Online Storytelling
Are you doing the right “ings”?
Michelle Brinson | michellebrinson@gmail.com

Telling, sharing,
posting, pinning, liking,
tweeting, linking,
filming, crowdfunding...
and more...

Where do you start?
Well just like any good
story, you start at the
beginning.

What is online
storytelling?

Methods of online storytelling:
Text
Visuals
Animation
Videos
Images & stories (Instagram, Snapchat)
Audio
Social Media

The Internet is a
powerful platform for
telling stories.
What makes online
special?

Questions to consider:
What is your strategy?

What is your goal?
Who is your audience?

Where is your audience
online?
Research, do your
homework, run surveys.

What do you want them
to do?
What is your CTA?
Donate? Volunteer? Share?
Like? Tell? Tweet?

Rules of Visual
Storytelling

1. Show, don’t tell
Pinterest, Instagram,
Snapchat
2. Context is everything
Provide visual cues

3. Show people or person
Someone we can relate to
4. Be personal, be true
Schindler’s List
5. Show conflict
Tension/suspense

6. Reveal hidden things
Extraordinary places or
circumstances, unexplored
territory

He went to the store.
Fred died.
Sharon went hungry and
wept.

Story Proof: The Science Behind
the Startling Power of Story by
Kendall Haven reveals that the
human mind is built to make
connections and find meaning
through stories.

Posts with video attract
3 times more links than
posts with text only.
- Moz

Posts that include
images result in 650 %
more engagement than
ones without.
- Adobe

By 2018, an estimated
84 % of
communications will be
visual.
- Cisco

79 % of internet traffic
will be video content.
- Cisco

2 core drivers that support effective
visual storytelling:
1. Our human brain processes
visuals much faster than text
> “Visuals are processed 60,000
times faster than text by the human
brain and 90% of information
transmitted to the brain is visual.” -
3M

2. The human brain prefers
information packaged as stories
> “92% of consumers want brands to
make their ads feel like stories.”
- OneSpot

Segmentation
Knowing which channels your target
donor prefers and how they use them
are key factors in building a
successful online presence.

General
215,690,880 monthly users (as of March 2016)
Over 1 billion users (almost 1/3rd of all people on the Internet)
Usage is up 40% since March 2014
Age
Largest age demographic of users: 25 to 34 (41,000,000)
Reaches more 18 to 34 and 18 to 49 year-olds than any cable
network in the U.S.

Gender
Female-identified users: 46% of total users
Male-identified users: 54% of total users
Income
46% of YouTube users have incomes of over $75,000
Education
45% have some form of higher education
14 % have post-doctorate degrees

second largest online
search engine

General
129,658,552 monthly users (as of March 2016)
More than 1 billion people use Facebook daily
71 % of American adults with access to the Internet use Facebook
83.6% of Facebook’s daily active users are outside the U.S. & Canada
Age
82% of online adults ages 18 to 29 use Facebook
56% of online users ages 65 and up use Facebook
79% of those ages 30 to 49 use Facebook
Facebook has experienced an 80% growth in ages 55 and over.

Gender
Female-identified users: 76% of all female-identified U.S. Internet users use
Facebook
Male-identified users: 66% of all male-identified U.S. Internet users use
Facebook
Income
72% of Facebook users have incomes of over $75,000
Education
74% of Facebook users have some form of higher education

While countless reasons for using Facebook in your
marketing strategies, the company cites these key areas it
can help with:
• Driving online sales
• Increasing local sales
• Increasing brand awareness
• Promoting your app
• Finding leads
• Social customer service

General
80,173,808 monthly users (as of March 2016)
23% of all Internet users & 20% of the entire U.S. adult population
use Twitter
50% of users visit or shop at the website of an small or medium
business they follow
60% of users bought something because of something they saw on
Twitter
Age
37% of Twitter users are aged 18 to 29
25% of Twitter users are aged 30 to 49

Gender
Female-identified users: 15% of all female-identified U.S. Internet users
use Twitter
Male-identified users: 22% of all male-identified U.S. Internet users use
Twitter
Income
54% of Twitter users have incomes of over $50,000
Education
30% of users have some form of higher education

Why Twitter is a top social media site?
As most brands know, 140 characters can be
extremely powerful.
It’s a good constraint for us. It allows for of-the-
moment brevity.
It’s this brevity that forces brands to get their
messages out in the clearest, most concise
manner possible.

