Behind the TedTalk 2010

Got 11 minutes? You won't want to miss this gripping mini-documentary taking you behind the scenes of a TEDTalk.

• The music is absolutely stunning.
• The story is simple but dramatic.
• The photography captured just the right moments.
  

Here is the TED link for full credits and further information.

Hats off to TED, the crew and the producers for a job well done.

Update on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 06:55PM by Thomas Clifford

Here's a quick update on this neat "behind-the-scenes" video.

I thought it'd be fun to deconstruct the video and find the main ingredients that make this film so engaging. So that's what I did.

You can read the analysis in my recent article for Content Marketing Institute, "5 Engaging Video Ingredients: Deconstructing a TEDTalk Mini-Documentary."

These ingredients are the same ingredients any company can use in their marketing videos.

If your organization is hosting an event, consider capturing the event (or some of it) on video. Capturing it on video is a great marketing opportunity you may not have considered before.

What are the five engaging ingredients? Head on over to Content Marketing Institute to find out.

Believe Me: A Free Business Storytelling Book for Innovators

Extraordinary Business Storyteller Michael Margolis has had his new storytelling book out for just a short while now. It's called, "Believe Me: Why Your Vision, Brand, and Leadership Need a Bigger Story."

In the holiday spirit, Michael is now releasing the book to everyone as a free digital unabridged download version.

I bought my copy the day it came out on Amazon.com but, hey, you can now get your copy for free. And yes, it's a fabulous book and I highly recommend it. Check out the book's awesome reviews on Amazon.com for yourself.

Heck- what are you waiting for? Go grab your free digital download from the book's website, "Believe Me The Book."

PS. If you're going to tweet this, mention @getstoried or hashtag #bigstory.

Thomas Clifford and 40+ Story Practitioners in Storytelling eBook

Last summer, Dr. Kathy Hansen, publisher of A Storied Career blog and leading storytelling proponent, invited me to participate in her "story practitioner project."

I was interviewed (along with 42 other professional story practitioners) in a series of Q&A's related to my storytelling experience and corporate filmmaking. Kathy then posted all the individual interviews on her blog. Now the interviews are finally collected under one roof.

I'm totally thrilled to share with you Kathy's new free ebook:
"Storied Careers: 40+ Story Practitioners Talk About Applied Storytelling."

As Kathy says, think of this 88 page book "an international conversation about many applications of storytelling."

Here's a sampling of the 20 chapters in the book:

• Defining Story
• Social Media Storytelling
• Change Your Story, Change Your Life
• Story Techniques and Tools
• Storytelling in Marketing, Sales, and Branding
• Storytelling and Career

The back of the book has a complete directory of all 43 practitioners, mini-bios, web and blog addresses, email addresses, Twitter IDs and photos.

Go grab this ebook now! It's a delightful read with much depth, breadth and diversity rarely found in any publication.

---Tom

What's Next for Company Videos? 5 Links to Get You Thinking

I’ve recently bookmarked so many interesting sites on how companies use video I figured it’s time to open the vault and share a few of my favorite discoveries with you. I hope you’ll find something interesting, useful and thought-provoking here.

While I don't have a crystal ball, the trends are crystal clear.

1. Herman Miller Video: Making of Setu
Watch how the team members sit around a table and one team member shares their compliments about another person on the team; interesting spin on the traditional interview. We also get a quick tour, see the chair in action and catch some philosophy along the way. It’s a simple video with a simple design structure. A perfect compliment to the Herman Miller brand.
(Hat tip to my blogging friend and branding guru Tom Asacker for this link.)

2. Multimedia Journalists Discover Life After Newspapers

Welcome to the future of corporate video storytelling. A must-read article pointing to how former newspaper photographers are preparing for new career directions by creating web videos that help companies and nonprofits tell their stories.

3. Have you seen the Rhode Island School of Design videos?
Definitely check out the “RISD Profile” videos. I really enjoyed John Maeda’s interview, the President of RISD.

4. Video to Flood Corporate Networks, Too
Hold on to your hats, folks. From the article: “Cisco's famous "Zettaflood" report last year predicted that video would make up half of the Internet's traffic by 2012…” This brief article is a great snapshot indicating the enormous rise in video usage; now and in the future.

