storytelling

storytelling — 2 Comments
18
Mar 13

Share Pictures On The Internet At Your Own Risk

As storytellers, we know that images are a powerful way to tell our story.

In today’s world of limited attention spans, pictures are worth a thousand words because nobody wants to read that much text, so we use an image to convey our point.

But as more and more images make their way to our screens via Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, we have to be more and more wary that the images are truthful, something I’ve written about before.

It’s too easy to take an image at face value and share it with your friends. But once you do — regardless of how large or small you are — your credibility is at risk.

nbcnews image

The image above was shared by the NBC News Instagram feed the day after Pope Francis was introduced to the throng outside that was waiting for his first appearance. With no caption to speak of, it’s pretty easy to understand the picture they were trying to paint.

While NBC never said both images were taken from the same spot in Rome, it’s certainly implied that the point was to show technology’s swift advancement in society, using the introduction of a Pope as its focal point.

But when the Washington Post pulled back the curtain, we learned the image from 2005 was taken during Pope John Paul II’s funeral procession, while the 2013 shot was taken two days ago. Two very different events, and two very different situations.

To be fair, NBC’s account didn’t say they were taken at the same time, eight years apart. But their caption didn’t say they weren’t taken at the same time, either.

When I stumbled across the image, I shared it on Facebook. It was too powerful an image not to. But when I learned that what I shared wasn’t entirely truthful, I shared the Washington Post story, as well. I felt that I owed it to the people who commented on the image to get the whole story.

This situation is eerily similar to the image of the guards standing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier during Hurricane Sandy, except it wasn’t during that storm. However, that little bit of info didn’t stop people from continuing to share the image. Undaunted by the facts, the image still made its way around the ‘Net.

Understandably, nothing bad, per se, came from sharing the image above, nor did anything “bad” come from the picture of the soldiers, unless you want to count society’s tolerance for inaccuracy as a casualty.

If you use Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, you owe it to yourself, and the tens (or hundreds or thousands or millions) of people who follow you, to share images that are accurate and real.

The real world (and the people who inhabit it) is already fuzzy. We don’t need the digital version to complicate matters more.

storytelling — No Comments
25
Feb 13

Don’t Throw Away Your Childhood

hero

There is a box of comic books in my basement that has been collecting dust since my wife and I moved into our house seven years ago. None of the comic books in the box are worth much. The most valuable is Spawn #1, which breaks the bank at eight dollars. The rest are worth pennies.

While cleaning out our basement a few weekends ago, I made the decision that it’s finally time to throw out the box, along with some other stuff that it sits next to. Stuff that just sits there, taking up space.

But that box of comic books is worth more than currency. That box represents a passion; a period in my life when I showed up at the comic book store every Wednesday (or maybe it was Monday) to check out the latest issues. It represents a time when I combed through boxes of back issues to find the issues that held the best stories about my favorite heroes.

And, if I’m being honest, that was a time when my teen-aged self wished there were real superheroes operating in our midst. I was looking for anything to spice up what I viewed as a ho-hum existence. I often daydreamed about having hidden super powers that nobody else knew about. Something that was unique, and made me special.

As I grew up, however, those memories were replaced by college courses, job searches, a wife, and two little girls. Innocence gone, I suppose. And now, with a full-time career, it’s generally frowned upon to not take yourself seriously.

Once we’ve grown up, we are encouraged to lose our spark. It’s pretty disheartening.

That’s why it’s refreshing to hear a well-respected individual like Ann Handley touch upon this topic in a recent podcast with Jason Konopinski.

Handley, who heads up content creation for MarketingProfs, explained that our childhoods and creativity are inextricably intertwined, in that most of us can go back and find that time in our early lives when we wished for superheroes, for instance, and find a way to meld it into our professional lives. Right now.

All that time you spent daydreaming can actually be used for good, kind of like how Superman uses his superhuman strength for the greater good of society.

I’m still going to throw away that box of comic books. Aside from reminding me about being an awkward teenager, the hard copies serve no purpose. But I’m not going to ignore the lesson it can teach us.

As we grow up, all of us are forced to throw away some of what it is that we dreamed about when we were young, whether it was the ability to fly, turn invisible, or walk through walls.

We all hoped for something to turn our life on its head.

I think that is how we, as storytellers, should think. We need to find the stories that turn normalcy into something spectacular. We need to tell the stories that make people sit up and take notice. We need to tell the stories that trigger the wonder inside all of us.

That kid you used to be is still there, but they need to be awakened.

Powerful stories have the potential to shock our systems. We’re just waiting for the storytellers to tell us it’s okay to listen.

Image via Shutterstock.

public relations / storytelling — No Comments
11
Oct 11

The Importance of Storytelling

Our world revolves around stories.

When Jesus Christ was depicted in The Bible walking on water, the author of that passage didn’t just write a sentence that explained Jesus did the impossible, then move on to the next story.

He gave the event some life by providing the motivations and back story that led up to this rather significant event in Christianity.

Without stories to support these biblical events, I’m not sure the religion would have nearly the following it enjoys today.

As humans, we crave knowledge. But we find it more palatable if there is an element of human interest attached. Stories drive us. They keep us engaged. They give us something to latch on to.

Think about your social activity, for instance.

Every tweet. Every blog post. Every Facebook status update.

Every time you do this, you’re telling your story. If you were able to combine all of your activity into one cohesive timeline, you would be able to read it as a, sort of, history of your social life. More than likely, it would be mostly positive since we are the ultimate editors of our lives, but you would see a narrative emerge.

This idea of storytelling is how PR professionals should think.

We are tasked with making news on a regular basis, but how often do we stop to investigate the deeper story, rather than just pushing out a press release or email pitch? The story that will give our new product or initiative some much-needed color?

My client recently announced a new air bag designed to deploy in the event of a side impact collision. Before this air bag was a real piece of safety technology, fatalities occurred when a driver and passenger banged heads. The air bag was installed to inflate between the driver and passenger, thus, cutting down on the number of fatalities.

When I was interviewing the safety engineers for their bios, I learned that two of the engineers had been in serious accidents previous to their work on this project. One of them even told me that, when they’re designing new safety technology, they understand how their work affects lives.

Call it ironic, call it poetic. But it’s part of the larger story.

You can show videos of crash test dummies during testing all you want, but knowing the story behind the technology humanizes it.

***

Like I said above: stories drive us. They motivate us. They give us hope.

In a world where we are becoming increasingly reliant on technology and non-personable automation to to give us what we want, sometimes it’s nice to know there’s a human behind it.

Stories do that.