• Twitter offers a peek into the minds of donors,
allowing you to see what they are reading,
sharing, and thinking about any topic, at any
given time.
• Twitter allows you to discover what’s
happening right now, with your donors,
industry, competitors, and community.
• Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks,
89% more favorites and 150% more retweets.

General
66,933,192 monthly users (as of March 2016)
28% of adult American Internet users use Pinterest
More than 14 million articles are pinned daily
People referred by Pinterest are 10% more likely to make a purchase on e-
commerce sites than users of other social networks
More than one-third of Pinterest users choose Pinterest over Google search
Age
34% of Pinterest users are aged 18 to 29
28% of Pinterest users are aged 30 to 49
27% of Pinterest users are aged 50 to 64

Gender
Female-identified users: 42 % of all female-identified U.S. Internet users
use Pinterest
Male-identified users: 13% of all male-identified U.S. Internet users use
Pinterest (the most rapidly growing demographic for the site)
Income
34% of Pinterest users have incomes of over $75,000
64% of Pinterest users have incomes of over $50,000
Education
32% of users have some form of higher education

Why Pinterest is a top social media site?
Pinterest can be a huge driver of traffic for
professional sites.
Numerous bloggers we spoke to declared
Pinterest to be the biggest driver of traffic to
their sites.

General
400,000,000 monthly users
Daily users: 75 million
26% of adult Internet users use Instagram
75% of users live outside of the U.S.
Over 40 billion photos have been shared on Instagram
80 million photos are shared daily on Instagram
Instagram’s per-follower engagement rate for brands is 58 times
higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on
Twitter
Instagram users are “two and a half times more likely to click on
ads than on other social media platforms”

Age
53% of Instagram users are aged 18 to 29
25% of Instagram users are 30 to 49
11% of Instagram users are 50 to 64
6% of Instagram users are over 65
Gender
Female-identified users: 49% of Instagram users identify as female
Male-identified users: 51% of Instagram users identify as male

Income
26% of Instagram users have incomes of over $75,000
52% of Instagram users have incomes of over $50,000
Education
24% of users have some form of higher education

Why is Instagram a top social
media site?
It’s no secret that visuals add a certain
dimension to your content that words
alone sometimes can’t quite grasp (a
painful sentence for this writer to put
down).

Instagram highlights the following three key reasons content
succeeds on the platform.
• Passionate Community—with Instagram’s 400 million users
globally, those on the platform are engaged and active.
• Creative Context—users go to Instagram to view beautiful or
interesting images, so placing your business’ content here
means you are presenting to a creative, image-driven audience.
• Visual language—with the focus on images, Instagram offers an
easy-to-digest and aesthetically pleasing arena for your brand’s
visual content to take center stage.

General
35,342,648 monthly users
Total users: 414 million
70% of LinkedIn users are outside of the U.S.
Age
23% of LinkedIn users are aged 18 to 29
31% of LinkedIn users are 30 to 49
30% of LinkedIn users are 50 to 64
21% of LinkedIn users are over 65

Gender
Female-identified users: 44% of LinkedIn users identify as
female
Male-identified users: 56% of LinkedIn users identify as male
Income
44% of LinkedIn users have incomes of over $75,000
75% of LinkedIn users have incomes of over $50,000
Education
50% of users have some form of higher education

Why LinkedIn is a top social media site?
While many think of LinkedIn as solely a
professional networking site, it has become much
more knowledge and information-sharing hub,,
form communities, and, yes, network
professionally.
The potential to create thought-leaders out of their
CEOs, share updates from their businesses to an
interested audience, and provide valuable and
relevant information on a regular basis.

LinkedIn shares that the most successful brands on
the site do the following three things:
They continually update users on industry news.
They release new and engaging content tailored to
specific audiences.
They add their voice to relevant conversations that
their audiences care about.

