StoryQuest Blog

Every Picture Does Tell a Story….

Every family event, every holiday and even in my everyday life growing up, a family member or I was always holding a camera, capturing a moment, shooting a picture. Like most people, the act of taking a photo is to remember a moment in time that we may otherwise crawl into the back of our mind’s eye, never to be discovered again.

As I got older I was not only flipping through the pages of my family photo album, but publications like Life Magazine, National Geographic, etc… Being that I am an extremely visual person, the act of telling a story, from start to finish, through photographs was just a natural progression.
Fast-forward 15-years or so and here I am. Translating business success into telling stories through audio and of course, photographs. Translating my knowledge of photojournalism into better educating people about their profession, or the people who make it possible to do their business; their customer.

One of the things that inspired me to tell business stories through photo and audio was a Life Magazine photographic essay entitled, “The Lash of Success” by Grey Villet.

In this iconic work Villet tells the story of Victor Sabatino, owner of a chain of foam rubber shoes. The photos tell the story of this executive’s business, his triumphs and his challenges in his daily struggle to run a successful company in America.

In the article “Essay: Storytelling with Pictures,” by Stephen Crowley, Villet’s wife Barbara is quoted as saying, “…I am convinced that the less the photographer imposes his ego on the moment the more powerful the result is likely to be. It means patience and watchfulness and a willingness to stand back and wait to catch the truth on the fly and finally edit for the best of it.”

This philosophy translates perfectly into our vision here at StoryQuest. Honest stories, with great impact, without any bias, that capture the truth of the story from start to finish. Audio and visual cues that draw people in and imprint these important lessons on their psyche. The whole story, from a peer to a peer, with none of the B.S.

How important and relevant is social media? Well, it may be just something your kids are doing, but it really is driving a key shift in how we communicate, learn, and collaborate – personally and professionally. The video “Social Media Revolution” posted on Twitjobs. does a great job of bringing this out. It uses statistics from the marketing and social media blog site “Socialnomics,” such as:

* If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth largest in the world

* 80% of Companies use Linkedin as their primary tool for finding employees.

You can view this informational video here.

So there they stand, side by side against a glowing white background. On the left is the Poindexter. A pudgy older man, wearing thick plastic glasses, arms placed ever so perfectly at his sides, awkward as ever in his ill fitting, out of date suit. On the right is the quintessential cool guy, a hipster if you will. Standing oh so coolly with his casual, yet fashionable clothes, with cool hair and cool things to say. “Hi, I’m a Mac,” he says, “and I am a PC” quips the nerdy gent next to him.

Even before either of them speaks, you already know whom you should listen to right? I mean, who is more like you, or some would say, whom would you rather be like? Though these Apple commercials would like you to believe through their stereotyping that you are either one, the helplessly awkward nerd or the devil may care hipster, they mainly want you to want to be them. Them being characterized through a cool, young, casual man. Though these ads did prove effective, there is one thing that they forgot; what their actual customers look and sound like.

Microsoft was quick to retort with a series of ads that show something that Apple never did; their actual users. People from across the globe, from a myriad of cultures, happily exclaiming, “I’m a PC!” These customers now had a face and a voice, perhaps an even more valuable asset than that of an actor playing the role of their touted user. Customers becoming a live reference for other users to point to in a visual setting.

A customer reference is sometimes the simplest and most effective way to sell your product. Though Microsoft does it in a very eloquent, and some may say “cheeky” manner, their approach is also very expensive. Now that companies can see the effectiveness of this they are implementing it more and more in the multimedia age.

Here are some tips from Casey Hibbard in her article, “Video or Written Story, Which Comes First,” on how to better enhance your customer reference program through video:

“In interviewing and writing a customer case study, you have a lot of flexibility in the way you present information, and customers go through the process of tweaking and approving their public comments on paper.

It’s a process that allows customers to think through their comments behind the scenes without being “on the spot” on camera – increasing the customer’s confidence level.

Creating the written story first also allows you to flesh out what your story is, and then work on translating that to video.

Once you capture your customer on video, you can’t easily go back and make changes. What’s recorded is what’s recorded. It’s better to be as prepared as possible before the video process.

So, with written first…

You can focus your on-camera questions more specifically.

You can loosely script out the video.

It takes less time to arrive at the sound bites you need.

You already know the story you want to tell.

Your customer feels more comfortable on camera because he/she has already thought through the answers.

You spend less time on the more pricey medium of video, and less of your customer’s time perhaps.”

To find out more about putting a face on your customer’s reference, check out StoryQuest’s Customer Stories page.

