virtualDavis

Your story is the price of admission to the campfire discussion that is happening around your products and services every day. Without a Story – you are just an annoying salesman. ~ PushingSocial.com

We tend to get hung up on the “bells and whistles” when we talk about digital storytelling. Substance? Oh, we’ll get to that later. Later? Why bother telling a story at all if you haven’t covered the basics. It doesn’t matter how spiffy the wrapper if the gift is overlooked. Stanford’s posting is a reminder that you must build a good brand story if you want admission at the digital campfire. He offers three tips:

1. Tell your brand story from your customer’s POV
2. Create mini-stories about the benefits of your product/service
3. Adapt you brand story for use on multiple social media platforms

“Let me tell you a story…” It’s almost always a winner. No doubt you’ve tapped the interest of you listener/reader/viewer, especially if the context/relationship promises relevance. But even when it doesn’t, it’s human nature to be curious, to enjoy storytelling, to make time for a short narrative adventure before plunging back into the quotidian.

Stanford is spot on when he observes, “In our zeal to evangelize Social Media – we forgot to tell you about WHAT you should be talking about!” Bingo. The abundance of powerful digital storytelling tools available today is enchanting. And sometimes we become so enchanted with the “how” that we forget the “what”. Summer marks the much anticipated season of dazzling special effects blockbuster movies, and yet audiences often complain that a movie fell on its face because it had no story. Snazzy visuals, sound effects and superstar actors can’t redeem an ill-crafted story. Thanks for bringing the focus back to the basics!

Read the full posting at PushingSocial.com.

Read the full post at Sweet Chili of Mine…

Telling stories is as old as the hills, as human as compassion and love, as necessary as air, sleep and chocolate. Fast forward to the digital age! Storytellers are inheriting more magical tools and techniques every day. Sounds, still and moving visuals, interaction, sharing, accessibility… This is the world of digital storytelling. Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay! (Amplicate.com)

What’s your opinion on Digital Storytelling?

Are you familiar with Amplicate.com? It’s new to me. Always more fun to experiment than stand on the sidelines and watch, right? So I dove in! According to the mission statement on their homepage, “Amplicate collects similar opinions in one place; making them more likely to be found by people and companies.” Hmmm… Not so sure about companies, but there may be a few people out there who want to weigh in on the merits and demerits of digital storytelling. Do you think digital storytelling rocks? Or do you think digital storytelling sucks?

“Fears grow over oil spill disaster” (Video via youtube.com)

Is this the understatement of the year: “These guys [BP] don’t have a great record in taking care of people’s health and safety.” This comment, made by Greenpeace’s Mark Floegel about BP’s insistence that shrimpers, fishermen, etc. who wish to assist in the clean up effort must first sign a BP indemnification waiver. (Note, this quotation comes at about 2:20 in the video.)

Google is leveraging its multimodal muscle via the Crisis Response pageto help cover the oil spill, aggregating timely content and publishing updated Google Earth layers to help visualize the scope, evolution and impact of the spill.

“Google is taking a major (though low-profile) step into the realm of crowd sourcing news. Users can upload their videos of the spill or news related to the Gulf oil spill, and the videos are published to a YouTube playlist, making a video record of the disaster and what is being done on the ground to stop it.” (Mother Nature Network)

Perhaps this is the silver lining? Citizens around the world are quickly learning to contribute to the story, create history as it’s made, participate in the global dialogue that until recently was interpreted and disseminated by a few. Citizen journalism is open journalism! This shift is exciting and inspiring. The democratization of information, of news, of history. Can open government be far behind?!?!