Shared a video from DC Diaper Bank about a question they get all the time about why they don't use cloth diapers.
Finding Stories
- Biggest obstacles and frustrations in communication (Example- DC Diaper Bank)
- Who is your audience
- Finding main characters
Story Content Basics
- Make audience care or take action
- Show journal/transformation (beginning, middle, end)
- Keep message simple
Rules
- Show don't tell (Example- Wise Young Builders)
- Don't overburden with facts and figures
- Shorter, the better
Speaker #2 - Vladimir
- People don't connect with organizations, they connect with other people
- Make it personal
- We all love stories
- Two questions to ask - Who is your audience? What is your goal?
- Use same footage for different social media sites
- Promote video on social media, e-mail, and ads on Facebook
Speaker #3 - Tanya from Machinists Union
Basics
- Who is audience?
- Tell both sides or all sides (different points of views)
- The story structure should have a beginning, middle, and end.
(How did the issue come about? What is happening now? What’s next?)
- Show why position is important
- Advocate for certain point or position
- Back it up with facts
Advice
- Be different
- Take notes
- Search everywhere for stories
- Get people to realize that they have a story that can help other people
Speaker #4 - Brandi from Vanguard Communications
Stories come from your network.
There are more tools now to capture stories and share them.
Science of Stories
- Engage more parts of the brain
- Generate interest and engagement
How to Ask
- Invite people to share
- Provide guidelines for content and an easy way to submit
- Offer an incentive
- Get releases (it is ok to use content submitted for website, blog, or social media)
Farm Aid Example
- They wanted stories and set up a submission form
- 500+ people shared #Road2FarmAid stories
- Stories collected helped with content
- Social Media Results - 6,416 new Facebook followers, reached 5 million Twitter accounts, generated 15.4 million Twitter impressions, generated 9 million+ Instagram impressions