General
100 million daily users
Videos viewed per day: 10 billion
“Millennials, a demographic marketers are spending 500%
more to reach than all others combined, account for
more than seven out of 10 Snapchat users.”
18% of all U.S. social media users use Snapchat
65% of daily users contribute content
9,000 Snaps are shared per second
76% of Snapchat users purchase things online

Age
45% of Snapchat users are between 13 and 24
26% of Snapchat users are 25 to 34
13% of Snapchat users are 35 to 44
10% of Snapchat users are 45 to 54
6% of Snapchat users are 55 to 64
Less than 1% of Snapchat users are over 65

Gender
Female-identified users: 70% of Snapchat users identify as
female
Male-identified users: 30% of Snapchat users identify as male
Income
62% of Snapchat users have incomes of over $50,000
38% of Snapchat users have incomes of under $50,000
Education
70% of post-secondary students use Snapchat

Why Snapchat is a top social media network?
Content that would live for 24 hours, tops.
However, since its inception in 2011, Snapchat has skyrocketed in prominence,
becoming the place to be for many social media marketers.
As an extremely popular platform for those under the age of 34, Snapchat is an
incredibly valuable network for those trying to target this highly desirable
demographic.

Experience is key.
Ex. Warby Parker with
their Buy a pair give a
pair campaign or
Patagonia that supports
the environment.

The magic happens only when your
story carries a good dose of
vulnerability or imperfection that allows
your audience to see the human aspects
of your narrative and this way develop
trust and empathy towards your
message (i.e., mirroring themselves in
your story).

From spoken word, stone tablets, and
paper manuscripts in the old days to
podcasts, eBooks, and Hollywood films in
today’s society, the mediums through
which storytelling happens have
undergone systematic and significant
change.
However, our connection – as people – with
storytelling has never dissipated.

Brands may produce short videos Instagram
or Snapchat, or put up tutorials, product
reviews, behind-the-scenes footage, or
entertaining videos on Facebook, YouTube or
Vimeo. It also includes livestreaming videos
on Facebook which enable brands to connect
with customers on a more personal level.

From a visual storytelling point of
view, no platform is as powerful as
YouTube.
It’s the world’s second-largest search
engine and gives brands the
opportunity to deliver powerful
content to massive audiences.

“The task of marketers today is no
longer to sell the drill, nor hole in
the wall, but to sell the experience
of making that hole or the lifestyle
the hole enables us to.”
Rolf Jensen

You don’t have to have a ton of money or
resources to create and share stories.
If you need to step up production of
visual content to remain competitive in a
marketing landscape dominated by
visuals, here are a bunch of tools that
can help.

Canva - Design banners, postcards, presentations - free account for nonprofits
Visme - An online tool for creating infographics, presentations, slideshows, banner ads
and graphics for web content. You can make your content private, public, or password-
protected, incorporate audio and video, and animate links and pictures.
Pixlr - An online platform for photo editing.
Visage - Helps brands take their data and information and turn it into stunning and
comprehensive graphics.
WeVidis - A cloud-based video editor that enables multiple users to collaborate on a
single project.
Camtasia - Video capture app.
Facebook Live - Lets your brand livestream behind-the-scenes footage, product
demonstrations, interviews and any other exclusive, live events you have going on.
Moovly - Online software for creating animated presentations and videos.
Imgflip Meme Generator - A simple tool to produce customized memes with popular
meme images.

Atavist - Gives you the power to incorporate a variety of visuals into your articles, blog
posts and other text-heavy pieces of content.
Pixabay - Free stock photos
PicMonkey - Photo editing
Pablo - The easiest way to create engaging social media images.
Social Curation by Yotpo - This newest product by Yotpo allows you to collect user-
generated content from Instagram and display it in high-resolution formats in other
places, like your website. You can even moderate the photos to add links to your
product pages. Desygner - An online design tool that lets you create banners, posters,
invitations, Facebook covers, social media posts and more, all for free.
Snappa - One of the easiest graphic design tools you’ll ever use. It allows you to create
amazing designs without the help of a graphic designer.

