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Karen Dietz
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Marketers are supposed to be the experts on connecting emotionally with customers.
Collaboration has gone Google. Create a story and then share your video.
Via Robin Good
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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Storytelling story-selling content is the new advertising, marketing & PR. It's a harsh new reality all businesses and employees have to face.
From Karen: What a great article that is related to business storytelling! Biz storytelling is all about finding and sharing stories that create engagement. The steps below give tips for how to do this: listening, conversations, etc. I particularly like the last point: go offline -- because that is when storytelling REALLY starts happening, and where relationships are cemented.
Thanks to fellow curator Brian Yanish for finding and posting this article! His review is below:
So if you’re not engaging on social media because you think “everyone else is doing it, so why bother,” or you just don’t think people are going to notice your content, that’s a cop out. If you have something interesting to say, then SAY IT. You never know when your tweet, post, blog or video will be exactly what someone was hoping to find on any particular day.
Wait. Let’s back this train up. Before I go further, let me say first that you really have to buy in to the importance of even showing up. I mean, why talk about breaking through clutter if you don’t believe there’s value in adding your 2 cents to social conversations. You have to know who you want to talk to and where they play. What’s your objective and what’s your message? No need to figure out how to get people’s attention if you don’t know WHY you want their attention. Once you have that all squared away, then by all means, start breaking through and turning heads. Here’s how.
1) Develop a noticeable social presence. This is the bare minimum, but you’d be surprised how many brands and businesses don’t have completed profiles. So here’s the starting point—make your profiles interesting. Social media is fun, so have fun with your profiles! Post funny pictures. Have a sense of humor. And engage. Don’t talk at—talk with. Social media is a two-way street, not a commercial.
2) Listen to the conversations. You know how when you’re at a party and you walk up to a group of people, you wait a moment before you jump in? You don’t want to be rude, so you listen first to see what they’re talking about. You can learn a lot by listening. Figure out who your customers are talking to in their social circles, and listen. This will help you craft your message to be more targeted. More interesting, if you will. And your message will rise to the top.
3) Be an equal-opportunity player. I almost deleted that because it sounds bad—but it’s interesting, so I’m going with it. What I mean is, it’s impossible to engage with your entire audience and drive your message through if you aren’t playing on several social networks. This may mean your social promotion campaign lives in various forms on several networks in order to be relevant. Not everyone tweets. Not everyone posts. Not everyone pins. But you, my friend, are a marketer, which means you speak the language of the people, wherever they are. You know. When in Rome.
4) Create a conversation, not just a campaign. A campaign is a good place to start—but don’t end there. If you take away nothing else but this today, fine. Just get this: Marketing on social media is NOT about advertising and promotion. If you’re on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to just sell your stuff and promote the heck out of it, you don’t stand a chance of breaking through the clutter. People will turn a blind eye. Consumers are advertised to all day long, in so many ways. But a brand who actually engages with them? Listens to them? Asks questions and responds back to theirs? Now that is something they’ll notice. Trust me.
5) Go offline. Crazy, right? So crazy this just might work. Start the conversation online, but then try taking it out of the social media sphere. Last I checked most of our cell phones could still make calls. What if you reached out with something more personal than a tweet? Or mailed something to follow up after an online interaction? Social is just a means to building an introduction. But the magic happens when you carry the connection beyond the online world and into the real world.
Key Takeaway: You want to turn heads in social media? Be interesting. Engage with your networks. Create conversation. Respond to your audience. Care about them as much (if not more) than your campaign. These things will get you noticed and help you bust through the clutter.
Great article from by Bryan Kramer
Via Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com
This piece came to me from my fellow curator Jan Gordon. She is an EXCELLENT curator and if you follow her curation it will help your business a lot. What I really like about this piece is its basic question -- are you sharing your biz stories for messaging or for engagement? These are two very different activities and will generate different results for your business. Read Jan's excellent review below, read Brian Solis' article, and start shifting your storytelling so you can achieve better business results! This wonderful piece was written by Brian Solis and as always, he captured the essence of what's needed to move your content to the next level, where your audience becomes an active participant. This is where relationships and communities are built, brand advocates, word of mouth and commerce follows if this is done right.
