverman for finding this and sending it to me!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it 

"As Beth Kanter remarked on a public Google Plus thread about creating useful infographics, “I think that information visualization is a necessity in this age of data overload and seeing the forest beyond the trees.” I agree with that statement, and personally jump to view the “shiny new storytelling toy” whenever I see an infographic. Infographics represent an exciting new storytelling avenue for nonprofit organizations, enabling them to share important data stories, visually."

I don't know how I missed this post by colleague and fellow curator Debra Askanase but it's a good one!

Debra makes the point that infographics can and should tell a story.  She then gives tips on how to do so and resources to use.  

And I love the infographic at the top of the article! It's a perfect example of one that blends both data and storytelling elements.

What are the story elements an infographic can use to be more effective?

1. It needs to be emotionally engaging in ways that offer people a way to make a difference
2. Metphor
3. A beginning, middle & end with a story arc
4. Statement of a problem and ways for resolution
5. Story triggers -- graphics and words that trigger stories within the minds of viewers
6. A point, a key message
7. Suggested actions to take

Not all infographics need to tell a story. Before embarking on creating an infographic, ask yourself the following strategic questions:

1. Who is my target audience?
2. What important information does my target audience need or want to hear?
3. Is the purpose of the infographic to share information, educate people, or create a context for understanding an issue?
4. Is the purpose of the infographic to spark action -- either donations, support, or advocacy?
5. What is my key message? What do I want my viewers to take away from the experience?

If you answered YES to #4, then you need your infographic to tell a story.  If you answered YES to #3, then your infographic only needs to convey information.

Go read the article for more great infographic insights.

Successful marketers tell a compelling story, and that story creates word-of-mouth. They don’t talk about features or even benefits. They tell a story that we intuitively embrace, buy into, then pass ...

 

A great article with good examples of how companies are sharing their stories to increase their business.  

 

I really like the examples.  Just remember one important point that this article does NOT make -- a tag line or a company promise is not a story.  It is a story trigger, however, and can be very useful.  Just know the difference.

 

What's a story trigger?  It a metaphor or statement or icon or image that references or triggers a story within someone.  Story triggers are very effective tools.  But they are not stories.  So let's clear up this confusion now and get better at working with stories and story triggers when using them in business.

This is a perfect representation of how a story can make data, information, and a presentation into meaningful knowledge! What I hope people get is that the way to move from the first photo to the last is through storytelling -- it's the invisible secret ingredient. The trick to conveying data and information into meaningful knowledge is learning how to story it.

The following is a collection of thoughts regarding the concept of a ‘story telling’ image. Rather than an in-depth instructional tutorial, the following is more of a rhetoric that seeks to persuade and inspire you to develop your creativity and to start taking shots that matter; shots that communicate something meaningful to the viewer.

Here is what I like about this article -- it reminds us that as we go about our work in the world, there are plenty of places to take photos that can be used as story triggers.

If we can stop, pause, take a breath, look around, and approach our world with curiosity and creativity, we will often find photo opportunities that begin to share a story.

I make the distinction between a photograph telling a story and one that triggers a story because I think most photos trigger stories. You can see this happening in the examples the author shares. First, the photos need interpretation, which the author does. 2 of the 3 photos shared are about Australia and without the context of the culture and history of Australia the immediate impact of the photos on me sitting here in in the US are minimal. The 3rd photo is intriguing and does get me to interpret the photo on my own and start creating stories about it.

The take-aways for us in business? Stop and see what is around you, notice opportunities in your work for taking photos, get creative, and snap images that you can use as story triggers to share with the world about your work.

There are some nice additional insights here to get your creative juices flowing, so don't miss reading the rest of this post!

Thank you Giuseppe Mauriello for finding this article!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it 

"The reality is that we never perceive a story exactly as it’s composed. As people read, they fill in, flesh out, and fine-tune our stories.

 There are lots of reasons for this—maybe they began reading part of the way through, are only skimming half of what we’re saying, or reading something in a different context than we think we’ve provided. 

Comprehension is the reader’s half of the story. And we create it through two psycholinguistic mechanisms: inference and coherence."

For anyone who has wanted to know about how story triggers work in more depth and detail, then this article is for you.

As the authors explain, it's all about inference and coherence -- two activities that occur in our brains.  This is very useful information to know and understand when working with stories in social media or distributed channels.

This article is not for everyone.  But if you are interested in mastering story triggers, then here you go!

Mercedes Benz launched a new print ad series in 2011 that is all about visual storytelling. The ads are both about the buyers and the cars.

 

OK -- I'm going to be nit-picky here and say that while I absolutely love these graphics, what Merecedes Benz is doing here is producing STORY TRIGGERS, not visual stories.

 

So these are not examples of visual storytelling (a series of images that actually tell a story), but they are story triggers -- images that trigger stories within the minds of the viewers.

 

I was so captivated by the visuals themselves that at first I couldn't even figure out what part of 'story' was happening here, or why Mercedes was doing this as an ad campaign.  Then I finally saw the Mercedes logo on the lower right corner and got it.

 

Go view the visuals and read the comments from others.  The ad campaign seems to be working!

 

The lesson here: know what you are doing.  Know the difference between visual storytelling and story triggers.  You will have more control over the medium and it will only help you get better at successfully sharing your stories and experiencing the results you desire.