The video clip below is an interview that’s running on Mediacom, one of Eastern Iowa’s cable systems, throughout July 2014. We are discussing the importance of authentic storytelling and what some of the barriers are to sharing authentic stories.
Can’t watch right now or video not playing? Try the transcript below.
Giving you an opportunity to get the full story from the people who tell it best. This is Mediacom Newsleaders.
Karol
Hello everyone. Welcome to Mediacom Newsleaders. Thanks for tuning in. I’m Karol Kelly. Joining us today to talk about The Authentic Storytelling Project, Christoph Trappe. Christoph, welcome.
Christoph
Thanks for having me.
Karol
So, tell us about this project. What exactly is it and why is it important today?
Christoph
Sure, of course, my background is in journalism. So, I’ve told stories for many years, my entire career and I have noticed that a lot of people are trying to tell their stories, but there’are a lot of barriers. How do you do it? How do you get buy end from executives? How do you, how do you do it constantly? So, I launched The Authentic Storytelling Project where I share tips on how to do it weekly, sometimes twice weekly. We’re trying to connect people to resources, anything related to how do you share authentic stories.
Karol
So, tell us what exactly the definition of an authentic story would be. Is that a mission or what exactly is that?
Christoph
Something that has happened. Something that is true. Something that is not necessarily a marketing piece. It’s not a message. It’s not marketing speak. It’s authentic, and then it also should fit in with your business goals. So, if you are an organization, and you have a specific mission, you wouldn’t just share stories, milli vanilli, but you would share them in a way that makes sense for your business, that helps you get more customers, that connect with the right people and that’s kind of the idea, but it’s different from marketing.
Karol
Can you tell us about some of those tips and those tools? I imagine social media is probably a big piece of this.
Christoph
Yep. I think the biggest thing is to get started, to figure out what it is that you’re going to talk about. What’s your expertise? So, what do you have something to say about? If you are just talking to be talking, what’s the point? Nobody is going to listen, but if you’re an expert at something, you should talk about that. You should share it. What we would have called a blog, maybe a couple years ago, is another piece of this. Share it on the web. A lot of people search for information daily as you know probably people go online, right, to look up things. The last number I saw 15 percent of daily searches have never been searched for before. So, every day, people look for things that, you know, are new on the web.
[Tweet “If you’re an expert at something, you should talk about that.”]
Karol
Who would you say your client is? Is it going to be specifically organizations or businesses?
Christoph
Right now we’re just sharing knowledge. So, The Authentic Storytelling Project doesn’t actually take clients right at this time, but we share knowledge.
Karol
You’re a part of the Internet Marketing Association. What exactly is that group?
Christoph
The Internet Marketing Association it’s, it’s based on the West Coast, California, and they have a million members that are sharing. They’re sharing information on storytelling, marketing, anything that’s related to our digital channels. So, it’s a really good organization to get involved with. It’s free, www.imanetwork.org. Any marketer could check that out.
Karol
Talk to me about some of the, cause you speak at a lot of conferences. What are the questions that you’re hearing?
Christoph
Why? Why should we get started? How do we get started? How do we get our boss to buy in? I think the biggest question I get is, my CEO doesn’t want to do this or my CMO is not interested. So, how do you get their buy end? What’s their business value. Are we seeing results tomorrow? And, the way I answer that question a lot of times is most C-level executives did not get to that level overnight. Right? It didn’t just happened. Same here. The strategy takes time. So, it takes at least nine months before you see any fruit for any business. So, once you start it, it really, you have to invest and continue doing it.
Karol
Talk to us about the costs involved.
Christoph
It’s really more of a mindset. There’s no special technology that you need. Yes, you need a website. Most organizations already have one. You can set up a blog that really doesn’t cost too much if you don’t have one already. You can do things with your phone. You can share stories with your phone today. I just took a picture here. I’m sharing a story just like that. I already have a phone. So, the cost is fairly minimal. It’s a lot cheaper than, than it used to be for sure.
[Tweet “You can share stories with your phone today. #storytelling”]
Karol
A take away that you would like to say about this Authentic Storytelling Project.
Christoph
You know, Peter Block, when he was in, Iowa’s Creative Coordinator a little while ago. He’s an author. He actually said, what happens to a story if it’s not told, it dies. So, you don’t want your store to die obviously.
[Tweet “”What happens to a story if it’s not told, it dies.” – Peter Block”]
Karol
Where can somebody go to learn a little bit more about this project and get involved?
Christoph
Sure. The Authentic Storytelling Project is at www.AuthenticStorytelling.net. You can sign up for the newsletter on there as well.
Karol
Well, wonderful. It’s a great story to tell. Thanks Christoph.
Christoph
Thank you.
Karol
Thank you so much for watching. This is been Mediacom Newsleaders. Your opportunity to get the full story from the most reliable sources exclusively on Mediacom Newsleaders.1