Here's what caught my attention:
Social Producers are the new storytellers
**To thrive in social, mobile and new media in general, we need much more than content producers, we need a new breed of designers that grasp the elements of online sharing and have mastered the ART of social media
**They know how to trigger desirable (and social) actions, reactions and transactions
**A new genre of social producers are taking aim at developing content strategies that are not only consumable, they're shareable, actionable and act as catalysts or sparks for relevant conversations.
**These social producers are in fact masters of their domains and understand the culture and the laws of information commerce within each
The difference between Social Producers and traditional content creators is they begin with social outcomes
**they understand the relationship between cause and effect and they bake-in conversation starters related to an integrated and business-focused strategy
**Social producers think about the overall experience and the effect where a social object is at the center of the dialogue and interaction they envision....within each network
**The overall story and outcome defines the nature of the social object.
Takeaway
**Beyond shareability, the social producers also think about resonance. Conversations on social networks move quickly.
**What was trending an hour ago gives way to the next social object that captures everyone's attention until that too is replaced by the next shiny object and so on.
**Resonance is a technique that allows a social object to enjoy a greater lifespan and continue to swim upstream while other content strategies wash away in real-time.
**As you think about your content strategy for social networks, do so from the perspective of a social producer.
**While the social effect is certainly a goal, the social effect is also the result of social design.
**In the end, people are going to talk, so give them something to talk about!
Curated by Jan Gordon covering, "Curation, Social Business and Beyond"
Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/Qvxa6J]
Via janlgordon
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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In high school English, I was taught there are only three stories in this world: Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Man and Man vs. Self. That's it. Three plot lines that explain every tale in the world, fictitious and real.
This book looks like a winner because it has identified long-standing success principles that are still valid today. And then give the reader focused steps (so they promise) for making their content creation really work to attract new customers.
As the authors Muahmmad Yasin and Ryan Brock say, "Sure, social media is a new tool–its form is new. But the content is as old as the hills, using marketing principles that stretch back to the time of Cesar Augustus, one of the canniest propagandists who ever lived."
This does not mean there is nothing new to write. But the authors suggest we need to focus more on content creative quality than the sheer numbers of quantity in order to stand out.
Sign up to receive notice of when the e-book comes out -- which is shortly I hope!
This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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And, last Saturday morning, before I got up and on with my day, I watched his short film entitled ‘Guthrie Beach Raft’ and it got me thinking about the power of storytelling in marketing.
Yes, successful marketing is all about emotions -- not facts.
There are two videos to view here that make the author's point. The first video is OK -- for whatever reason it didn't really grab me.
But the second video about Google Chrome is a hit! That's because it tells a very engaging story about how someone uses Google's integrated suite of tools. It's brilliant.
Enjoy both of these -- and take these lessons to heart. When creating your content, decide which emotions you want to evoke in your audience and then craft your material to evoke those.
As the author says, "Sometimes, facts and figures are great, but if you’re really looking to create loyalty and build a relationship with your audience then creating an emotional bond is the way forward."
This review was written by Karen Dietz for her Just Story It Scoops at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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My first ever interview for a sales job consisted of one question and lasted less than a minute. How I answered that question, and what followed, was one of the defining moments in my sales career. It just happened to occur before that career had even begun.
Now here is a great example of effective storytelling and story selling by sales professional Andy Paul in several ways: - It is a terrific story that is the entire blog post (conveys messages through the story; does not contain lots of information with a little story sandwiched in between).
- The story conveys principles on multiple levels (personal values, sales values, corporate values)
- The story demonstrates/shows the value of integrity -- Andy doesn't talk about it, he brings us into his experience.
- The story contains all the elements of a compelling story (setting, problem, drama/tension/conflict, resolution), including a key message at the end.
- It is easy to read (language, layout, length).
LOL -- Andy's a client -- can you tell?!
And I love that the story is about sales, but is not trying to sell you anything. Yet after reading the story, I bet most people would be very interested in purchasing and reading Andy's book.
You too can do this in your blogging and on your website. The more stories you can tell following the points above, the more trust (and sales) you will gain.
Thanks for sharing one of your stories Andy!
