StoryTeller Media & Communications | Public Relations | Marketing | Video Production
Minneapolis/St. Paul Marketing and PR agency and video production company|StoryTeller
StoryTeller Media & Communications
MindWare on KARE 11
Still looking for that perfect gift? MindWare Toys has fun and educational toys for the child (or adult!) on your list! Tracie from MindWare made an appearance on KARE 11 yesterday to share some of her favorite toys!
Treat yourself to an Aperitif gift card!
Why not treat yourself to a gift card this holiday season? Purchase $100 in gift cards from Aperitif Restaurant & Bar, and receive a $20 gift card for yourself!
And don’t forget, Aperitif is now offering 1/2 price wine by the glass on Sunday nights, 4 p.m.-close!
Hirshfield’s Partners with Second Harvest Nov. 10-28
If you’ve got some pre-Thanksgiving painting projects to knock out this weekend, swing by Hirshfield‘s and bring some food. Yes, food! Working in partnership with the Second Harvest Heartland, Hirshfield’s is taking your food donations between November 10-28 and helping to re-stock our local food shelves. When you bring in your donation, you’ll receive 20% of Hirshfield’s brand paint, which by the way, is locally manufactured so you’re also helping local business!
As you know, this is a difficult time for many families so please consider helping out Second Harvest Heartland, even if you don’t need to pick up any paint.
Who is Following You on Twitter?
It used to be that whenever I received a notification that someone was following me on Twitter that I would get a little excited thinking, “hey, I’m building a nice little group of followers.” However, as Twitter has grown and changed and become infiltrated by marketers and people schlepping product, I find myself asking more and more, “why does this person want to follow me?”
The I Generation
Has anyone labeled this current generation of teenagers? I mean, we have Gen Y, Gen-X, Boomers, etc. How about this: Gen-I? It would be fitting, wouldn’t it? This group has grown up with the iPod, iPod touch, iPod shuffle, iTunes, iPhone and iPad. Heck, if they have $100 a year, they can even have a me.com account. My question is, will this be a generation that has the ability to think of anyone but themselves first? You say, well, at least there’s YouTube, but even their moniker is “Broadcast Yourself.”
StoryTeller Moves to New Office in Bloomington
If you haven’t all ready heard, the StoryTeller team has moved into our new office space! And I must say, having the extra square footage has been wonderful. Not that I didn’t enjoy working elbow to elbow with my coworkers, listening in while they made dentist appointments and checking out what they brought for lunch everyday, but it has been nice to spread out a bit.
And while moving has presented some challenges (i.e. learning how to use the intercom function on the phone since we are not longer close enough to yell to each other), it has also presented some amazing opportunities – the most significant of those being the reevaluation of how we do business.
We’ve always had great relationships with our clients, but no matter how well you think you are doing, you can always, always do better. So while we were cleaning up and throwing things out, we also started cleaning up and throwing out some of our old habits.
Creating more streamlined and efficient methods of communication and account management has made a big difference. We have also gotten back to our roots and recommitted ourselves to coming up with new and innovative ways of developing stories and reaching out to the media. Not to mention the sexy new status reports.
With a new office and a new outlook, I’m excited about what future holds. If you feel you’re stuck in a rut personally or professionally, you could also try moving, but perhaps it would be better just to do some cleaning – get rid of the things that are holding you back and surround yourself with fresh, new ideas!
Why Social Media?
As a technologically capable high school senior, I have been in contact with social media for years, and I lived through the social media revolution firsthand. I created my first Facebook account and watched my first YouTube video almost five years ago, and since then, both of these have been integral parts of my life. Because of this experience and my naivety, I thought that during my week with StoryTeller I would have little to learn. What was I thinking?!
For many of the younger generation, businesses are intruding into their domain by joining these networks, but with membership on Facebook exceeding 400 million and YouTube being home to a greater viewership than that of network television, it is no surprise that more and more businesses are striving to join and increase their presence in social media.
In my daily use of these networks I have come across business-related pages, but I, like many of my contemporaries, overlooked the effect that social media plays in marketing. Before starting my work with StoryTeller, I saw social media as simply another means of communication, where people who are already plugged-in at every hour of the day can share tidbits of information about what comes to mind or what is on their personal agenda for the day. With this opinion, I was surprised to hear my dad tell me that social media is one of the industries experiencing the most rapid growth in the world!
