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Telling Your Story Through

Blogs, Photos, and Video

July 2011

Logistics

Ask questions! Otherwise I’m speaking to a black hole!

Use the Raise

Hand button

Enter questions into the Chat

with Presenter

box

Make the slideshow or demo bigger

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Logistics

I’ll doing some wholesale muting and unmuting, but you can do it yourself as well.

*6 to Mute

*7 to Un-mute

Wait for the Recording Lady….

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Telling Your Story Through

Blogs, Photos, and Video

July 2011

Introductions

Andrea BerryDirector of

Partnerships and Learning

Idealware

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What We’ll Cover

• What is a Story?

• Blogs

• Photos and Photo Sharing

• Videos and Video Sharing

• Distribution Methods

• Finding Your Story

What is a Story?

Beginning Middle End

Introduce theProtagonist and Problem

IntroduceObstacles

Resolve theProblem

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Helping Others Connect

STORYSTORY

Emotional

Content

DialogueWell-

Developed

Characters

and Scenes

Blogs

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Join a Conversation…Community and

niche bloggers are often eager for

interesting things to post about

Join the conversation by

reading and commenting

http://designphiladelphia.wordpress.com/

Show a Behind the Scenes View

http://www.easternstate.org

Show what makes your organization interesting

and unique

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Show Your Expertise

Some people get a lot of their news and

info from blogs… and blogs often link

to other blogs

http://rosenbach.blogspot.com/

Show Your Good WorkAllow participants,

patrons, volunteers, or staff, to tell their

story

Show donors what they are supporting

http://www.phillyyoungplaywrights.org/blog

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In Our Research, Few Reported Success

Very few of the 14 who shared blogging experiences were happy with the results

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Unsatisfied with

success

Happy with their

success

# R

esp

on

den

ts

It’s Hard to Get Comments

They didn’t get as many comments as they’d like

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1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Get no

comments

Only

occassional

comments

Lots of

comments

Didn't mention

comments

# R

esp

on

den

ts

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What Are They Good For?

But that’s not to say they aren’t useful in the right circumstances:

Just make sure you have the time and a purpose

From our qualitative data:

• Publicizing your expertise

• Telling stories about your day-to-day work

• Promoting online information

Minimal Quite a lot

Time

Minimal Quite a lot

Experience

Producing your own blog

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What you might need

• Internet connection

• Blogging tool

• Perhaps some coffee

Blogs

Blogger

WordPress

TypePad

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Photos

Philadelphia Young Playwrights

A picture of a program can be

worth a thousand words

http://www.phillyyoungplaywrights.org/blog

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InLiquid: Facebook Photos

Easily share photos with

your community

Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens: Flickr

267 Group Members

Photo Pool

Discussion Board

“About” Section

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Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens: Photos

Group Members can add their own photos to the Pool

What are Photos Good For?

• Illustrating an issue in a compelling way

• Engaging a group in collecting photos on a topic

• Participating in photo communities around particular topics

• Finding people posting pictures of you

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Minimal Quite a lot

Time

Minimal Quite a lot

Experience

Producing your own photos

What you might need

The Basics

• Camera

• Photo Editing Software

Taking it further• Good lighting• Getting a staff member trained• Hiring professionals

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Photo Editing

Picnik

Paint.NET

Adobe Photoshop

Video

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Rock School for Dance Education

Post videos of your performances

to share with patrons

http://www.youtube.com/user/rockschooldance#p/u/7/UiFBQiEJmK4

Philadelphia Live Arts FestivalPhilly Fringe

Video draws you into the event and shows behind the

scenes…

http://www.livearts-fringe.org/blog/

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Repower America: Video Collection

http://repoweramerica.org/wall/#/view/25977

“Viral” Videos

www.storyofstuff.com

“Going viral” is more of an aspiration than a strategy

Tell a terrific story via video – which you can then post

on a site like YouTube or Blip.tv

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What are Videos Good For?

• Providing something intrinsically interesting

• Letting people speak in their own words

• Collecting a compellingly large set of videos

• Spreading the word

Minimal Quite a lot

Time

Minimal Quite a lot

Experience

Producing your own videos (Guerilla)

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What you might need (Guerilla)

• Video camera – whatever’s easily available

• Video editing software

Minimal Quite a lot

Time

Minimal Quite a lot

Experience

Producing your own videos (Prosumer Level)

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What you might need

• Video camera

• Tripod

• External microphone

• Lighting equipment

• More sophisticated editing software

$$$ Spent

Video looks expensive

The $$$ Theorem

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Video Editing

Mac: iMovie

PC: Adobe Premier Elements

How Do You Distribute Your Stories?

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Website

A good CMS will make it much easier to update stories on your website.

Blogs

Blogs are a great place to feature photos and videos as well as text stories

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Photo Sharing

SmugMug

Flickr

Video Sharing

Blip.TV

YouTube

Vimeo

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Social Networking Sites

Spread the word through Facebook or Twitter

Finding Your Story

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Your Stories are All Around You

Ask yourself, “Why do I do what I do?”

List major obstacles you have overcome

Interview grantees or the people they serve

Use photos to remind you of people, places, and events Ask grantees

to send stories of success

Ask your web visitors to share their stores

List your happiest success stories

Or in the

field

Within

your org

Questions?