Storytelling for Engagement – Details, episodes & analysis

Ruth Bay is a self-proclaimed branding geek. She joins Miranda to explore her perspective on brand storytelling, design, how it differs from marketing and how organizations bridge the gap between their intended brand identity goals and how are they actually perceived by audiences.

Connect with Ruth: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/ruthbay
Connect with Miranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaoconnor-mba/
Learn more about The Art of Storytelling: https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/

Our guest on this episode is David Gilbert, a professional voice over talent. David and Miranda discuss the importance of choosing the right voice for a project, how he embraces the character he portrays, and the impact of AI on the voice industry. As an experience and successful voice talent, David describes the amount of training and coaching required to create authentic and believable voice overs that connect the audience with the brand. Join us to explore some similarities in the strategy behind voice over and video storytelling.

Connect with David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgilbertvo/
Connect with Miranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaoconnor-mba/
Learn more about The Art of Storytelling: https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/

Join the AOS team to begin exploring the world of content strategy - and where stakeholder storytelling fits in to the plan.

Introduction to Content Strategy
Stakeholder Storytelling
Community Voices and Endorsements

Featuring:
Hugh Blanc
James O'Connor

Hosted by Julianne Neal

I said to somebody the other day. Content strategy is basically just like a business plan. People say "yes, content... but noise!" and the answer to that really is looking at your values and looking at what you really stand for and finding voices within your community of relevance that can support that message and can kind of echo it back and talk about their own life experiences and how you and your service or product has affected them and those life experiences, creating content and creating a story around it that's relevant that impacts you much more than just you know... content for content's sake or telling me about the product or service.

Gotcha, good morning guys - morning James, morning Hugh, it's so good to speak with both of you again today for our second episode of the podcast and we're going to be talking today about stakeholder storytelling and content strategy. Doesn't that sound exciting?

Yeah it does, if you work in the in the field we do!

So according to market muse, I will give you the strict definition from them. Content strategy is the ongoing process of transforming business objectives and goals into a plan that uses content as a primary means of achieving those goals. That's pretty wordy, right? So in your words, what is content strategy to you?

I wanted to firstly is take issue with that definition you read there because they used the term they were defining in the definition, which is like, you know, the number one rule. Don't do that. I'm just kidding, but we have to accept it the way we engage is as people is different than the way we used to engage. We went through a phase where we were struggling. People were adopting to the idea of we just need to create content. We need to constantly have new stuff coming to work with the algorithms and I think we've moved to the next step now where OK, we established that we understand the importance of content and now it comes back to sort of becoming more sophisticated and saying OK, it's not just about making sure I have something to post. It's about understanding what I'm going to post, towards what end and a sort of a business plan as James said, which I think he stole from Miranda... But having that that sort of business plan of of these things - creating this content, engaging with the with the public in a certain way in a certain way with the strategic end in mind.

The reason why we're still having this conversation now, why it's still important now, it's because it's 2021 and people are still doing content for content's sake and you can see it everyday you know, people just posting well it's Monday, what's my Monday meme? That's totally not the point. That's not what we're about. That's not what we're doing. We're about, you know, we might spend a little bit longer trying to identify who are the stakeholders and what can they bring to your story. Because we think that the results are far, far more impressive. Content is a funnel, you know that's the thing, it's just the first step in this huge funnel. Entertain everybody, trying to get everyone's attention, but it very quickly narrows down to be: "Oh well, that was fun. I've been entertained. But you know, this is not affecting me in any way, is not impacting me..." so you know I might engage with it, but what is the point for the brand? What's the point six months later, when they still haven't figured out what their values are and who they really want to talk to?

Explore 15 years at The Art of Storytelling Inc. helping businesses find and tell their stories. 

• Video and photography production
• Communications
• User generated content
• AOS Content Cloud App
• The future of storytelling
• Insights from AOS' founders

Featuring: Miranda O’Connor, James O’Connor
Hosted by: Julianne Neal

We’ve kind of settled on this niche because we know that this is what gives us our greatest joy is helping people to discover their stories, and I think a lot of video production companies trust that the client actually knows what their story really is and is able to verbalize it and explain it. 

