Notes from NetSquared DC's Crafting Amazing Stories

Speaker #1 - Melissa from Stone Soup Films

Shared a video from Wise Young Builders about math being used in building. This was to show how math is used in real life.

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?)

Advocacy Journalism

• 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