This article in Forbes confirms what we have all been seeing. Real, imperfect, but credible people and your best spokespeople. Now B2B marketing and advertising has gotten into the act. From Walmart to MicroSoft, businesses are finding that real people, with all the imperfections are the best source of credibility and connection. (this Microsoft ad is a great example)

This is more true in B2B than B2C marketing. Michael Jordan might help sell underwear and sneakers –but he is not going do much for your CRM marketing campaign. Corporate distrust is rampant. For the big, complex decisions – real world peers, honesty, and an imperfect story go along way.

The Pros and Cons of Mobile Learning

Having the world in the palm in your hand. Though this has previously seemed like a lofty notion, these days, most people can schedule a meeting, check their email and find a four star restaurant all by using their phone.

With the mobility of this technology and the sheer accessibility, naturally corporations wanted to utilize this technology to empower their employees.

Mobile Learning, or M-Learning, is becoming more common within the training industry. With the widespread use of this new medium come some obstacles to overcome.

As Dr. Clark Quinn states in his article “In Your Pocket Learning,”

The first is the problem of having managed learning through the intermittent connection. While we prefer individuals to take responsibility for their own learning, many constraints suggest that there are benefits from having systems track and manage learning.

As we all have experienced in using Personal Data Technology (PDAs), or as Dr. Quinn refers to them IAs or Informational Appliances, the connectivity can be suspect. It is sometimes difficult to even talk to your loved ones, let alone consume content of an important training or seminar. And personal responsibility, though a standard in most businesses, is not always an attribute you can rely on either. Tracking these M-Learning modules IS becoming a part of the technology, though it has a great deal of development yet to be done.

Another issue noted by Dr. Quinn is that not all systems will work on all browsers or platforms on these IAs. This problem, though common, is sometimes unavoidable. The burden in this instance relies on the company developing the training and their production and information technology team. Testing the modules on several forms of technology is essential in the creation and testing phase and those companies that neglect this will most likely have more then there fair share of complaints.

Moving forward, most will agree, M-Learning is a viable tool that will become more prevalent in the corporate learning and training world. Though there are obstacles that will be faced by most providers and companies using their products, the technology will catch up with these issues thus making it easier for everyone involved.

Dr. Quinn predicts that,

…With these issues and challenges, what might we expect in the months and years ahead? I’ll go out on a limb to suggest templates and tools that populate learning object models will become prevalent and, in doing so, will address device-independent learning. I also think that the major E-learning vendors will come up with proprietary solutions to Learning, largely through downloaded helper-applications that manage what you’ve done while offline. Eventually a consortium or an independent group will develop an open solution that will drive adoption.

In the longer term, as we realize that learning should move from an organizational function to an individual necessity, M-Learning will likely move from a hosted service to device-resident applications we can carry with us wherever we go. Eventually, the learner will not know, nor care, where the learner model is kept, where the content resides, nor how the communication is handled. This will happen as cost drops, product power improves, and design takes into account a wider range of learning styles and lifestyle needs. And that will be true mobile learning.

To read more about StoryQuest’s M-Learning sales enablement programs go to: http://www.storyquest.us

Is iPod Training/Learning Effective?

Since the introduction of the iPod, the world has consumed music and video differently than any other generation. In fact, the term “The iPod Generation” has recently become a part of western world vernacular.

Being that music, video and information are extremely mobile now, the natural progression is to use this device for work as well as play. With the advent of podcasts, instructors and/or trainers were able to record learning modules in which students could listen and retain information at their convenience, changing the “in the classroom” learning model completely.

As noted on the HG2S training blog Psychologists at Suny Fredonia recently did a study on the iPod’s value in lecturing/training.  In this study 64 subjects were divided into two groups and given iPods.

One group was given a podcasted lecture accompanied by multimedia slides and written handouts to review. The second group attended the lecture and was given the same handouts.

“The podcast group averaged nine points (out of 100) higher on the test than those in the live audience. Moreover, those who took notes during the podcast scored even higher, averaging 15 points higher than their live-lecture counterparts.”

The study also notes:

“If they listened to the podcast just one time, they didn’t do any better than the people who came to the lecture. However, the people who treated it like a live lecture, and took notes or replayed certain sections… they did significantly better.”

This research shows that active participation with the podcast combined with taking advantage of the innate properties of the technology paid off. According to the study:

“If you treated it like a live lecture, you did better. But if you just listened to it passively, you didn’t get any benefit. One student watched the podcast at the gym, and his score reflected that. One person watched the podcast seven times, and her score reflected that.”

Dani McKinney, the leader of the study, is quick to point out that this study is not at all conclusive and plans to extend it across more topics and test subjects. She also points out that regardless of the learning medium, the more that a person participates in the learning process, the more information that they will retain.

More information on this study can be found here.

More information on StoryQuest’s iPod sales learning programs can be found here.