But I do find that a lot of people rely on us to help them to discover what is it that they actually want to say, and what is it that makes them special.

Welcome all to the first episode of Video Storytelling for Community Engagement. A brand new podcast from the folks at AOS – the Art of Storytelling – which is run by my friends Miranda and James O’Connor. They are responsible for several award winning documentaries exploring such themes as youth development through sports and music, climate change, and equine therapy… but also for hundreds of videos for brands who want to leverage their story to make a greater impact. It’s been three years since they affectively moved their business and their lives from the Caribbean to Canada, six years since we last met at the Equus Film Festival in Camden, South Carolina, and an amazing 15 year journey for these two entrepreneurs, which I can’t wait to share with you right now.

You know we started this business on my mother’s dining room table many many years ago and we didn’t start off doing video stories. We started doing graphic design and then we started to do web design and we were doing web hosting at a point… so we really have done quite a lot of different things before we got to where we are today and what started as as photography then went into video. I do remember you know, the first time that we decided to invest in a digital camera. This is when digital cameras were becoming more available and it was so expensive we had to go to the bank and get a loan. And in those days we didn’t have any money we didn’t really know what we were doing and we kind of just like had faith that it was going to work and we went and borrowed money. We bought our first digital camera and I think it was like 3 or maybe 2 mega pixels like something ridiculous, you know and it cost it cost a huge amount of money in those days and I told him… I said, you know you, you better learn how to use this camera and make back this money. And he did, you know? And it just kind of went from there.

But you know, coming up to the point where we met you and Bruce, we were doing a lot of business videos, business stories, we were doing some social responsibility videos for some of the bigger companies. We had started doing a lot of oil and gas and financial work and government work. But you know, the business stories are kind of where it evolved from. That’s like that’s what we draw on mostly. A lot of it is in the editing, but a lot of it is also in who we bring into these stories. Who are the stakeholders that we bring in to interview to form a really good narrative about the brand.

People might take that for granted, but I wanted to say that a lot of the times we’re doing it in real time. So yes, we do put a lot of effort into the pre production side of it to make sure that we’re going to nail all of the objectives and everything. But because it’s a very organic process where… You don’t know what stakeholders are going to say. Ultimately, you don’t know what the what response you are going to get, and that’s what makes it so exciting and engaging because you’re literally discovering something as this thing unfolds, and so you you have to be on your toes. You have to be dynamic and you have to kind o

Dan Sieger from Stories for Good is our guest on this episode. As a writer and brand strategist, Dan believes your story is never finished. Instead, your story responds to the market and evolves over time. He uses the example of an employee -  when they join a company vs a year later, their story and their profile changes. We discuss how every company is mission driven and that the one thing you truly own is your brand story. 

Connect with Dan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielsieger/

Connect with Miranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaoconnor-mba/

Learn more about The Art of Storytelling: https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/

In this episode Joel Mandelbaum takes us on his digital journey, from being a high school entrepreneur to selling his very successful transportation courier company to a competitor. That’s when his Aha! moment happened, his competitor knew more than him about digital marketing and Joel was being left behind. Joel now acts as a "Digital Sherpa" to guide business owners through the modern marketing landscape with confidence while successfully moving their brands forward. Now the most rewarding part of his job is when his clients achieve success. 

Connect with Joel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-mandelbaum/

Connect with Miranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaoconnor-mba/

Learn more about The Art of Storytelling: https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/

In this episode we talk with Parm Chohan of Conquer Leadership. He works with aspiring and established leaders to optimize peak performance through leadership development, team building and coaching. We discusses why your Mission, Vision and Values are so important to serve as a framework for decision making, and why communication is the first building block to leadership. We being it home with having a clear picture of your vision and values and being able to communicate that through your story and connect with your audience. 

Connect with Parm: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parmchohan/

Connect with Miranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaoconnor-mba/

Learn more about The Art of Storytelling: https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/

Miranda and Jessica cover the gamut of content for various social media platforms.