After the initial discussions of StoryTeller’s role in marketing, I must admit I was skeptical about the actual effect their strategies could have on a business. After all, I incorrectly saw it as simply a means of personal expression. Within minutes of seeing their ideas and strategies applied to real clients and the active participation they receive from followers my opinion changed and every ounce of doubt was cast aside.
The business application is much more formally constructed than that of the daily user. I was fascinated by the time it took to plan the strategies for each client, because in my experience every post was simply created off of a passing fancy. The large question that permeates every aspect of the business applications, and that I failed to realize before, is, “How can we create discussion with our followers, and eventually sell products without force-feeding our customers contrived ad campaigns?” By incorporating this question behind every post, StoryTeller has successfully developed followings for each of their clients.
Social media is all about what you want to get out of it. The average social media user can connect to friends, but so many of its applications are ignored. Although it is still a blossoming industry, it has already attracted the attention of many large companies who are spending millions of dollars with ad campaigns. While many people seek to update their friends on their daily activities, companies are trying to lead discussions, inspire thought, and most importantly sell their product. With time, strategy, and creativity, the social media resources that exist and those that are in production will only increase social media’s grip on the entire population, and its effects will undoubtedly be studied for years to come.
Fresh Angles Are Key to New Blog Content
Probably the number one reason people say they don’t want to blog is because they think they have nothing to write about. And we all know the key to a successful blog is to have consistently updated content. I myself sometimes find it hard to come up with an interesting topic, and I’m only responsible for writing one blog a week! So while I was struggling to come up with a topic for this week’s post, I found myself wondering, “If I could write the most awesome blog ever what would it look like?”
My mind immediately went to a book I just finished reading, one that was truly inspiring in a very unexpected way. When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris is a “realish” (Sedaris is quoted as referring to it as “97% true”) compilation of essays Sedaris wrote about his own life. The essays are witty, clever and sometimes a little inappropriate, but what really caught my attention was how Sedaris was able to turn the mundane, everyday events of his life into this fantastic work of literature.
Somehow he creates an entire chapter on his attempt to make coffee while the water is shut off, another about having a lozenge fall from his mouth into the lap of a fellow plane passenger, and yet another about how his short legs prevent him from keeping up with his partner when touring foreign cities causing him to be perpetually lost – all the while bringing a new understanding of love, fear and relationships to the reader.
Now I by no means consider myself an exciting person, so this book really inspired me to take a different look at my everyday life. Going to the grocery store, dinner with friends, a regular day at the office – all have the potential to teach a lesson on life, work and relationships, if only I could come up with the proper segue. If I could do that, just think of all the blog posts I would have ready to go!
So this is my challenge to you and to myself – instead of taking everyday events at face value, try to figure out how many different ways you could tell the story of your day. Look for a different angle, pretend you are telling it to a different audience, and try to tell it in a humorous manner and then a serious one. Who knows, you may begin to see your average day as the inspiration for your next blog post (or best selling book, fingers crossed).
And if you are still looking for a little more inspiration, I recommend any of Sedaris’s books!
Creative Video With Flip Cameras
It’s interesting. I had a meeting today with what I hope will become a future StoryTeller client. The subject: online video. It seems to be the topic most gravitated to in our meetings with business’ and organizations today. It appears to be what’s on everyone’s mind. YouTube…specifically. There was a revelation that I had during this meeting. I initially met this future client about (5) months ago, and the discussion albeit very similar (defining what makes a solid video strategy) the method of implementing the strategy was completely different!
Can Social Media Work for B2B?
We’ve all heard that social media is an instrumental tool for marketing your brand in today’s ever-changing communication industry. Some companies, such as Zappos and Starbucks, will go down in history as the epitome of successful social media marketing - and for good reason. These brands utilize tools such as Twitter and Facebook to engage with their customers, facilitating two-way conversation in a space their audience is comfortable in.
While social media marketing is most commonly associated with consumer brands (such as Starbucks and Zappos), there are plenty of opportunities for B-to-B brands to play in this realm as well. Actually, let’s make this even easier and just say that many of the same principles of B-to-C marketing apply to B-to-B when it comes to social media.