Guest Post by Stuart Langley
This tidbit turned up in an Atlantic newsletter email this morning.
If you’re a resident of California or another state that’s dealt with drought these last few years, we’d love to see (and possibly share) any photos you’ve got that show the impact on your local landscape. Please send snapshots to hello@theatlantic.com, and tell us a little bit about what signs of drought or recovery they show.
So my theme, well marinated in Becky’s email series, is that people do not document their events well enough.
The “new PR” is communities working together to take the pictures and video to tell their story as the event is unfolding.
Too much effort is used up front in hype and not enough in documenting the excitement.
And when they do come together to create a theme and a coherent story, the media will pick up and build on their excitement around a win-win effort that toots everyone’s horn.
Cities do a terrible job of documenting events and adding a tincture of longing and excitement for all those who missed the event, and missed the ambiance. This is the long tail of longing. The right long tale of story telling can bring hearts and minds to discovering you and the excitement you generate. Hearts can be won and butts put in seats with people not wanting to miss out, show up for the next event and if the courtship works right, attracting souls to your community that match the spirit and culture and values that you share.
This is art – this is not documentation. This is storytelling and excitement making not Sergeant Friday just looking for the facts. Although the facts are essential too. But interesting facts related to what people want to know not what tickles your ego… but now I am veering off into another rant.
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The rural small business blog. We talk about small town business, with how-to articles, especially on social media marketing and making your community a better place. We use this “author” for announcements and other things you’ll want to know.
Great post, and very true—I often find myself wishing that we’d have gotten photos and/or details of that event that we missed, if only so we could see and share how it went. I’d really like to hear from someone who’s done this well on what sort of tips they’d have to offer someone who wants to do better.