Piktochart - An easy-to-use infographic maker. It will take your visual communication
to the next level, without hiring a professional designer.
Prezi - Makes presentations stand out and get remembered. Unlike static slides, it
combines motion, zoom, and spatial relationships to engage your audience and help
them remember your message.
Curalate - A visual commerce platform that connects content to commerce
throughout the customer journey to generate awareness, increase engagement and
drive revenue.
Storify - Gives you the tools to create the best evergreen and live blog stories,
uniting traditional storytelling with engaged audiences.
PlaceIt - Lets you upload images of your product or website and insert them into
high-quality photos for free. No Photoshop needed.
Silk - A data publishing platform. It lets anyone create interactive data visualizations,
publish websites, and tell interactive stories.
ThingLink - Lets you create custom interactive images by adding clickable icons to
links, video, text, music, other images, you name it.

SlidesShare - The biggest slide hosting service in the world. While it doesn’t provide
creation tools, it’s a perfect place to find inspiration for your visual content or upload
your own documents, presentations, infographics and more.
Polarr - Free and powerful online photo editor. Simply put it’s the pro photo editor for
everyone. From high-precision color tools to advanced clarity and dehaze filters,
Polarr brings free pro photo editing tools to your mobile device.
ChartBlocks - An online chart building tool. You can easily design and share a chart in
minutes. Import your data, design your chart and then start sharing it.
Infogr.am - The world’s most popular infographics creator. You can easily add graphs,
maps, text, and even playable videos without diving deep into a design program.
Datawrapper - Empowers you to create amazing visualizations in seconds. You can
use visuals to reflect numbers-related content by creating engaging presentations and
infographics.
InVision - The world’s leading prototyping, collaboration & workflow platform. It’s a
great solution for publishing clickable and interactive high-fidelity prototypes in
minutes.

Venngage - Another great online tool for creating beautiful infographics. To get
started choose from hundreds of professional templates for infographics, reports,
posters, promotions and social media posts.
Easel.ly - Lets you create and share visual ideas. You can choose from thousands of
reporting, timeline, resume and process templates.
Issuu - The largest collection of free-to-read publications from incredible publishers
around the globe. You can publish content such as magazines, catalogs, eBooks and
more on this free platform.
Adobe Post - Empowers you to create stunning social graphics in seconds. A perfect
tool for content marketers on the go.
Uberflip - A content experience platform that aggregates all of your content (blog
articles, eBooks, videos, white papers, and more) so you can create, manage, and
optimize tailored content experiences for every stage of the buyer journey.
Pester - A digital storytelling platform that allows you to create and embed surveys,
personality tests, video quizzes and polls into your social posts.
Mapme - One of the most powerful map creators out there. You can easily create,
customize, grow and promote your maps. The best part? No coding needed.

Stories are unique in that they allow
us to make sense of reality and, at
the same time, help us escape from
it.
At times there is a blur the lines
between fact and fiction.

Virtual Reality / Immersive Experiences

Another trend that will continue to shape the world of
visual storytelling is the blurring of lines between
ourselves and other people, whether real or fictional.
One of the primary aims of text-based storytelling has
always been to allow to reader to see the world through the
eyes of the protagonist by being privy to his/her thoughts,
emotions, desires and experiences.
It allows donors to walk a mile in the shoes of …

Immersive experiences are designed to increase
empathy for those who are living a very different
reality from you and me.
Whether to demonstrate a product’s attributes or
sell aspirational lifestyles, immersive visual
storytelling is now being used by several big-name
brands such as Mercedes and Marriott to woo
consumers.

Nonprofit implications – Walk to get
water in Africa, what’s it’s like to be
homeless, now it’s not just let me
tell you a story of what it’s like to
walk in someone’s shoes, but now I
can make you experience it.

Fundraising implications:
A Walk Through Dementia
Walking to a Well
Living on the Streets

STORY conference – Examples
of how “story” can be told
through a variety of unique and
different means - Child prodigy
pianist, Casey Nequist, Jeremy
Cowart, Dreamworks, National
Geographic, break dancer,
spoken word

Real Life Application
“I’ll Be Home For
Christmas”

Billboard

Banner Ad
Radio Spot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj7aoF0d94I
Season of Giving Commercial
Link to Commercial

Meet Martin
Behind the Scenes Video
https://nashvillerescuemission.org/season-of-giving/

Thank you!
Michelle Brinson | michellebrinson@gmail.com