Trafcom News Podcast

Why is content curation a hot topic, and why should you care? This 19-minute podcast explores what curation is, how individuals and brands can use it, which tools make it easy, and how to get started. Much of the content in this discussion originated with presentations in November 2011 to the IABC Western Region conference in Whistler, British Columbia, and the IABC/Toronto west end group. You can listen to the podcast now with the player above or download it to listen later. Or subscribe to this podcast in iTunes using the link at the top of this page. Here are the show notes: 00:01 Introduction and welcome 01:10 Link to slides from presentation to IABC Western Region conference in Whistler, BC, #iabccanwest, November 2011; link to write-up of IABC/Toronto session by Sue Horner on her blog. 01:36 What comes to mind when you hear the word curation? Museums? Good analogy! Curation defined: finding, organizing, categorizing, describing and sharing content 02:22 Why is curation a hot topic? Fast Company says so. 03:00 Information overload or filter failure? Clay Shirky says it’s filter failure. 04:00 Finding, grouping and sharing the best of relevant content 04:20 Why curate? As an individual, you can be seen as an important industry resource. Example of Dave Williams in e-publishing with his nascent site, Ebooksdecoded.com  06:10 Use of social bookmarking tool Delicious in content curation. Donna’s video about how to use Delicious; slightly out of date but still relevant; benefit of adding multiple tags; easy to share bookmarks 07:45 Brands and curation: especially important in the B2B sector with its long sales cycle; essential to be seen often in front of your prospects as a trusted source of information. 08:20 Examples of businesses using curation in this way: CMO.com  from Adobe; Intel Free Press; these are not marketing or advertising sites. They are vendor-neutral. 09:30 What’s the difference between aggregation and curation? The human factor. 10:02 Select the best of relevant content, add own opinion and then share. 10:21 Fire hose of information: Lots of tools available to help you. Storify.com makes it easy to collect tweets and other information, particularly from events, and tell a story with them, adding your own thoughts. Scoop.it lets you put stories together easily. 11:30 Example of Smartbrief.com, curating content in  hundreds of topics. 12:05 See screenshots in presentation. 12:16 Not just text. You can curate videos with Shortform. 12:40 Use Paper.li to curate content from Twitter. Older video from Donna on how to use Paper.li to curate Twitter content. 13:10 Other ways to share curated content: blog, enewsletter, widget, microsite. Example of Donna’s blog post on GooglePlus. 14:05 Curata example: Green Data Center News from Verne Global. 15:25 More on curation tools: Curation Station, Diigo, Pealtrees, Storify, Paper.li, Scoop.it, Mangify.net and more. 15:55 Developing a curation strategy: what role does content play in your overall strategy? 16:12 Industry news, expert tips and advice, presentations, case studies, event and book reviews, infographics, photos, podcasts, videos, etc. Anything that can be communicated can be curated. 16:30 Important to be discerning, discriminating 16:40 Company news, industry news, competitor news, etc. – curation in internal communications. 17:02 Curation best practices: understand your market and your place in it; what are you trying to achieve? What does your audience care about? Pick a curation platform or a curation tool. Keep your information organized; use tags. Add your own flavour; tell a story with your content. Share content and make it easy for others to share. 17:45 Always link to the original source! 18:00 Think like a curator and you’ll be a curator; be consistently helpful. 18:21 Please send your curation stories or other comments to donna AT trafcom DOT com.

In this conversation with Barb Sawyers, we explore some of the ways in which organizations can use storytelling to engage employees and communicate important messages. A fellow member of IABC/Toronto, Barb is a writer and author of Write Like You Talk – Only Better. She also publishes a blog at Sticky Communication. You can listen to the podcast now with the player above or download it to listen later. Or subscribe to this podcast in iTunes using the link at the top of this page. SHOWNOTES Apologies for the audio issues during part of the conversation. 00:01 Intro; about Barb 01:23 People remember stories; in organizations, you particularly need stories for the tough sell 02:20 Recap of Barb’s blog post; keep the story concise; don’t bore people 03:44 Keep it real, admit to conflict (stories need conflict); identify heroes and villains 05:22 In some organizations, leaders fear conflict; maybe the villain is a problem solved, not a villain in the traditional sense of the word 06:40 You can’t engage employees if you’re not being real; use real language 07:02 We are emotional beings; people are naturally afraid of new things at work, such as change 07:33 Develop your characters; they should be likable 09:45 It’s important to warm people up before you interview them 10:44 Make sure your story has a point, just like fables always have a moral 12:00 Role of emotion in corporate storytelling; story without emotion does not resonate with people. People won’t relate to “just the facts” 14:02 Remind people that they can review the story before publication, to ease their mind and get better stories 16:20 Be sure you share with transparency and respect; find common ground 18:00 What to do when they say: “We have no stories!” 21:00 Put on storytelling hat to uncover employee stories; employees appreciate hearing stories about themselves 22:44 Classic storytelling establishes characters, builds toward a climax, then resolves; must have a conflict or challenge to be overcome 23:30 Pitfalls of corporate storytelling: thinking you have no stories; wanting to gloss over negatives; talking only about the CEO and other senior leaders; standing in the way of truth 29:00 Fear of the very word “story” 30:20 Day-in-the-life stories can be effective if it’s not a boring day; look for conflict or challenge to be surmounted NOTE: Next Trafcom News Podcast will feature an interview with Steve Clayton, senior director of storytelling at Microsoft 36:00 Your comments are welcome; where to send comments. Look for the Trafcom News Podcast on Blubrry.com. Theme music is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from the Podsafe Music Network  

