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There's a thing about metrics and measurement. Especially in digital channels. We all agree we should measure, but most research reports about social media, intranets and websites conclude it's hardly being done. But the thing I find even stranger is that if we actually measure and share our numbers, big conclusions are derived from them. "Our website is very useful because we have x visits per month." Or: "Our internal microblogging platform is valuable because 90% of our employees has created a profile on it." To be clear I think we should collect these numbers and share them. They do tell us something. But I find it strange that when these numbers are shared, they are shared without any context. And they are shared as if data can tell us the whole story . Data is the only reality. We know it isn't. There's much more to life, even digital life, than numbers. Yes, we should collect data and do that much more rigorously, definitely when it com...

Next keynote at the Copywriting & Content Marketing conference is by Robert Rose . Marketing processes have changed. All content people are now marketeers. Why? Marketing is not only responsible for leads and visitors, but also for retention, satisfaction and upselling. We need to work towards customers that will defend us to death (evangelism). Buyers used to solve their problems and that's how they bought products. "People don't notice ads, they notice what interests them and sometimes its an ad." (Gossage) But buyers have changed due to the internet. Audiences now filter. Email and direct mail are less effective. Buyers are rising above the noise. They are empowered and more informed. Some numbers: 90% of buy start with a search and 30% (and rising quickly) is done via social media. 40% and rising is done via mobile. People don't search in Google and social media about you. They have a question and are looking for answers. "People don't...

First breakout round during the Copywriting & Content Marketing conference . Colleague Joep van Loon will talk about online storytelling. What is a story? The shortest story is: For Sale: Baby Shoes. Never Worn. By Ernest Hemingway. The difference between storytelling and online storytelling: in online storytelling you have lots of tech tools to tell your story. (YouTube is the number 1 way to tell and sell stories.) Why stories? Because our brains like them, says Joep. We can remember stories and a good story touches us. Therefore authenticity is key in stories. Joep points to several examples of 'stories' and stories on the web. Joep finished his breakout by sharing different types of stories, like a scenario and synopsis. And examples of the tools that companies can use to tell stories, like infographics, video and photo. When there is perfection there is not story to tell (Ben Okri).

You've probably heard of Caine and his arcade . If you have't please go and watch the 1st and 2nd video (below) about Caine. It's an inspirational and fun story. It reminds us how special, creative and fun kids are. Imagine: Caine's Arcade Goes Global from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo . After watching the 2nd video I was wondering what we learn from these video's. What are the lessons for 'big people'? These are some of the things I came up with: The video's reminded me that we all were once kids. And that even at an older age, it's importance to keep on being child-like . Just look at all the grown-up people that came to the arcade... Building things is an extremely important way to learn and get feedback. Caine built things because he liked to and hoped others would as well. The filmer taped the story because he liked what Caine had built and hoped others would as well. Etc. We need other people to be effective. Caine built the arcade, the f...

Wow, this is an interesting (but older) example of how to apply story telling . Shell published a book titled "Stories from the Edge: Managing Knowledge through New Ways of Working within Shell's Exploration and Production Business". Anecdote pointed to it some time ago. It would be interesting to hear what this book led to. To new KM projects, more funding for KM initiatives, a new book with stories? Andy , please tell us more!

For some time I've been following the interesting Anecdote blog . Storytelling is an intriguing topic. I posted about it on my blog before . It is very clear to me that stories are a really important way of getting things across. Even in companies, it seems that corporate culture and the way people work is based on stories. Stories that get told over and over again, changing slowly in time. I've heard of companies that use it to capture stories of employees leaving the company. Nasa seems to do this. The Anecdote blog posts about storytelling and their consulting work in this area. Today they posted about Storytelling in organisations (and organizations) . This triggered me to ask them to write about how companies actually use storytelling. What do they use to capture the stories? How do they store the stories and distribute/share them? How can employees search through those stories? Please give us some practical example, beside the - just as interesting! - posts and articles ...

How do you discuss a video and comment on it? Mostly you see the video and the comment and/or rating section separated. This works, but it's hard to comment on a specific part of the video. And if it is possible, it's because the publisher indexed the video for you. And now there's Viddler ! It was new to me. Has it been around for some time or is it actually new? Viddler makes indexing, commenting, tagging and rating video's easily. Really easy. And of course you can search through everything. I hope they integrate this in Google Video and YouTube . This is also interesting for internal corporate video's. For instance, I've been writing about story telling . A problem with recording stories is how to make them useful for the organisation. Can employees easily access them and browse through the video's? Usually they can't. But by using Viddler technology they can. We can.

The power of stories. I think we all can relate to that. Dad and mom told us stories when we were kids (and usually they still do). We read stories all the time and tell others about them. Companies also move, change and progress on stories. Stories of the past. Stories to get something across. Real stories, fiction. Etc. The Ark-group and InsideKnowledge are presenting: 'The secret language of leadership. How leaders inspire action through narrative' with Steve Denning. Denning is the leading author in the area of storytelling. ( Dave Snowden is also an evangelist of storytelling.) I find storytelling very interesting. It really stresses the human side of knowledge management, information management and communication. But I still have a hard time translating all this to the enterprise. Several articles have been written on how you can use storytelling in companies. Nasa and Shell a.o. seem to use this technique to capture and transfer knowledge/information....