Importance of Storytelling in Social Media

Storytelling is critical to Social Media marketing because it’s the language of the heart.  People are moved by a person’s story. It creates empathy and it is more memorable than facts and figures.

Telling those stories requires good pictures and videos.  According to an article, “The Importance of Storytelling on Social Media,” on social4retail.com:

“Research has shown that visuals increase people’s willingness to read content by 80%
Content with relevant images gets 94% more views
65% of senior marketing executives believe visuals are core to how their brand story is communicated.”

Just as important as visual appeal is making a personal connection with the reader, putting yourself in their shoes.  Social media posts that best tell a story are short blog-type posts that create context and give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at your day,  your product, your persona.  And that uniqueness sells, too, so it should be part of your social media package.

Bryan Eisenberg, professional marketing speaker, says “Facts tell, but stories sell.”

That’s because the power of storytelling is universal and timeless.  In business2community.com, Kaitlynn Hammond gives 7 essential element of good storytelling, citing The Power of Visual Storytelling, by Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio.  These include:   imagining a personality for your product and talking to an audience of one.   Also, explaining the usefulness of your brand or product in your story solves a problem the client or customer may have, and thereby, creates a connection with your audience.

I began my business when I became a single mom and wanted to use my writing skills to work from home.  I had worked as a reporter for years and I had been hired as a freelancer to write web content and corporate newsletters for a company in town.  I knew if I had that missing piece of web design, I could sell the whole package.  And voila, a new career was born after the birth of my youngest daughter.  It was not without hard work and sacrifice but the motivation of my little family got me through the hard times.

Photography by Michele White.

Copyright 2018.  All Rights Reserved.

Sources:

The Importance of Using Storytelling in Your Marketing Efforts

https://www.i-scoop.eu/content-marketing-superheroes-teach-art-storytelling/

https://www.social4retail.com/the-importance-of-storytelling-on-social-media.html

 

 

Social Media Marketing

The best way to assess the success of my efforts to engage using social media is to see the content I created and the connections I made in this class.  I was stretched to do things I hadn’t done before, like using an infographic to make a social media plan, rather than a document and rather than using infographics for short, simple graphics.  I also always have enjoyed the work of my classmates.  Their critiques and their own art inspired me to do different things, like that infographic plan, when I would have normally used words because I love to write.

I learned about the Twitter Chat, even though I was not able to attend it.  My business has not really taken off yet. I still have to design a logo and get a license and all the logistics but I have a good plan to market it when I have set it up.  I learned about the colors that represent my business well. Thank you, Renne!  That was the biggest inspiration because from there, I can start designing a logo.  But, most of all, I have tools and confidence that I didn’t have before this class.  The precision of the plan we created was very helpful in seeing how all the tools work together — blogging, creating events, planning daily, weekly and monthly and collaborating with partners.  I’ve read a lot of articles and the books and it will all be running around in my head when I sit down to perfect my social media marketing plan for Michele White Creative.

 

 

Future of Social Media Apps

Social Media Marketing is critical to every business.  But, picking the right one that fits your business and targets your audience is just as critical.  Once that is established and good social media marketing plan is developed, it’s time to get creative in branching out. I think the future of social media will include even more growth of social media platforms, apps and niche markets.

I am a firm believer in competition in the marketplace.  And the big social media and technology companies, like Facebook, Youtube and Google, should not be exempt from healthy competition — especially given their stronghold in social media has even had a stranglehold on the Constitutional rights of users and their content.

I think these big companies are getting backlash from users who have been censored for their conservative and/or Christian posts and shadow banned.  These companies may have gotten away with it for a long time but it just opens the market to newcomers and some oversight — what is happening now — the development of an Internet Bill of Rights.

http://keepthewebopen.com/digital-bill-of-rights

The ending of a business is part of the growth cycle of a business.  This allows new technology companies to come forward and shine and fit the demands of consumers.  I hope that is where the future of social media apps is going.  I don’t think the social media giants are going away but they may take a back seat to some new creative companies.

I would also advise clients to use their own web site to create and post their content to not only protect their copyright but their freedom of speech without harassment.  I would start creating my own apps for myself and my clients and connecting with like-minded businesses.  Those small networks may grow to bigger ones, as Facebook did.  I think the little guys will rise up in social media technology.  That is refreshing!  Imagine the ingenuity, creativity, content and freedom from censorship that will bring!

Press Release: Pacific Northern Academy’s Annual Auction

Come be a part of our story!  Once Upon A Story Unfolds is Pacific Northern Academy’s 22nd Annual Auction theme.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

6:00 p.m.

9251 Lake Otis Pkwy
Anchorage, Alaska 99507

We’re calling on all artists and business owners to contribute an auction item to our biggest fundraiser of the year.  Your generous donations help make our auctions a success and help make PNA’s mission a success.  Tuition alone does not support our exceptional faculty and costs of educating our students.  PNA opens admission to exceptional learners, regardless of their economic situation.  It is the overwhelming  community support that enables PNA to offer financial aid to many students who might not otherwise be able to attend.