The nurture… the nurture element of like using LinkedIn or emails is really big because if you’re high ticket, they’re not going to buy. They’re going to need maybe like 10 to 20 touchpoints with you. They’re going to need case studies. So this is where the repurposing comes in, right? You have that video shoot from Miranda. Now what do we do with it? We’re going to make we’re going to make short video clips to post on LinkedIn. Maybe we’ll post one as a webinar. Hello again and welcome to our Video Storytelling for Community Engagement podcast. Today I talk with Jessica Bennett of Got Writer’s Block. Jessica and I talk all about content in this episode from different types of content for different stages of the funnel, how to repurpose content across platforms and where we think user generated content does and does not work in communications. Look out for more episodes of video storytelling for community engagement by The Art of Storytelling on all podcast platforms. We’re going to talk about all kinds of ways you can be using written and visual content in your social media and in all of your marketing. Jessica First of all, why don’t you tell me briefly what is Got Writer’s Block? I’m sure you’ve all heard the phrase before. Oh, I have got writer’s block. That’s exactly what our content agency does. So basically, when you are stuck on email marketing projects, LinkedIn writing projects, social media campaigns, we are there to help you get from that confused writer’s block to actually putting your thoughts into captions, email marketing, LinkedIn posts, and turning that into strategy. And what kind of industries do you work with? So we work a lot with health and wellness, social impact. We really like working with CEOs and founders that have a really big mission and they want to use marketing for good. As well, we definitely work with financial professionals and technology too. That’s great. Yeah. I do have quite a lot of experience with health and nonprofit as well, so. Yeah. You love it. So with your writing, what do you see that is different at different stages in the funnel? So like, what kind of content are you producing for the different stages that the customer goes through? So basically with the funnel, you have brand awareness content at the top. So these are new people who don’t know about your company. You’re not really trying to pitch them yet. It’s just more like introductory educational content, learning about the company, maybe their values, things like that. Stories are really good to pull people in. And then Mid Funnel is I’ve decided that I really want a goal, like with this health provider. I want to learn more information. So maybe that’s when you start putting out webinars, you start putting on tutorials, you start putting out case studies to try and convince them that yes, they’re the solution or you’re the solution for them and choose me. And then when it gets really targeted at the bottom, that’s when you’re really putting content to convert them. So very personalized. Like I was saying, it could definitely be very targeted towards their specific need. So maybe it’s like a physio, like here is a sample plan of what could happen when you come and visit. So very targeted to their needs versus more general at the top. Okay, great. And how are you getting stories into your content? So like for me, I often do like employee stories or customer success stories or maybe like an about us or a founder story. What kind of stories are you putting in with your content? Really similar, as well a lot about community building. Like we recently worked with a video game company and their mission is to stop like the bullying and harassment side. So then we’ll put stories from their community into the newsletters. So yeah, very similar style, like customer stories, employee stories and things like that. Nice. Okay. And so what d

Welcome back to our Video Storytelling for Community Engagement podcast. Today Miranda talks with the participants of our "Invisible in the Hills" pilot episode produced for Stories for Caregivers, Funded by Telus. And we celebrate Autism Awareness Month. We chat with Vivian, the parent and primary caregiver for her autistic son, Solomon; Breanne from Fiddlehead Care Farm that offers therapeutic support and where Solomon spends his summer camp time; and Jane from the Ontario Caregiver Organization, who is our expert support for this project. Join us as we continue to explore the power of storytelling to impact communities.

Welcome back. This is a recording of the panel discussion from the online premiere of Between Worlds. You'll hear from surfer, life coach and Aloha Award recipient Chris Dennis, Director of the film James O'Connor and Kacie Gonzalez and Duane Kenny, who were part of the dedicated team of brave people who brought Chris's story to the big screen and really opened the door on his journey into mentorship, philanthropy and surf therapy.

This is one of the most lively discussions you'll hear about content and the power it has to engage people and transform communities - video storytelling for community engagement. If you haven't watched Between Worlds or any of the other great productions our team has put out, head over to our website - https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/aos-films/

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