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The Power of Visual Storytelling

we're going to dive in today and talk about the power of visual storytelling. I mean, this is the focus of today and we have a jam packed day in that we have 5 to 6 Google hangouts of brand experts coming on to teach you all how to use Instagram. Some of them are big brands, and some of them are small businesses and they all have different industries. So I think it's going to be super exciting for all of you experience what they're doing right to really use Instagram to make money with their business Now this is something that's really important when you want. When you think about Instagram is the image and the percent of people that really like looking at a detail clear image. So to all the photographers out there, and I've been really looking through a lot of feeds, and I see that photographers really can up their game just because they have the added talent of making their pictures look so awesome. But more than the picture, it's it's how the feed looks and how focused that fetus wi...

th the content and we're gonna go into that throughout the day as Well, so we're gonna talk about what visual storytelling can do for your business. And I'm going to show you what I looked like a long time ago. That's me in the middle with my Harvard boxer shorts, party animal boxer shorts on what's really cool about this slide. And I have to tell you all that I had my slide deck done a while ago. But so much awesome activity happened online in the past two weeks from all of my fans writing comments on things and wishing me luck. And I wanted to pull some of their comments into the presentation, and this is one of them. So I posted this picture on Instagram as a hashtag throwback Thursday because that's what you could do on Thursday, right? And I wanted people to know my story of kind of how I got here, because that was this has been part of the journey and these boxer shorts, this is it. This is what really gave me the mindset to kind of do what I love and not care if it's what I was supposed to be doing with my degree in nutrition, but really doing what I loved And so when I posted that, I got a lot of great comments from the story. And this one really resonated with me because so much of sharing on instagram is sharing your story. So if you can really, authentically share and sometimes you're gonna be vulnerable and sometimes you're gonna be waiting at that picture of me doesn't look good. It's OK. It's like sharing your story and what makes you unique. And what makes you you that's what people are gonna relate, Teoh. And that's what people are gonna connect. Teoh. So I just love that this comment came through so I can share that with you all. So here's this is t really piggyback on that. I'm giving shoutouts to all these accounts. So if anyone is writing accounts down these five or five of my super fans, I love how they all kind of wished me luck, gave me shout out, Chris Broken gave, you know, he crowned himself and gave me a shout out. And Jean Feliz he's a great super fan and this is what happens on Instagram. You get these amazing comments that air really, you know, like right there in front of you that just make you feel like what you're sharing is what they want to say. If you educate, inform and entertain on instagram those air the key three ease that I want you to write down. You will attract your ideal follower. This is an example. Another example. Being creative and out of the box. This fan has nothing to do with me. It was something I saw. I drove by immediately did a U turn so I could go back and get the picture, because the picture is how creative is this van and it's so different. And I loved it. The van is the canvas, so there's eye candy all around you every day. I just saw this when I was driving by, and you can create an instance emotion, connection and instant communication with your ideal follower. Here's another quick example. Off an emotion that solicited I was speaking at Victoria BC. I woke up early with the birds. I went for a walk. I had to stop in front of this rock because it was an anchor, and nautical is part of my branding. And I just asked a stranger like Wait, can you take a picture. Here's my phone. He's like What? No, I didn't even instagram photo. So I handed it to a stranger and got this picture, and I just wanted to share it and let people know that I was there, you know, having a great time. And that's just like being spontaneous in the moment. And here is one more example of humanizing your brand. So this is a picture of Steve Dato who I knew online. And this is again, back to your point, taking those online relationships offline. I've been following Tech Dato for a long time cause he's super smart and teaches you all kinds of tech savvy things on YouTube and how to be more productive. And I met him before I spoke a Victoria, and he was one of the speakers as well. And as soon as I walked in the room, I gave my hug because I already felt like I knew the guy had been watching him on YouTube. I'm like, Wait, we gotta get my hashtag sign. We took a picture. We connected, we became friends and, you know, now we're connected, trying to figure out how we can collaborate together and do do some production for me through his YouTube genius. So this is again, you know, following someone online and taking that relationship offline and solidity is solidifying the opportunity where you can actually collaborate and work together. Has anyone had that experience where you've taken this off flying relationship online and it's to spend amazing? Well, I just have a question suit. Do you find sometimes that you have people who they're not on instagram yet and you're sitting right there with them. Have helping them download every day. It's happening to me. A creativelive. So, yeah, in the dressing room, getting my makeup on. Yeah, chatting. Any time I'm near someone in their in business, I am always convincing them that instagram is the place to bay. So it's not hard to dio it isn't you? You know they can make up a handle or ah, user name. Yeah, We go over it on the fly. Absolutely