If you’ve been within shouting distance of me within the last six months or so, you’ll know that my hot topic is storytelling in organizations, for both internal and external communications. In this quick 10-minute podcast, I talk about why storytelling matters. You can listen to the podcast now with the player above or download it to listen later. Or subscribe to this podcast in iTunes using the link at the top of this page. Here are the shownotes: 00:01 Introduction and welcome 00:44 Yes, I’m experimenting with Google+ 01:00 Storytelling experiences at the IABC world conference in San Diego, including a visit to the USS Midway (blog post) 02:45 Great storytellers at the IABC conference, including Jonah Lehrer 03:55 Nancy Duarte, author of Resonate, spoke about storytelling in presentations; link to Shel Holtz presentation on Your Company Must Become a Media Company; link to Digital Storytelling presentation at IABC world conference by Donna Papacosta 04:27 Storytelling is one of the best ways for organizational communicators to actually reach people and get their point across 05:09 The human brain is hard-wired for stories 05:55 Stories must have a point, but you don’t have to start at the beginning 06:15 For storytelling to be successful, your organization and its products don’t have to be fun or sexy 06:40 Future episodes of Trafcom News Podcast will talk about the HOW of organizational storytelling 06:48 There is no excuse for not sharing stories. In Social Marketing to the Business Customer, Eric Schwartzman and Paul Gillin tell us about Indium Corporation, a company that makes solder paste, successfully using stories to talk to customers and to generate leads and sales. 07:00 Benefits of storytelling in organizations 08:30 Free teleseminar on Take Your Podcast to the Next Level, July 14; register now 09:18 Your comments are welcome; where to send comments. Email: donna AT trafcom DOT com. Theme music is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.  

I’m delighted to bring you these insights from renowned storyteller P.W. Fenton. He publishes the award-winning Digital Flotsam podcast, among others, and has a long history as a broadcast engineer, actor, photographer, musician, songwriter and video producer. I’ve learned a lot about telling stories from listening to P.W., and I hope you will too. You can listen to the podcast now with the player above or download it to listen later. Or subscribe to this podcast in iTunes using the link at the top of this page. Here are the shownotes: 00:01 Introduction and welcome; how I was first introduced to P.W. via Shel Holtz on the For Immediate Release: Hobson and Holtz podcast 01:55 About P.W. Fenton 03:20 How P.W. Fenton became a storyteller 05:05 Early influences on P.W., including radio, particularly Jean Shepherd 07:05 Keys to a good story: beginning, middle, end; start by doing something to get the listener interested; narrate in a way that keeps the interest going and that anticipates the ending and supports your conclusion; need to experience your own story as a listener. 08:44 P.W. has lived all of his stories; the best stories come from our own experiences. 09:58 How P.W. produces Digital Flotsam; the importance of editing. 12:07 P.W. has to enjoy his own stories. 12:35 P.W. shares advice about the art and craft of storytelling; the importance of reading and listening to stories and finding your own voice. 13:40 Advantages of audio storytelling vs. written storytelling; much easier to convey intent with spoken words; must write for your own voice and work to your strengths; difficulty of attempting to put P.W.’s own stories into a book. 16:37 My insights about relevance of P.W.’s comments to storytelling in a business context: Enjoy your own stories; listen to others’ stories; structure counts; best stories come from your everyday experiences. 18:27 Reminder to visit P.W.’s website and Digital Flotsam 18:35 Your comments are welcome; where to send comments: Email: donna AT trafcom DOT com, or comment below. Theme music is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from Music Alley.  

People in the business-to-business (B2B) world finally have a book about social media marketing just for them. In this 26-minute podcast, I interview Eric Schwartzman, co-author (with Paul Gillin) of Social Marketing to the Business Customer. My favourite sound bite...

I’ve been having fun answering questions about podcasting posed by students in my friend Joan Vinall-Cox’s Documentary Scripting class at the University of Toronto (Mississauga). In this 21-minute podcast, I answer some of those questions. Around the 14-minute mark, you...