Telling Your Story Through Blogs, Photos, and Video

May 2012

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Telling Your Story Through Blogs, Photos, and Video

May 2012

Introductions

Andrea BerryDirector of Partnerships and Learning

Idealware

Introductions: www.idealware.org

What We’ll Cover

• What is a Story?• Blogs• Photos and Photo Sharing• Videos and Video Sharing• Distribution Methods• Finding Your Story

Telling Your Story

Your Stories are All Around You

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

obstacles you have overcome

Interview the people you serve

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

the field to send stories

Ask your web visitors to share their stores

List your happiest success stories

Or in the field

Within your org

Constructing a Story

Beginning Middle End

Introduce theProtagonist and Problem

IntroduceObstacles

Resolve theProblem

Helping Others Connect

STORYSTORY

Emotional

Content

Dialogue

Well-Develop

edCharact

ersand

Scenes

Blogs

Show your expertise…

Some people get a lot of their news and

info from blogs… and blogs often link

to other blogs

http://www.palegalaid.net/news/blog

Show your donors what they’re supporting…

http://clsphila.wordpress.com/

And allow volunteers, staff, or supporters to

tell their story

Show a Behind the Scenes View

http://www.easternstate.org

Show what makes your organization interesting

and unique

Join a Conversation…

Consider joining the conversation in blogs associated

with your mission focuses

Create Your Blogging Plan

• What is your topic?

• Who will write it?

• Photos or videos you can add?

• When will you publish it?

• Who will review or edit?

• How will you distribute it?

Judging Success…more than comments

It is tough to get comments, but is that a true measure of your success?

What about traffic, links, shares, etc.?

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

What you might need

• Internet connection• Blogging tool• Perhaps some coffee

Blogs

Blogger

WordPress

TypePad

Can you do it with your current CMS? If not…

Photos

Photos to Tell Stories

A picture says a 1000 words!

Images from Lone Star Legal Aid- East Texas Wildfires 2011 Album

Charity: Water

Photo gallery combined with “stories from the field”

Photo Sharing Tools to Spread ImagesEasily share your work via photos with your community

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

Minimal Quite a lot

Time

Minimal Quite a lot

Experience

Producing your own photos

Make Sure to Get Permission

Get signed permission forms that explicitly state how images can be used.

Privacy will be an issue for content…how can you get around while maintaining protection?

To avoid permission issues:• Unidentifiable faces• Backs• Groups from far away

What you might need

The Basics• Camera• Photo Editing Software

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

Editing can do wonders!Cropping helps draw focus

Original More contrast Towards the yellow

Work with color to enhance the image

Photo Editing

Picnik

Paint.NET

Adobe Photoshop

What about stock photos?

iStockPhoto

Google Creative Commons

Getty Images

Video

Share What You Do

http://www.youtube.com/user/legalservicesnj?feature=results_main

Advocate for Your Cause

http://www.brennancenter.org/content/pages/fighting_foreclosure_why_legal_assistance_matters

Fighting Foreclosure: Why Legal Assistance Matters is a project of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law 

Provide Legal Services

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0000FBEA1F188D05&feature=plcp

Video Sharing Tools to Collect and Organize

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

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)

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)

More like this… ..less like this.

What you might need

• Video camera• Tripod• External microphone• Lighting equipment• More sophisticated editing software

Small Steps for Improving

Animoto

$$$ Spent

Video looks expensive

The $$$ Theorem

Video Editing

Mac: iMovie

PC: Adobe Premier Elements

How Do You Distribute Your Stories?

WebsiteA 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

http://clsphila.wordpress.com/

Photo Sharing

SmugMug

Flickr

Video Sharing

Blip.TV

YouTube

Vimeo

Social Networking Sites

Spread the word through Facebook or Twitter

Finding Your Story

Your Stories are All Around You

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

List major obstacles you have overcome

Interview the people you serve

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

the field to send stories

Ask your web visitors to share their stores

List your happiest success stories

Or in the field

Within your org

Questions?