StoryTeller Media & Communications
StoryTeller is a public relations agency specializing in media relations, social media and video production and web video
Kathy's Blog
Brian Solis on Video StoryTelling
Most mornings, I wake up and have my coffee and scour through the myriad of social media articles to find out what new and relevant content that might benefit our clients. It also serves as my daily dose of social media inspiration. Tuesday night, I had the opportunity to hear some first hand inspiration when I attended Jennifer Kane’s ( Kane Consulting) “An Evening with Brian Solis” event. Brian is on the PR circuit of promoting his most recent book, “Engage,” which I can’t wait to read!
Brian spoke so eloquently on topics ranging from community, engagement and trust to understanding the importance of being curators of content with context. He went on to say that all companies are media companies because every company publishes to its customers, its staff, its neighbors, its communities and they need to know how to use all media technologies at its disposal, especially video.
With YouTube positioned as the second most popular Search Engine, second to Google, and over 24 hours of video uploaded every minute, brands have a unique opportunity to put video storytelling into work. Ideally, video is part of your overall content strategy and used when you want to build a connection that may not be made through other mediums.
Brian was gracious enough to share his insights on the importance of having a video strategy. Here is part one of our conversation with Brian Solis.
Catalogers Getting Social
I recently had the opportunity to step back in time to my “old life” for a brief moment while connecting with a group of Direct Marketers. The group was interested in our perspective of social media and how it can benefit the traditional cataloger.
What seems apparent after our meeting, is this is an industry that I would categorize as somewhat “late adopters” in the social media frontier. Understandably, they have spent years refining the art of direct mail and have it down to a pretty concise science but they are having a difficult time connecting the dots to know how social media can really impact their business.
Getting Creative With Your Flip Camera
It’s interesting. I had a meeting today with what I hope will become a future StoryTeller client. The subject: online video. It seems to be the topic most gravitated to in our meetings with business’ and organizations today. It appears to be what’s on everyone’s mind. YouTube…specifically. There was a revelation that I had during this meeting. I initially met this future client about (5) months ago, and the discussion albeit very similar (defining what makes a solid video strategy) the method of implementing the strategy was completely different!
Deliver more than what is expected
When I look back at my 20 years of selling in various industries, there are some things that I have just taken for granted that Corporate America has taught me. I take for granted that to win clients and even more importantly to retain clients, there is nothing that matters more than Customer Service. I mean exceptional customer service. I assume that everyone understands this key principle, but more and more I am realizing that this is not something that everyone assigns the same value of importance.
To simply deliver what is expected is not customer service. That is the privilege of collecting a paycheck. What I expect and what you can expect from all of us at StoryTeller is to over-deliver, to consistently exceed expectations and most importantly to be one step ahead of our clients expectations. It’s the reason our clients come back to us again and again and why we continue to earn their business.
Some principles that are part of our fabric of doing business:
- Respond quickly with enthusiasm, energy and creativity
- Stay in front; offer ideas and solutions before our clients think of them
- Provide relentless attention to detail
- Add unexpected value
- Allow no surprises
- Commit to our clients success
- Demonstrate a total can-do attitude
- Deliver MORE than is expected
Now, more than ever, with all of the Social Media outlets today, customer service has never been more important. Both good and negative experiences are shared exponentially. As the saying goes, ”if you don’t take care of your customer… someone else will”.
The Face of Customer Service
The other day, I decided to run into a local grocery store on the way home from work to pick up a few last minute items for dinner. On the menu that evening was salmon. That sounds like a pretty basic meal to some, but truthfully, I have mastered many dishes in the kitchen but seafood is not one of them. So I did my typical ask of the nice-looking butcher behind the counter and said “if you were preparing salmon this evening, how would YOU do it?”
It almost seemed like his eyes immediately lit up and he so readily responded… “I have the perfect suggestion, our marinade.”. He quickly went over to the bottled marinade section and with disappointment looked at me and continued to look in three other locations. After scouring the accompaniment sections of the grocery store, he said “we are all out but just give me a minute”.
Now this search went on for a good 10 minutes. Typically at this point, always in a hurry, I would be getting slightly annoyed at the amount of time all of this was taking, but I continued to wait. I was so impressed with the genuine problem solving nature of this man’s helpful intentions that I couldn’t wait to see what he would come up with (not to mention, I still wasn’t sure how to prepare my salmon!)
