Here I lay in bed thinking, nine years ago Saturday…I was boarding a plane for Houston. Katrina was slamming into New Orleans and I was on a plane with a bunch of my colleagues…headed right into the aftermath.
Meet my friend Sarah…I met her this past Friday at the SC Mission 2014 event in Columbia, SC. She is 62 to years old, walks with the assistance of a cain, and needed glasses. Yes…her vision is not good, but she knew that if she could find her way across Columbia…she could have the opportunity to get a new pair of glasses.
As an undergraduate student at Clemson University, I majored in Mathematics and worked on a minor in Art and Architectural History. It appealed to my desire to blend my creative pursuits with my interests in mathematical proportions. One of the artists we studied was Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. He was a religious painter, one that many times spoke to my soul, especially inside a public institution like Clemson.
In the mail today was a package that made me think back to my undergraduate days…and even challenged me to connect with my work today as a communicator.
Look at the image above. I love this image! Meet Miles Thomas Haren…son to Tom and Jennifer Haren. This is their third child and the first boy our family has seen in a few generations.
Miles is my little nephew and I spent the afternoon helping Tom and Jennifer take his newborn pictures. Tom used to be a baseball player, catcher for Erskine College. You can see in the picture above his bat and glove from his college days.
There is something awesome about these pictures…something so normal. This is my brother-in-law, sister-in-law and their children. They just had their third child. These pictures showcase their most recent appointment with the physician that delivered their third child, baby Miles.
Here we have one doctor’s visit with lots of smiles.
I was sitting and meeting with a dear friend…and a great client. We were chatting about an upcoming group of projects, talking about the creative approach, budgets, logistics, etc. The more we talked, the more we began critically thinking about the visual message, the scripting, and the overall impact.
I have you noticed video auto-playing in Facebook when using your laptop, desktop computer, or even your mobile device like a tablet or smartphone. I have noticed the these auto-play videos on my iPad, iPhone, and my desktop using my MacBookPro.
The videos that are auto-playing are those uploaded directly to Facebook. This auto-play initiative is also a part of Facebook’s Premium Video Ads offering set to release to brands this fall, possibly October.
Why are we using them? Are they fun? Are the cute? Are they just what we do…hashtag everything?
They were meant originally to help organize conversations, allowing like minded people to connect inside conversations. Now…there is a hashtag for everything…just because.
I am not sure what Payne Stewart has to do with #blogchat, but it was a part of a verbal spat during the Twitter chat on Sunday, June 15, 2015. I was sitting watching television while following the chat when this little verbal disagreement broke out. Nothing more than a few heated words, but still this raised a concern for me. Why, I have help clients build communities using hashtag chats. I would hate for something like this to unfold during one of my client’s Twitter chats…but it could happen.
Look above…that is the number of school shootings since Sandy Hook Elementary School incident. That is 74 school shootings since December 14, 2012.
The biggest debate right now:
- 2nd Amendment
- Access to guns
I have one for you…how about the access to media, social media, and the velocity of the social share. We are content consumers…actually we are hungrier than a pack of wolves in the middle of winter. We crave content, we crave to share, we crave to be the one to post it to our news feeds…first.
Here is a tweet from Governor Nikki Haley concerning education reform in South Carolina on July 9, 2014.
This one tweet became an instant case study for every social consultant, pr manager, and crisis communication manager.
This has become an example or even a great leading discussion to consider the following:
Did you watch the keynote address from Apple’s #WWDC14 opening day? Did you happen to see the first video before anyone walked onto the stage? I did and I was inspired.
How many story-lines can you list while watching this video? Here is what I came up with…I was typing in real time as watched and listened this video.
So I found this on a pr/marketing firm’s website…and I think they raise an interesting question. Let’s look at this statement:
“Successful companies tell their stories well. Multiple channels today allow for storytelling on many levels. Our team helps clients tell those stories in the traditional way as well as through the digital and social media channels. It’s one thing to get good publicity and another to leverage it. We also help clients navigate the choppy waters of storytelling in less than ideal situations. Our advice to clients is simple: Tell your own story (good, bad or ugly) and tell it fast or someone else will.”
Yes…so who is telling your story? You? Your organization? The people in the organization? What is a good story?
So my good friend Olivier Blanchard shared a post I wrote on Facebook (seen above) and this generated a pretty interesting discussion. So I thought I would share a few of the comments and my responses.
Cémanthe – you know…I 100% agree…I am tired of the industry using this buzzword –> “Storytelling”…it actually pisses me off…thus the point of this article.
Love this…
“A storyteller is spinner of yarns, a teller of tales, a bard, minstrel, rhymer or raconteur who delights in audiences and attentive faces that ask, “what’s next?” Storytellers play their part in delivering lessons to society, they create communities by bringing people together in a shared experience. Storybook reading has a focus on the book and the pictures. Storytelling eliminates that object that comes between the teller and the audience.”
Image from www.incourage.me/inrl-countdown
Quote is from www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Mar/21/storytelling-jessica-baris
There are two videos that have truly impact me the last few weeks…so I really wanted to share. These are for the mothers in my life and to the many mothers out there.
For you single moms…for those Linda’s of the world…the Mom of my world!
This is for those single moms, that have sacrificed, have done it all of their children…when the odds were stacked up…you were more entrepreneurial than any high net-worth millionaire. You innovated, you scaled, you found ways to make it all happen…against all odds. You did not do it for the money…you did if for love.