People want to see emotion. Visual stories, also called visual storytelling, are perfect for this. Tools like Instagram, Pinterest, The Fancy, Flickr, Tumblr are just the beginning. The fun of all those pins, Instagrams and Tumblrs is that we get the know the person or company behind it.
See what moves people
Why is this information interesting? You can see what moves these people. You can learn from it, but it can also inspire you. You have an inexhaustible source of (visual) information and inspiration in your hands, which you can use to your benefits. Haven’t we learned in marketing that the one thing you should always ask yourself when looking through the eyes of your target market? What is in it for them? And why should they like it? So if you know who your customers are and they make use of these tools, all this information is out there for you, so you can make an offer they can’t refuse!
Tell your story on Facebook
It’s actually very simple to add your own story to tell on a medium like Facebook. Although we all know this, not everyone makes use of this possibility. People love to see how what goes behind the scenes, and see that these big companies are just as human as you are.
Take this example. The benefits? It is personal, people get more insight into who they are or how a company works. This way an organization, company, agency, foundation, individual, becomes more approachable and equal.
“Here’s Maurets (developer) and Isabel in Think!’s new office. Not pictured, Angela working hard for our client De Bazaar Beverwijk. Also not pictured: THE GIANT OLD WINDMILL RIGHT NEXT DOOR.” - Think!
Pin for your life
Pinterest is the trending tool at the moment, and a great example of visual storytelling. If used right, you have a strong visual medium in hands, allowing you to share your personality or company in a very clear and direct way. There are several ways you can tell your story with Pinterest. Only with pictures, picture and text, based on atmosphere, look and feel, using just words, chronological or random. Anything is possible.
Tumble away
If you want to be more able to influence the shape of your visual story, you can of course create your own blog using Tumblr or WordPress. The nice thing about Tumblr is that with the existing themes it is very simple to set up a blog which people can follow you easily.
Tumblr gives you the option to view the entire layout to fit your own needs and wishes. NSMBL is a great example. They have something called visual diaries. Each week one of the bloggers puts her photo diary online, which gives you a glimpse into the life of the NSMBL bloggers.
Instagram, a private look & feel
You shoot with the device in your pocket. In my case it’s my iPhone! I am in particular a big Hipstamatic fan. Instagram allows you to edit each image keeping the setting of the image and atmosphere you want to bring across. Besides the editing options, it is so easy to share it to other channels like: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.
Authenticity: real people
The take away from this blog is that we should show more personality and show that we are human: who are we, what we do and what keeps us busy. Show real people. Let’s be honest, to hide behind the anonymity of a website or text is outdated!
