I’ve used a refugee example, but serial storytelling can just a easily be a potent tool in U.S. domestic journalism, PR campaigns, fundraising, or social media marketing.

Audiences are more likely to come back again and again to see what will happen next to their favourite real life characters connected to your story.  And they are more likely to tell their friends.

The possibilities are enormous, and depend upon the circumstances of your operation.   PLUS, there is no need to drop the great work you are already doing on your site.  But you might want to seriously consider adding serial storytelling to compliment your media suite.

Chances are that you already have great real life human dramas right under your nose, which can be turned into audience building serials. Honestly it is not some precious trade ‘secret,’ it is just suspenseful real life video storytelling about people, ideas, and products with whom audiences can bond because you give them common human values and emotions. And, CRITICALLY, you give them reasons to visit your site again and again to keep up with your unfolding stories.

Serial video storytelling, which can be in the form of webisodes, is a multi-episode real life news coverage of your good cause, idea, service, or product development.   Your own Serial Storytelling videos will create suspense, emotional involvement, and social media buzz because you are giving audiences what they want most:  Emotional involvement in an ongoing video story line about people who are going through life changing experiences.  And your serial storytelling audience will have three powerful reasons to revisit your website again and again

• They get to know and emphasise with the people involved with your charity, idea, or product

• They are caught up in what will happen in the next video webisode because you tease ahead

• They are invested in the outcome of your real life story

• Increase your video viewership dramatically 

• Enjoy a big spike in income or donations

• Rank higher in search engines 

 Mike Lee is a video story teller and broadcast news innovator who pioneered the ABC News model for money saving one-man global coverage.     He specialises in the quick turn around of stories from conflict and disasters zones, as well as human interest stories.    Mike produces, shoots, edits, scripts, and narrates network quality video.  Mike Lee is now pioneering in storytelling for good causes, good ideas, and good products.

 

Contact Mike by Email   or Linkedin

 

Storytellers:  Video Journalists, NGOs, and Social Marketers – Help for Getting and Holding Video Audiences

This technique I want to share with you has been proven successful over and over in the entertainment industry, and it can work for your video reporting, charity fundraising, or social marketing.  Just think about the millions of people who return to tv serial dramas each week to find out what will happen next to the characters who left them in suspense the week before.   That’s what the most successful entertainment producers do, give audiences fictional dramas that make them want more.

Most news platforms, NGOs and social media marketers, who deal in real life situations, are not yet using this time proven method of pulling and holding an audience.  They tend to think of it as just showbiz.  In fact, it’s the other way around.   Showbiz producers are simply co-opting what happens in real life.   Real people have always wanted to know what will happen next to a friend, a neighbour, or someone else who has come into their lives.

You, as news reporter or producer, good cause leader, or an entrepreneur, can use those same time honoured human needs as an audience building technique (but without the hollywood budget).  And you can stay true to the dignity and reality of your journalism, good cause, or enterprise.

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS

If you give your web video audience ongoing real life stories, with which they can become personally and emotionally involved (as opposed to one off videos), they are more likely to give you their attention, and their support.   This applies to news stories, as well as NGO fundraising, PR campaigns, or commercial product promotion.

For example, let’s say that you want to cover a crisis for your news platform, or raise donations for your emergency work in a refugee camp during a crisis.  Your video storytelling might work like this:  Focus on a few individual refugees or several families.

I’m talking here about something quite different from the usual one-off videos in which, yes, we might well see a powerful and compelling 3 or 5 minute collection of people in need, dire conditions, people who are helping, and a pitch for donations.  Those can be potent videos  But as strong as they may be to watch, one-off videos seldom provide enough time for potential donors to become emotionally invested.  By that I mean that one off videos usually don’t have a long enough ‘emotional shelf life’ during which viewers have the images, the impact, fresh in their minds.  Chances are most viewers will not recall many names a day or two later.  But if you create your narrative as an ongoing series, your viewers are more likely to propagate a bond between themselves and your individual subject, and thus a bond with your good cause, idea or commercial product.

So instead of one video, we need to be thinking in terms of a series.  We need to follow their daily dramas:  who is sick, who needs to find a lost loved one, who will look after the children if the mother goes in search on her husband left behind in a battle zone?  What are their emotional needs?  How are they similar to us in the audience?  Also follow the day to day dramas faced by your own staffers on scene.   They too face huge challenges.  We get to know them personally.  We see how they work, how they care, and how they cope.  We will follow these developments daily and you will see what happens in the next instalment.   Now you have given audiences the time and exposure they need in order to grow close to the individuals associated with your good cause, thus more likely to follow your reporting or fundraising.

Selling your brand through viral stories

 

 

What if your business or charity could increase its exposure to a world wide web audience simply by telling a story?  Your story.  Not an old fashioned ad, or donation pitch, packed with claims, promises or alarms, but a straight forward factual story with a beginning, middle, and an end.

And what if you you could use that video storytelling to build a web audience of loyal viewers who visit your product or NGO site, not just once, but over and over again?

And what if you could give those loyal viewers stories so emotionally engaging that they want to share them with friends?   Viral videos are those which become more popular by people sharing them on the internet.  Any share growth is viral.  Growth is good.

How can you accomplish that?  With Serial Storytelling.

Apply to become a Mike Lee networking partner:  Get free and unlimited personal advice from Mike Lee on promoting your product, brand, service, or charity through serial storytelling video.  It could help transform your business or good cause.  And, as a Mike Lee networking partner, you will never be charged for that advice.   How is that possible?  Because it is real networking.  Mike Lee and network members, highly successful professionals in their own varied fields, support one another by sharing their their knowledge, wisdom, and contacts.   This is not a trade group.   Membership is restricted to one highly qualified person per profession.   Membership is regulated by Mike Lee.

Making The Most of Your Product or Project with a Single Video:    If multi-episode storytelling  is not for you, a single short video can still make a powerful and positive impression on donors or buyers.   But there are a couple of pitfalls to avoid.  Mike explains below.

The Story of Your Good Cause, Product, or Service 

Told and Published by

One of The Most Experienced and Most Uniquely Qualified Video Journalists in The World

 

NGO and Charity Videos     Pitch Videos     Serial Storytelling     News Reporting

 

Faith Based:    Religions have grown up around epic stories of their beginnings.   You can reach out with modern Story Telling Videos in  order to about your own religious community, your church, and your good work.   Story Telling Videos are a great way to recruit new followers around the corner or around the world, and reach out to old friends who may have wondered away.

 

• Families:   Everyone in your family, living or passed, has a story.   Together, you have a family story.   Video Story Telling can keep you in touch with one another, and provide a precious gift for the next generation

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