“We educate students to be exceptional learners and independent thinkers of vision, courage, and integrity.”

PNA does this by providing an independent, project-based education in a responsive classroom model.  Whether you have artwork, or a product or service to contribute, PNA welcomes your donations for our auction. And then, come to the auction to enjoy the fun and meet some of the students and alumni of this truly exceptional school that was named Top 10th private elementary school in the country by thebestschools.org.

Please tell us about your art or product in the comments below and share this press release among your clients, customers and community to share your excitement and community involvement.

To learn more about PNA and project-based learning, watch our video below.  We look forward to hearing about you in the comments and we look forward to seeing you at the auction.

Press Releases

The kind of events that interest me are ones that involve my passions in life:  parenting, faith photography, politics and writing.  Parenting is my full-time job and any family event or educational event for parents will always be my top priority.  My church events are usually included in this.  We usually have a class for a few weeks before church service where we go over a book by a Christian author.  Sometimes, those books are Christian parenting books.  I enjoy the teaching, fellowship and support at these events.

It’s an election year so political events and fundraisers are a close second. I’m on the board of the Midnight Sun Republican Women’s Club. I handle all of the social media messaging, graphic design for invitations and now, web content, so our events are a big part of my life. We educate women who want to run for office in Anchorage about the election process.

The purpose of a press release is to inform and educate but also to market your information, your product or your event.  It should be well-written and concise so people will read it.  They are typically written for reporters and sent to newsrooms to encourage those reporters to give them some publicity with a story.  But, they can also be written by companies and sent to their customers as a way to promote a new product or keep them informed and to keep up their name recognition.  In Alaska, the governor’s press releases are posted on the state’s web page and previous governors’ press releases are archived.

Participating in events and activities helps build community and advocate your brand in ways nothing else can.  When I was a reporter, I made appearances at community events on behalf of the station to build community with our viewers.  Today, social media is a big part of building community and it happens on a daily basis.  Facebook Live is an effective tool for creating events, building community and advocating for your brand.  I watch a lot of “live” broadcasts on Facebook, like Jay Sekulow and the American Center for Law and Justice.  I also have a few friends in ministry who use Facebook Live and Periscope to reach people who cannot attend their events in person.  And I trained with the nutritional company I am advocate for with Facebook Live.

Second Life is a virtual world where I want to become savvy and learn to build community and advocate my brand.  This year, I’ve taken a full-time class schedule and so I haven’t had the time to explore Second Life but I will this summer.

Currently, I am using my Facebook and Twitter pages to advocate my brand Michele White Creative.  I posted links to my video projects on my YouTube page and to my Behance site for my photography and graphic design work.

Have a look!

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/Mizzoualumna

https://www.behance.net/michelewhite777

Michele White Creative: Call to Action

Photography, Videography, Graphic Design, Web Design, Social Media Marketing

Impress.

Show off what you have.  Sell your product.  Sell a job.  Sell your skill.

Illustration by Michele White

Copyright 2018.  All Rights Reserved.

Inform.

You have a story.  Tell it.

 

Illustration and Design by Michele White

Copyright 2017.  All Rights Reserved.

Inspire.

Your event, your cause, your action needs traction.

 

Photography by Michele White

Copyright 2017. All Rights Reserved.

Photography by Michele White

Copyright 2017. All Rights Reserved.

All photographs, designs and videos by Michele White

Copyright 2018.  All Rights Reserved.

More than a Picture

Good photography is more than a pretty picture.  It tells a story.  The use of photojournalism in professional portraiture has regained popularity in the last 15 years or so.  A good photographer will shoot images of not just the subjects (people) but the relationships between them.  It takes a little more creativity to find those moments and shoot them but it is well worth the effort.

One way to do this is to get to know your subjects before your photo shoot.  The more fun and different information you can find out about them, the more material you have to work with when you pick up the camera.

Second, listen to the conversations between your subjects.  It might lead to a great shot.  If you know one of the family members has a contagious sense of humor, be ready for him or her to start teasing a family member and then take multiple shots.

Another way you can capture those unrehearsed moments is to make some sort of joke yourself to get them laughing and then shoot as they play off of your humor.  If you can’t think of one, steal someone’s else joke.  Just make sure it’s relevant and of course, clean.

Sometimes, it is the quiet, still moment that is the best shot.  Be alert and watchful for those as well.

I recently shot my best friend’s wedding.   I worked to capture the relationships between the family members and the quiet, still moments that are often over-looked.

To see more of my photography work, take a look at my video projects or my video video channel.  Again, it’s about the relationships between the subjects that tell the story.  Go for those shots.

What are some of your favorite photography shots?  I’d love to hear them.

Michele White has been reading and writing since she was a child and taking pictures since she got her first camera at age 12.  She earned her Bachelor of Journalism degree from the top journalism school in the country and worked as a television reporter for 3 years. She took her writing and photography skills to another level by going back to school for web and graphic design.  This year, she launched her own media company Michele White Creative.  Born and raised in Boston, Michele is a city slicker at heart but since she moved to Alaska, she loves to hike in the back country, go white-water rafting and ice-climbing on glaciers in the wilderness of Alaska.