right next to me. I can get you on there and a minute, right? Yeah. So I'm hoping that those of you that download the app did that. Yeah. Good. Okay. Did you have a little know you were just talking about taking online relationships offline. And that's actually how we met. And I've watched her in action, sitting at a restaurant like here. Here's your hashtag. Here's your handle. Do you have your business name? And she literally is going down the line, just getting everybody set up on Instagram. And, yeah, it's amazing to watch. That's great to Nicole's point. It's not only getting him on Instagram, but then we all stay connected. When we depart. We all see each other speed and stay connected and comment is keeping its instead of the phone call. It's keeping me not to do it instead of, but it's keeping people in your life and actively connecting with them all the time. Awesome. Awesome. Yes. Oh, so I think you know, I want you all to think about what makes you unique. What makes you stand out? That's the most important thing because everyone thinks they have so much competition doing what they dio. But the truth is, there is enough business for all of us. There really is. And if you have that mindset, you just need to think about how am I different, and for me, it's, you know it's those hashtag signs. It's being not, you know, my nautical brand. It's it's rocking it with young entrepreneurs and teaching the world how to use Instagram wherever I go. So you just have to figure out what it is about you that makes you special. And you might have to step outside of your comfort zone, right? It's like, really, You want me to do that? I'm like, Yeah, I have a client that's always in dressed up like I want to see you sweaty without makeup because that's you, too. And she's like, Okay, guess what? That was her post that she had the most likes on. So you guys are in for a real tweet, really Treats tweet, Tweet that. So I am so excited that I got these two brands to be part of this course because they are both amazing brands on Instagram Dunkin Donuts, which is from my hometown area, Massachusetts, and Surfer magazine, which is on the West Coast. As you all know, So Aaron and Jessica, who are coming on the Google hang out with us, are both the social media managers for the brand. Jessica is the manager for Dunkin Donuts. She's also the co author of an amazing book called Visual Storytelling and Um, Aren is the social media manager over it Surfer magazine and I have the pleasure of having them on my brand panel When I spoke at Social Media Marketing World and what they have to share is really awesome. But remember, they are big brands. So if what they're saying doesn't resonate for you, it's OK because we have formal Google hangouts with small business owners. But I think some of their strategies and techniques are gonna really help you all get in the right mindset of what you need to do to be successful. Hey, Aaron, how are you? Good. And Jessica's on as well. I'm here. Hi. Hi. Hi. This is cold. First I've ever done anything like that. Okay, so the 1st 1 is you both have insanely high quality photos, and I wanted to know if you hire photographers to curate the content or if you do, if you have your user generated content, be part of that. Well, let me let me back up. So let's talk to Aaron first. I know that you both have professional photographers, but I know that surfer magazine has. Every photo is just amazing, and every photo looks like it's professional and I just want to hear from you. Erin, if any of the content is from people that aren't hired for you or if they're all hired photographers that take those pictures, Yeah, I mean, since we're media company excuse me way, all of our photos are either from contributing photographers or staff photographers. We have about four or five exactly. Can't remember exact number. But staff photographers, we send them all around the world, and they're basically where ever the wiser good. That's where they are. And they're usually with today's talk best surfers so and their drink is really just to kind of follow where it sounds corny, but all of the waves. So they're really sending us, you know, hundreds and hundreds of photos. So our job is more of curating than actual seeking. We also look for photographers that are up and coming that might have photos of strippers we haven't really heard of or spots that we don't really know. So the good thing about us that makes us different from someone that doesn't have a large archive is that We have an abundance of photos and not to mention to like, you know, with throwback Thursday and those kind of ideas that we really like to dip into our archive because we have so much iconic photos that people have never seen before, moments that 30 years ago weren't that relevant or even a topic or a discussion. But today they are because of that person, that photo or other subjects around it. So we have the benefit of really having too many photographers. And the good thing to is it in surfing and a lot of in action sports in general photographers that air relatively unknown, they want to become known and instagrams the best walk from for do that so sometimes you can get away with, you know, tagging the photographer as like this is the first time I heard of me. Were they? All they want is they don't worry about the money. They're worried about us tagging them and then their brand out there. We pay all over Tarver's regardless, some of them are on a salary are Excuse me. Yeah, a monthly basis and so other ones that we just pay her photo, but It's really good for us because we get to see so much variety. Great. Jessica, How about you? Great. Well, for Dunkin Donuts, it's a mix of agency. Resource is, we have a wonderful agency 22 square that's based out of Atlanta. That does a lot of our instagram images. All those great kind of, you know, high quality dona images that you see. But I think the beauty of our team is that great images can come from anywhere. And I run across functional social media team of all different advertising, marketing, PR and customer service employees. And they're always sending me. Hey, I took this