This review was written by Karen Dietz for her Just Story It Scoops at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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Most customers now ignore targeted marketing campaigns, avoid responding to offers, and provide minimal feedback when asked. Instead, potential customers interact with each other, bypassing sanitized corporate messages devoid of meaning or value.
'Engagement' is dominating the business conversation these days because it is where the world is moving to. Everybody wants customer and employee engagement. Nice concept -- but how do you do it???
When I found this article, I said "Finally, here is how to think about this whole 'engagement' thing, and how to craft some next steps!" The author clearly spells out what is involved in customer engagement.
The author Ray Wang shares 9 key components of successful engagement: 3 are people-centric values (the why & your starting point), 3 are delivery & communication styles (the how), and 3 are the right-time drivers (the when).
This is no easy task, and there's lots for you to figure out here as you grapple with these 9 components. I've already started making lists and jotting down ideas as I think about the culture of my small company, the community I serve and the steps I take to be credible (the 3 parts to the 3 people-centric values components).
Where do STORIES come into play? In how you connect with your communities (which stories to tell), the content you share, they are your catalysts, and your currencies -- which are all part of the 9 key components. Storytelling is woven through them all.
When you combine this article with the video from Amy O'Leary on "Beyond the Like Button: Digitally Addictive Storytelling & the Brain," http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thVbdqY-cCg&feature=player_embedded you will move light years ahead in engaging customers and employees via stories and story sharing.
These 2 pieces are some of the best material I've curated lately -- and definitely keepers in my book.
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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Amy O'Leary, a news editor and multimedia producer for The New York Times, presents the final keynote address of the Narrative Arc conference. Her presentation, "Beyond the 'Like' Button: Digitally Addictive Storytelling and the Brain," discusses the brain and its relationship to immediate news.
This is an amazing video that falls into the category of "making us smarter" about our work.
I am still digesting this presentation, which is about an hour long. But I'm fascinated by it -- and it explains so much about how/why social media and storytelling works so well together. And what is missing when the two don't work.
In my book, the more we know the mechanics of how/why social media and storytelling works, the more command we have of our tools, and the greater success we can have.
So if you want to know why "like" buttons work and how to integrate storytelling into social media for outstanding results, then run -- don't walk -- to view this video!
Then for another interesting and fascinating twist, check out the next article on "The Universal Language of Story." The 2 videos together are a double whammy of "ah-hah's" and inspiration.
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Karen Dietz
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Have you ever considered leveraging the ever-effective power of a good story when you write? Check out none other than this article to master the art!
This is a fabulous article with well written examples of online storytelling written for businesses.
I enjoy all the points the article makes about the power of sharing a well-crafted story online, and how to get started doing this yourself.
Modeling effective storytelling is one of the best ways to learn storytelling skills. This article has it in spades.
And it includes specific action steps and how-to's. And it's inspiring.
Once you read this you will understand how cool the Story Wheel app is (curated on this page), and hopefully get ideas for how to use it well as another way to share your business stories.
SonicPics is a very easy to use tool for turning your images into custom slideshow movies that you can share with your friends online! SonicPics lets you add images from your iPhone's photo library or camera, arrange your photos, and then narrate the project to create an enhanced m4v video (complete with chapters). This looks like a really cool tool for creating visual stories -- especially for Mac users. I'm a PC gal right now but it says I can load images from my camera to the site (and I do have an iTouch). Then I get to add my narration, and then post to my YouTube channel. Sweet! So maybe even I can use this service. I'll try it out. In the meantime, those of us wanting to leverage the wave of visual storytelling have another great tool to investigate that can help us share our stories digitally -- easily and inexpensively. Yeah!
Thank you fellow curator Baiba for finding this!
Via Baiba Svenca
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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tutorials | lynda.com...by LA Times Journalist Richard Koci Hernandez
This is so cool -- using your phone to take photos and then putting them together to create stories to share. Imagine how much fun this could be for a business -- and be really cool marketing.
The intro video is well worth watching. This is as series of video tutorials by LA Times photographer and journalist Richard K. Hernandez to teach you how to do great photography via your phone, use apps for editing, and then creating a story to share. He's ditched all of his other equipment and just uses his iphone now.
Now here's the bad news -- to get the rest of the tutorials it will cost you $25 for a monthly subscription.
