Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009...1:18 pm
An excellent boring presentation: social media and story telling
Blogs, Youtube videos, Twitter, Powerpoint presentations: what do they have in common? Story telling.
If your non-profit is working on a social media plan, you’re going to need to think about how your non-profit tells stories. If you fundraise, you already know that the best collateral a non-profit produces are stories about their audience. Here’s an example – think about the last fundraiser you participated in. Chances are, it told you a story about what kind of person you are – you are someone who votes for change, or believes in the environment, or supports youth organizations. And the way they did it? Good sequence, emotion, an unexpected turn of events, a telling detail or two: all bench marks of good storytelling.
If you’re not sure how to get started storytelling, stop by We Are Media (a social media starter kit curated by Beth Kanter for NTEN) where you will find a terrific module on storytelling, including interviews with NPR and essential essays.
If you’d like to see hilarious story telling: better stop by An Excellent Boring Presentation.
Be prepared: he’s not kidding. Author and movie maker Ishtiague Zico points out in his first two slides that his presentation is boring – too many equations, text, garbage. His storytelling is the excellent part. I clicked right through his explanations (excellent) of scattering theory (boring) because, right away, he got my attention with a clear voice and a hilarious approach to how not to do a PowerPoint presentation. But the bit I stayed for? His sequence, unexpected events and eye for detail. Wait – haven’t you heard this story somewhere before?
What sort of stories is your non-profit telling?
3 Comments
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Hey, that’s a great presentation .. I saw the title of your post come up in my radar and thought — oh no are my presentations boring?
Some great points re: story telling.
You’ve hit a passion of mine –
Here’s a couple of post with additional resources on story telling and a couple of flickr screencasts
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2006/09/carnival_of_non.html
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2006/10/flickr_as_prese.html
May 20th, 2009 at 3:57 am
Thanks for taking my presentation as an example.
July 15th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
We are huge fans, Ishtiaque!
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