great picture while I was out on my Duncan run this weekend, or I was out of the beach and I snapped this. Do you want to use this image? So you know, I'm always getting great images from them, as well as from our field marketing team and sometimes even our crew members in store. We actually have some great doughnut decorators that are all over the country, and they'll post something on our Facebook page, are tweeted to us on Twitter are tag it on instagram, and we'll see that there are crew member and reach out to them and say, Hey, can we get permission to use this image? So it's great, you know? And obviously, you know, we see a huge opportunity to tap into more consumer contents. There's a lot of great tools out there where you can get user permissions toe use different images that are tagging your brand on instagram eso. We're definitely looking actively into that, versus just kind of going through the manual kind of approval process right now. But, um, I would say, You know, for small businesses out there, you know great images can come from anywhere. Make sure you get user permissions to use them and definitely empower your staff or kind of super fans of your brand to help contribute those images. Yeah, I think like to just this point. I think that's really sort of nothing next week. But that's something that brands and start leveraging Moore's. The user generated content because that creates so much brand loyalty, and for a media source like Surfer magazine to post either photographers or surfers thought of, they either found that we found through hash tag or through asking for submissions there's huge value in that because now that person is just excited in Stoke that we shared their photo to, you know, our 400 1000 insurance dollars, which that's that's a huge value. And we're making you famous, so to speak, right? Definitely. So Jessica love for you to talk about the overall value that you've seen on Instagram compared to your other platforms because you are active. Dunkin Donuts is active everywhere. And when I when I met you it when we talk to social media brand camp you like, you know, of all the platforms, it's the one that it was the most knew that you guys started using recently. Yes, So instagram We love instagram. I think for me what really hits it home is that you can if you think about it. Instagram has changed the way that people interact with images and the way they communicate visually. And we see a huge amount of organic kind of use of the hashtag Dunkin Donuts or my Dunkin based on people sharing those everyday kind of Duncan runs and moments. So, you know, it's really inspired us to think How can we, as a brand, communicate visually, How can we kind of, you know, I always say edge attain, educate and entertain is kind of, you know, I heard you mentioning something very similar to that earlier. So great minds think alike. So we really we want to be playful fun. We want to show behind the scenes content of our brand, you know, our offices, the dd mothership, and we've got a secret test kitchen and coffee and doughnuts everywhere. So there's that. There's only a Willy Wonka element to it for us. But also, you know, those great events that were at those one once in a lifetime kind of, you know, exclusive Duncan experiences. So we want to show a mix of the every day and kind of them or the special kind of, you know, only happens once in a while. Opportunities. So I think for us, you know, again, just to summarize, really. It's communicating visually. The story of how people run on Dunkin each and every day, plus Sprinkle in some exclusive behind the scenes content. Great. Erin, how about you? Uh, it's kind of the same. Like we we started instagram actually a little bit different, but we started Instagram, probably in 2011. Yeah, fall of 1011. For us, it was kind of like it was a no brainer for us to really get on there because it's a photo sharing platform and where photo based media company. So for us, it was really just posting photos that allowed people to escape for a couple of minutes and looking at it was always the idea of Would you stop and stare at this for 30 seconds or more? So that's still the velocity today is that we want to post photos that make people dream about going to that location or dream about being on that wave or you're being that surfer. And that's something that I think really goes a long way. And there's there's just but then the day it's like we're community surfing, whatever the story is baseball basketball like it's a community. Don't Donatien. There's a community there, and so we want to tap into that community. And, yes, were immediate company. And yes, we're business. But we're also still strippers just like you, and we still get excited when we see photos. We still we still share that passion, and that sort of driving that enthusiasm. So we've always kind of, especially my mentally to like. I remember being 14 years old and always wanted to see. I just would get so excited when the magazine would come into my mailbox in. So now, being in this role in having more tools and more 24 7 sort of like content and coverage, always, like, try to think about like that 14 year old, I mean, really wants to see the photos of today's best surfers and and really leveraging that. And I think that's been successful for us to, because we don't come across the brand. We come across as a server, and that's really sort of the strategy that we want to drive home with people. Definitely. I feel when I look at your feet, it feels like looking at a magazine. And what's amazing to me is that you have, like almost 25,000 likes on each, like your engagement on each post. This is huge. I think the big shift and for us, is it? We're not just a magazine like we know that was a trend about what it was before. But today, like we're burst. Surfer like we're just immediate company. We have all these distribution tools. So whether you're looking at the magazine, the website Facebook, Twitter, instagram, it should also like one package, and I don't feel exactly the same. That's why we have our photo editor art director says senators. Everyone's involved in