But I'm going to do it because I think it will be worth it. Initially I thought -- geez, why bother? Photos of working at my computer will go only so far -- unless I capture my occasional computer meltdowns because technology is giving me fits that day. And photos of work with clients is going to get boring fast, too.
So what's a gal to do? Well.....how about a photo story of a work trip, a photo story of a conference, a photo story of my client transformations, a photo story of workshop content & participant stories....hmmmm. Food for thought. I'm sure I'll think of more!
What ideas come to your mind for your business?
Don't be put off when you link to the page -- it's very boring and when I first went there I wasn't sure what I was looking at. But under the Introduction heading, link on Welcome and that will start the initial video.
Have fun creating awesome iphone stories!
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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About today's guest post: As companies mature their online presence though more robust social engagement, individuals within those companies are advancing use
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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Feast your brain on this excellent panel featuring Brian Clark, Doug Pray, and John Jacobsen.
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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Do people still care about longer-form blog posts and narratives to tell stories in the era of Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter? The answer is yes.
"I’m a storyteller, not a strategist Anytime I get on the phone with a business who wants to hire me to do some social media work and they ask me about, analysis, measurement tools and anything that has to do with numbers I tell them “I’m an Indian person who is lousy at math. Contrary to popular belief we’re not all good with numbers.” My strength is the ability to tell great stories, and create content. Does that mean I’m useless? Absolutely not … and it’s because there is a digital divide emerging."
I love the core message of this post -- for business success hire both a strategiest AND a storyteller!
Why? Because you will receive the best of both worlds. Not only will you identify and execute (hopefully) an winning social media strategy, you will also learn how to tell your business stories effectively in different social media channels. Yeah!
Go read the article for more info on why this marriage makes so much sense.
Thanks fellow curator Gregg Morris @greggvm for finding this article!
Here's the original link: http://www.businessesgrow.com/2012/11/21/why-your-social-media-plan-needs-gurus-and-storytellers/
This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it
Via Gregg Morris
Stories and the art of storytelling play a major role in content marketing today. Not all brands realize the importance of unearthing their core story and learning to tell stories in ways that endear new fans and motivate advocates. In case you need even more reason to learn to weave an effective narrative throughout your marketing efforts, here are seven reasons storytelling is important for branded content.
Thanks to fellow curator Giuseppe Mauriello for sending me this! It's perfect for a mid-week pick-me-up.
This post is quick and easy to digest -- because you can get all the messages by viewing the photos. What a great example of using visuals in a blog post to create easy to scan, more compelling and enjoyable content.
Have a delightful read and day!
This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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To mark its 100th anniversary, Oreo is posting an image a day for 100 days. A recent picture marking the Mars Rover landing achieved viral gold. Here are the takeaways.
Now here's an article that should get your creative juices flowing! Got an image for your company that you can alter to link to world events or commemorative days?
That is what Oreo has done for its cookie. The photo here commemorates the Mars Rover landing (the red planet). Ingenious! This article by Michael Sebastian explains how Oreo keeps playing with its cookie to make it immediately relevant. It's fun. It's play. The photos go viral.
Is this storytelling? Not in the classical sense. It is a visual story trigger -- which can be very effective.
Surely you can do something like this! Think about it ..... :))
This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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If you only use video in an ad hoc manner (as opposed to treating it like your other channels, characterised by regular and consistent programming) you'll NEVER be able to predict success with any proof / confidence. I'm going to look at the first five ingredients now, and will follow up with the second five next week.
Here's what I love about this short post -- the 5 key ingredients listed here are very practical, essential for success, yet rarely talked about. I'm bummed though that we have to wait for another blog post for the next 5 essential ingredients.
The author shares about the necessity of actually creating a story instead of just promoting an idea; the beginning is super-critical; you want to take a stand; address a need; and finally, focus on evoking the right response.
I particularly like his last point: "And, the only way you can avoid the subjective discussions about the quality of video content, is to create and publish video content regularly, using the insights from each video to improve the quality of the product you are producing."
Now we'll just have to wait for his next post and the next 5 mandatory ingredients!