 

My Story: Michele White and Michele White Creative

Who am I and what do I do?  I have been reading and writing since I was a little girl.  I’m a dogged journalist and a dynamic storyteller.  I naturally find interesting people to tell their stories and give me interesting and inspiring sound bites.  I love to inspire audiences.  Even when I write complicated political or business stories, I break it down into its basic issues and tell the story through the eyes of the people most affected by it. I loved working in a job that paid me to read, write and learn something new every day.

Before I studied journalism in college, I studied interior design and architecture.  It was in architecture school that one of my professors told me that my thesis for the cottage I designed, “was the most well-written and articulate thesis he had ever read.”  I wrote it in 15 minutes in the loud and cramped basement laundromat close to campus. I realized I had missed my calling. I took a journalism class the next semester and got an A without even trying.  The rest, as they say, is history.

But, I was always sad about not being as naturally talented a designer as my classmates in architecture school.  Ironically, my best friend in journalism school had the same passion for architecture that I do, which throws that whole right brain vs. left brain theory out the window.  We operated out of both sides of our brains.  Or maybe that was our perfectionist spirits.

My love of pretty things and journalism brought me to Alaska.  I could have taken a job in the lower 48 in a bigger television market than Anchorage, and I almost did.  But, the wonder and untouched beauty of Alaska beckoned me.  I thought I’d stay two years and then leave for another reporting job.  But, my job was eliminated after 6 months and I began looking for reporting jobs immediately.  Still, part of me wasn’t ready to leave when I hadn’t really unpacked yet.  There were adventures to be had and I wasn’t leaving without them.  So, I looked for work while substitute teaching and working in customer service and I took my oldest daughter on some wild Alaskan adventures like ice-climbing, white water rafting and taking cruises to remote glaciers out of Seward and Prince William Sound.  I started hiking in the mountains and saw some of the back country and I was hooked.

When journalism jobs were hard to come by in a very competitive field in a sparsely populated state and isolation in Alaska made it harder to just move to another city for a job in my field, I had to look for other ways to use my talents. I wrote freelance stories, web content and corporate newsletters but that wasn’t enough to make a living or to satisfy my writer’s itch or my passion for investigating.

Then, another beauty came into my life — my youngest daughter. I was meant to stay in Alaska long enough to have her 5 years ago. But, then I started looking for ways to use my talent and stay home with her. My priorities had changed dramatically. I wanted to be home more for her.

I went back to school to take classes in photography, web design, graphic design and videography.  My goal was finish school and create my own media company, using my talents and new skills in time to home school my daughter.

That is how Michele White Creative was born.  I excel in writing, photography and videography but I also love creating and designing and the symbiotic relationship between all of these art forms.  As a T.V. journalist, I loved reporting (news gathering), writing a news script, editing video, putting together a package for broadcast.  It allowed me to have a creative hand in every part of the story.  Similarly, I now enjoy writing a short film script, shooting video, editing and designing media projects that help my clients market their businesses.

What makes me different from other web and graphic designers and social media marketers is that I am a natural storyteller. I wrote teases for stories long before there were tweets and social media posts.  I was recently asked to do a recruitment video for a company in Alaska.  They showed me a competitor’s video and said they’d like something like it, without copying it.  When I saw the video they shared with me, it was creatively shot and edited but it was full of wasted shots and talking heads and lacked a good story.  Without a good story, it wasn’t memorable. Because I see every thing as a story, I  wrote a script and shot and edited a much better story for them than their competitor had from an advertising agency.

Come see for yourself.  You can find Michele White Creative on:  YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Behance, Twitter, 550px.com.  Come see what a journalist-designer can do for your business.

 

 

Branding Michele White Creative

According to the statistics and focus of the many social media platforms, the best social media platforms to reach my target audience are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and to a lesser extent, Google +.  Because most of my work now is visual: photographs, graphic design, infographics, the best content to actively engage my audience on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram would be using my illustrations and images with short, concise teases, or tweets, to entice my audience to look at more of my work.  On LinkedIn, the best content would involve both images and text in the form of my storytelling.  Once I start building web sites, all of these platforms will still be excellent platforms to market my business, particularly for its reach and its communication utility with customers.  I  started a professional Facebook page when I was a reporter, where I teased my daily stories and invited viewer feedback.  Even though I’ve been off the air for more than a year, I still get requests from people to add me to my page.

YouTube is also a perfect fit for my videography and I have already started using my YouTube page to showcase my video work and storytelling.  My content should be short and captivating and inspiring to keep my audience and inspire them to subscribe to my channel after they land on my page.

Google+ is the one I am not as confident in using but I will figure it out and see how it fits as my business evolves.

 

 

Midwives and Childbirth at Mat-Su Midwifery — A Public Service Announcement