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| 14/09/07 | | Storytelling and social media |
Jennifer Jones mentions that she has been working with Intel on the social media activities and how storytelling plays an important role in Intel's success in this area.
Jennifer makes the following observation:
However, I am struck when I watch vblogs and listen to podcasts how many people today are not storytelling with social media. They don't have a beginning, middle and end to their pieces, but instead often just list facts and thoughts, and don't connect the information so that the viewer/listener etc. gets the point of the podcast, video blog, etc
Me too. I'm surprised at how many people talk about stories but don't know what one looks or sounds like. A story is a recounting of what happened or what might happen. It's not an opinion, or what someone thinks, or a description of how things work, or don't. To get the most from storytelling we will need to know what a story looks like.
A while back I suggested the following approach to identifying a story.
For every power however there is an associated curse. When you are aware of stories you see them everywhere and sometimes you will be sitting there admiring the speaker's use of stories instead of being immersed in their telling.
And if you want to see more examples of anecdote just check out our 'anecdotes' category.
Thanks to Nancy White for pointing Jennifer's post out to me.
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Comments
Ah, you are welcome. I figured you'd connect with it sooner or later! Waving!
Posted by: Nancy White at September 14, 2007 9:47 AM
Shawn,
This is a fascinating phenomenon. When I'm working with clients on meetings, speeches, and the like, it is unbelievably frustrating to try and draw out a genuine story.
So I began to pay closer attention to what I was hearing. As crazy as this may sound, I realized that I was hearing Powerpoint-Speak. The patterns and sequences were that of a Powerpoint bullet slide.
I promise I won't go into my Powerpoint rant here. But it is an intriguing commentary on how I tool supposedly designed to offer visual support has actually become, for many, the thought pattern that now influences the speech pattern.
I'm thinking about the business potential for an executive Powerpoint detox and rehab center.
Now that would make a great story!
Posted by: Steve Roesler at September 14, 2007 11:22 AM
I think you might be right Steve. I'm collecting anecdotes I find some organisations are just natural storytellers. We are working with a pharma at the moment that is like this. Their conversations drip with stories. Compare that with a bank we are working with, in the IT department, and it's like getting blood from a stone. I will now keep an eye out for how they both use Powerpoint.
Posted by: Shawn at September 14, 2007 1:53 PM