This review was written by Karen Dietz for her Just Story It Scoops at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it
Do not undervalue the benefit of a longer, more detailed story in providing learning experiences. Anecdotes and “training fables” can be very effective and they do have their place. If you can work in a longer story, though, you can have greater emotional involvement. That is the most effective memory resource of all.
Here is what I love most about this post -- its reminder that longer stories are just as important to share as short anecdotes.
In today's short-attention span world, the prevailing notion is that people have no tolerance for longer stories -- especially online. Balderdash, I say!
What anyone needs to pay attention to is finding the right places for sharing those longer stories. A few questions to ask yourself are: - What is my purpose in sharing this story?
- What work do I want this story to do?
- What is the best channel (on-line channels & off-line channels) for sharing this story?
- If this longer story is going to be shared on-line, how do I need to prep my audience so they are ready to listen to it?
Read this short article to discover how the author crafted and shared his longer story. And don't sell yourself (or your audience) short by only going for those quickie stories!
Via Kathy Hansen
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Scooped by
Karen Dietz
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"STORY" IS THE NEW "CONTENT." As buzzwords go, story isn’t entirely bad -- for years I’ve pushed clients to be storytellers. I’ve berated the descent of story into a furtive sea of “content,” stripping all emotion from human pursuits.
I love this post and its irreverent attitude. It is quite refreshing in this day and age when 'storytelling', 'branding', and 'content' are such pervasive buzzwords and hyped as the cure-all for everything.
There are great reminders in this article that great business stories are not sanitized, and that there is danger in always crafting a happy ending. Only sharing your 'success' stories eventually undercuts your believability. We know there have been mistakes, trials, and tribulations along the way and we want to hear about those too.
Why? Because it makes you human. As the author Gary Goldhammer says, storytelling is about people. Brands aren't about Hollywood actors, and "companies are not logos. There are human beings behind them all."
There are more insights here in this quick post -- reading it is almost like hitting the 'reset' button when we forget the fundamentals of storytelling after getting caught up in the hyped-up excitement about story branding, social media, content creation, and technology.
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Karen Dietz
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In a world where audiences consuming media have a fleeting attention span, one would think that long-form branded content wouldn't stand a chance. Wrong.
LOL -- in the nano-second world of today's advertising, this article talks about long-form branded content that is 2-5 minutes long. Too funny!
But the video examples shared are great stories and one is a complete sports back-story that lasts 28 minutes.
And I love the main point of the post: that when you give a compelling story for someone to view, listen to, or read you can capture and keep their attention.
Of course, that means you need excellent storytelling skills that lead to excellent stories.
I bet these videos give you great ideas about the biz stories you can tell, and how to craft + share them. Enjoy watching them!
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Karen Dietz
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Transmedia Storytelling for Kempinski Hotels Creating Talk Value for Harley Davidson by maarten.schafer in Travel, Books - Non-fiction, and Cool...
Sharing our business stories is all about engagment -- engaging with our prospects and customers to grow the business.
OK -- so what does this actually look like in social media spheres?
Here's your answer. What I like about this post are the real-world examples that are shared showing how companies are actually using social media to increase engaging with audiences, listen for and share stories, and gain fans/customers.
Moving biz stories into social media is all about sharing very short text stories back and forth between you and your fans, using visual storytelling methods to share stories, and using any tools you can to trigger stories within the minds of your audience.
There are lessons/ideas for us all here. I hope this starts your creative juices flowing so you can better leverage social media as a media for story sharing, and grow your biz!
Your story is always being told, regardless of whether or not you decide to be the writer and director. If you think Facebook Timelines are only about highlighting and pinning pics, you are missing the point.
Here is what I like about this article -- it actually contains concrete ideas for how to bring stories into your Facebook timeline. There are even links to Facebook company pages where forms of storytelling are actually happening. I think we have a ways to go yet in terms of being able to effectively share stories via social media. But this is a good beginning.
I hope you get some good ideas from this post!
Thank you fellow curator Debra Askanase @askdebra for recommending this article!
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I like Kelly's blog because she shares many effective tips to be a motivational speaker. To be a great storyteller, I think I have to be more careful about daily life to be better and 'storious'. I actually made the word, 'storious' by myself to expressing the idea of make something possibly great to talk about. Be storious!