Storytelling - everyone has a story, do you know yours?
Five years ago, almost to the day, Ed hung the StoryTeller shingle and opened shop. StoryTeller was founded on his principles and beliefs that everyone has a story and he wanted to help them tell it. Five years later, many things have changed in our industry and how we do business, but the constant in the wave of change is our storytelling abilities have stayed true to the coarse. We just now tell our clients stories in many more ways using all of the social media tools available today.
Recently, I came across a video of Andy Goodmen, who owns a communications consulting firm that helps organizations and businesses reach more people more effectively. Andy was giving a keynote at a conference back in 2006 on the Art of Storytelling. Now it is rare, when I commit 45 minutes to watching any video, but Andy had me from the word hello. He illustrated the longevity that storytelling has had in our society, examples of good storytelling practices and how there is no better way to help us remember things and events than to tie it together with a story.
What is your video strategy?
I had the opportunity recently to sit down with a privately held Global company to help them become more familiar with YouTube and online video. Currently, they have put their big toe into the social media waters to find out rather quickly that they have 10’s of thousands of supporters that are looking for engagement, but they do not have anything that resembles a video strategy.
Now, I am uncertain that after our allotted hour-long discussion that they actually “got it”, but I know that I walked away more convinced than ever that video is a must have in your social strategy. Why? There is no better way to align yourself today with some of the core principles of social media that will engage, educate and entertain better than video.
The Three A’s of Listening
If there was one key reminder that I took away yesterday from hearing Chris Brogan address the Social Media Breakfast MN/St.Paul group it was the importance of listening as a key pillar of all of our social media marketing efforts. He went on to say that it is through this one action that businesses have been able to see the biggest positive effect of this movement. Members of the retail community (Best Buy and Select Comfort) echoed Brogan’s sentiments. Revolutionary? No, but a good reminder nonetheless.
I think what they are actually trying to say is that this listening has become a lost art and companies like General Motors are finally asking consumers what they think and but unfortunately it may be too late for them to respond.
Listening has been described as “ hearing with a purpose”. Good listening is built on three basic skills: attitude, attention, and adjustment. If you acknowledge these three A’s, you can tune into any situation and know what to do next. It is only with an open ear that we can create change.
Facebook: So Much More Than Status Updates
I have to admit, that when my then 19 year old niece said to me a couple of years ago “you are too old for Facebook” I tended to agree with her. After all, my Ivy League niece with a near perfect SAT score is really quite smarter than I. What she didn’t know, nor did I, was over the next 2 years, Facebook users would double and she and I along with our 350 million counterparts would all be enjoying the same social networking site despite our age differences. Here are a few of the latest Facebook tidbits:
- Average user has 130 friends on the site
- Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
- Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
- Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
- Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
- Average user becomes a fan of 2 Pages each month
- Average user is invited to 3 events per month
- Average user is a member of 12 groups
Online video… does quality matter?
As we all know, the use of online video is growing by staggering numbers. We are seeing video used to educate (how to videos) which has proven to help sell more product, to entertain (if you are lucky it will go viral), to promote your brand, create awareness… the list goes on. We also know that video is a significant SEO driver and will be increasingly important in your overall marketing strategies as we move into 2010.
This begs the question of quality. How important is quality when creating content? After all, with handheld cameras like the FLIP available for under $200 can’t anyone create a video and put it up on the web? The answer to that is sure, why not, as long as it is done with intention. But what about branding and image? If the video is produced poorly can it not do more harm than good?
I recently came across a video that was created and posted by the Detroit Social Media Club of Chris Barger speaking on General Motors‘ Social Media experiences at a recent event. After hearing Scott Monty’s impressive presentation at the 2009 MIMA conference this year, I was interested to hear how GM was tackling Social Media. In a nutshell, I was truly amazed. The uploaded video was poorly lit, shot from what appears to be a handheld camera from the back of a room, had several people walking in front of the camera, cell phones ringing loudly in the background, and questionable audio at best. I had a hard time focusing on Chris’ message with all of the distractions. My first reaction after viewing this, was way to go Scott Monty and Ford Motor Company for leading the way.
I am not sure that is a fair assessment, but I think it’s incredibly important to be cognizant of the image you are portraying at ALL times. What do you think?
Chris Barger speaks on General Motor\’s Social Media experience
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