it because it did the same sort of thought process and editing should go through from start to finish. That's a great point. That's a really good point. If you were to leave one tip specifically to small business owners, both of you, Erin, you can go first. What? What would that be? That's an actual tip that they could take away today and start doing like right now. I think for me one of the mistakes I see is people taking suggestions and ideas and best practices and kind of using that for, like, a holistic approach. But really like like I just mentioned, you have a community, you know, your community best. So what works for sure for magazine or for dunking? Donuts might not work for your brand, but it's, you know, your brand the best. So it's taking sort of these fundamentals, tools and strategies and really putting them in place for your brand because but then the day, like you know it best. And so I think that's one of mistakes I see people doing is that they try to take on too much or tryto become something that they're not, and users see right through that, especially INSTAGRAM users, work the the audience is primarily younger, so excuse kids they see right through that stuff and now turning off immediately. So it's being authentic to your brand while using these these best practices. Thank you. That was great. Hey, just about you. So my tip is I would recommend searching hashtags that are associated to your business or your brand. So a great example for us. There's almost a 1,000, use of the hashtag doughnut smell, the Dunkin White dio and ut it. I haven't looked at the other spelling of doughnut, but I love to take inspiration from how everyday users or your customers are actually hash. Tagging and taking pictures affiliated with could be doughnuts could be coffee. We can actually take that inspiration and use that as kind of help when we're putting together our style guide. You know to Erin's point. You always want to be authentic to your brand and your brand voice. So how can you take inspiration from kind of what your community is rallying around? That's also a fit for your company or your business. I think that's where you hit that sweet spot. Plus, when you kind of push it a little bit further and give them something a little unexpected. So, you know, if the community is asking a certain question, are looking for something you know, maybe there's content or a video you can craft to help. Kind of answer that frequently asked question or give them that behind the scenes look that they really enjoy. That's great. Really good tips. Both of you. So good to see you both again. Thank you. Yeah. You guys pretty impressive, huh? Yeah, And when you get a handle of their feed, you'll understand. I love what I love about Dunkin Donuts is You know, so much of that content is the user generated content, which will talk about later. But that's the coolest thing is when people that are fans of your brand and your business start generating content on your behalf. It makes it really easy to share that on Instagram or we posted if they posted it to their feet. And you know you want nothing more than to have a brand advocate. And Dunkin Donuts has that happening all the time. And, you know, to Erin's point, their photos air just Oh, my gosh, like, you know, looking at what the surfers air doing out there. You know, you really feel like that magazine is in your hands and that you're getting the value of what their brand stands for. Yes, just really curious. They have quite bid following. How has that changed monetarily? Have they seen, you know, a growth in their business? And especially, I understand Dunkin Donuts. That's pretty easy. Translation, because their stores and you know it gets a broader audience and they can actually buy something like that. But the Surfer magazine have I wonder if they've seen increase in circulation and that type of That's a great question. I think we we talked briefly about it. Social Media Marketing camp. I mean such marketing world and, you know, I remember are in saying that, you know, it's it's the community that they're building and staying top of mind and the value add of the community, and they're not really doing a, you know, conversion to money based on that, you know, it's not like return of investment. It's more staying top of mind and being connected to their community and the engagement. And I, you know, their accounts grown a lot since I've seen him, just like three months ago. So but that's a great question. And you know, there's there's the soft return on investment in the hard return on investment, right with your business. It's like, you know, But am I making money? If I'm posting and using Instagram, I'm gonna I'm here standing here today, telling you that, Yes, you can absolutely make money on Instagram and I have done that with both of my businesses, and we'll go into that a little bit later. But I really, you know, I think just this whole idea. I know that there's dormant accounts on Instagram people that have started and given up because they haven't seen the results and then they drop off because they feel like they are not getting the engagement that they wanted. But I say staying top of mind and authentically building. Ah connection with your ideal followers is golden on instagram if you stick with it and use some of the strategy that will be talking about. And I think to your point, there's also something to be said for the money, the actual hard dollars that are saved when you translate your advertising and marketing dollars to something like this and using social media platforms in general. But really, I mean the money that that businesses, big brands and small brands can save on traditional marketing and advertising after Shaarawy as well, Absolutely. And to that point, I want to say, for example, back in the day when I had my boxer shorts business, we were printing postcards. We had a PR agent that was trying to get us in on TV and in the newspaper, and all of that could go away with using Instagram. You can be your own PR agent and not have to spend money marketing. I mean, it's time, but it's not dollars. It's a great point