At PodCamp Boston last weekend, one theme ran through all the presentations and discussions, which was that the best way to get and hold people's attention was to tell them compelling stories about other people. As Jack Valenti said many times about the movie industry, you can spend all you want on famous stars or special effects, but what draws an audience is "a good story, well told."
This point was made many times with regard to web-based businesses, but artist Keith Burtis described how it worked for promoting his art. Burtis writes about the process of making his woodturned art on his blog, and does live videos on BlogTV. He said people were much more interested in purchasing a piece of art when they saw or heard the story of how it was made, even to the point on insisting on purchasing the object in the video instead of a nearly identical work made in private.
Burtis offered some additional examples, such as Natasha Wescoat's art tutorial videos and art news blog which have made her a top seller on the Web and led to a lucretive licensing deal with Bed, Bath & Beyond.
Shelley Greenberg made this point and more in her summary of PodCamp's Five Lessons:
- Social networks are a means, not an end.
- Content is king.
- Participate, participate, participate. And then? Participate.
- Everyone, no matter how much gravitas they command, is human.
- Help yourself by helping others.
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