5. NYTimes “Conversations” Videos
I love these short conversational videos from the NYTimes. This is from the home page: “Candid conversations with some of today’s most interesting people about their passions, their lives and NYTimes.com.” Perhaps it’s another glimpse into one of the ways organizations will use video?

What do you think? How are organizations using new media? Is the trend internal? External? Over to you.

---Tom

What's Next for Company Videos? 5 Links to Get You Thinking

7 More Books To Help You and Your Organization Become Better Storytellers

“When facts become so widely available and instantly accessible, each one becomes less valuable. What begins to matter more is the ability to place these facts in context and to deliver them with emotional impact. And that is the essence of the aptitude of Story- context enriched by emotion.” Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

If there’s one thing the social media “tsunami” has shown us it’s this: storytelling is far from dead.

Now that we can tell our stories to the world in an instant, it might be a good idea to learn some of the basics in crafting an interesting story.

So where do we begin learning to craft our personal stories and the stories about our organization?

This set of books is the second half of my favorite books on storytelling for personal and business use. Each one is unique and offers tremendous insights into the world of storytelling. If you missed the first set of books, you can find them here.

7 More Books to Help You and Your Organization Become Better Storytellers

1. Wake Me Up When the Data is Over: How Organizations Use Storytelling to Drive Results. Lori Silverman

Of all the 14 books listed, this one is the most comprehensive books on organizational storytelling. “Wake Me Up” gives the reader dozens of examples on how to discover, craft and increase the use of stories within an organization. The book is divided into three parts: how stories are being used, specific applications and finally, advice on integrating stories into specific business needs. It’s definitely worth reading several times as it’s packed with dozens of real-life examples covering just about every angle of storytelling.

2. A Little Less Conversation: Connecting with Customers in a Noisy World. Tom Asacker

3. Sandbox Wisdom: Revolutionize Your Brand with the Genius of Childhood. Tom Asacker

Confession time. I’m a huge fan of Tom’s books. While some may say these books don’t technically fall into the “storytelling” genre but more into the “marketing” arena, I’d quickly disagree. Tom magically weaves the concepts of brand loyalty, marketing, customer engagement and how we connect with people using the power of a simple story. Both books use fictional short stories that take us on a fun journey from “business as usual” to “business as it really should be.” Like magic, these fictional stories and conversations quietly weave new ways for us to think about how we might begin approaching our own business practices. Ah, the power of a great story.

4. The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion Through the Art of Storytelling. Annette Simmons

5. Whoever Tells The Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact. Annette Simmons

Not sure where to start in your story journey? Want to start using your own personal stories when networking with others? Think about starting out with Annette’s books. I really, really love the “The Story Factor.” It’s a perfect book for beginners to get their heads wrapped around the power and basic concepts of storytelling. Annette covers the six stories we need to learn to tell, what is a story, storytelling do’s and don’ts and several other important ideas behind telling stories.

6. Squirrel Inc.: A Fable of Leadership Through Storytelling. Stephen Denning

7. The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations. Stephen Denning

I think “Springboard” was the first book I ever bought on storytelling years ago. While Denning’s book is geared more for organizational storytelling, I enjoyed crafting my own springboard stories simply personal practice. “The Springboard” is another great place to start incorporating a single story into your personal or business life.

What, then, is a springboard story? Denning explains a springboard story this way:“…a tiny story- 29 words or 200 bytes- is less a vehicle for communication of large amounts of information and more a tiny fuse that ignites a new story in the listener’s minds, which establishes new connections and patterns in the listeners’ existing information, attitudes, and perceptions…the listeners generate a new story.” (pg. 82-83, The Springboard)

“Squirrel Inc.” offers quite a different take on the power of storytelling through a fable involving a cast of squirrels; yup, squirrels…and the story works like a charm! A must-read, for sure.

BONUS: Of course, don’t forget Seth Godin’s classic, All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World.

Do you have your favorites? What books did I miss? I'd love to hear from you. Share your comments here.

--Tom

7 More Books to Help You & Your Organization Become Better Storytellers