Powerful Storytelling, 1000 Awesome Things, Audience Acquisition

Hey all,

Just a heads up that in a couple of weeks we’ll be releasing the findings of some research we’ve been doing. It’s called Scroll Stoppers: six ways hybrid work is changing attention. It’s all about how behaviours that started in lockdown have matured in this era of hybrid work. The findings have been fascinating and we can’t wait to share them with you.

That’s all from us. Have the most fantastic of weekends.

Hugh

Kings of the Underground: the Last Coal Miners of Wales (4 min read)

Practical Tips for Audience Acquisition (6 min read)Jacob Collier Plays the Audience (20 min read)To Control Your Life, Control What You Pay Attention To (6 min read)Things Could Be Better (18 min read)The Simple Secret to Powerful Stories (14 min watch)An Ode to the Short but Influential Life of the Audio Cassette (6 min read)1000 Awesome Things (List)Ooh Directory (Tool)

No More Very (Tool)

How can we help you?

Storythings is a strategy and production company based in Brighton and London. We'd love to help you with some creative and bold ideas. Here are 3 reasons to get in touch. 

1. You want to talk to us about content production: podcasts, videos, animations, illustrations, editorial. 2. You want to talk to us about audience research, content strategy or format development.3. You want to create a brand or an identity that makes it easier to communicate your message.We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch. 

Kings of the Underground: the Last Coal Miners of WalesIt’s amazing how much you can learn about an industry from stories using photos and a quote from the person in the picture. I found these so powerful. This quote really made me think about how each of them had to be at the peak of health whilst at the same time working in conditions that were slowly killing a lot of them: “I got to the point where I considered myself to be what felt like Olympic athlete-fit. I was one of maybe 30 colliers on a face that would shift a minimum of 20 tonnes per day, every day. There were men who were doing 40 tons a day. They were that good and they were that strong.”(4 min read)

Practical Tips for Audience AcquisitionIf you’re interested in growing your audience you really should be subscribing to Deborah Carver’s Content Technologist newsletter. It’s always a good read. This week she gives three of her top tactics for moving away from SEO and building a more sophisticated audience building strategy. (6 min read)To Control Your Life, Control What You Pay Attention ToOne of the best insights on what true productivity means can be found in the book The Principles of Psychology, Vol.1, in which William James wrote a simple statement that’s packed with meaning: “My experience is what I agree to attend to.” The book was written in 1890, a time when the telephone was the newest piece of technology we were distracted by. In this frenzied work environment, accomplishing the things that are most meaningful to you doesn’t just happen. You can’t leave it to chance. This piece looks at how you can take more control over your attention. (6 min read)Jason Collier Plays the AudienceThis will give you chills. Musician, Jason Collier asked the audience at each of his shows to film themselves singing a word from this Elvis song – a different word in every city. 31 Cities. 10,000+ video submissions. 100,000+ voices. This is how it turned out! Just watching the harmony will blow you away.(2 min watch)Things Could Be BetterEight studies reveal a (possibly universal) bias in human imagination. When people imagine how things could be different, they almost always imagine how things could be better. To prove this Adam Mastroianni did eight studies. What’s interesting about this piece is how it’s written. If you’re used to reading scientific papers you’ll notice that it’s different from any you’ve read before. Different, or you could say ‘better.’ As Adam points out, this paper could never be published: “You’re supposed to be very serious; a reviewer once literally told me that my paper was “too fun” and that I should make it more boring.”(18 min read)The Simple Secret to Powerful StoriesNewsletter reader Thaler Pekar delivers this marvellous TED Talk about the kind of stories that build trust and overcome resilience. She talks about the messiness of life and how people respond to stories that reflect the complexities through nuanced approaches: “These are the stories that people are most like to engage. And then to ponder. And then to repeat.”(14 min read)An Ode to the Short but Influential Life of the Audio Cassette , wonderful as ever, tells the story of how the cassette shaped the future: “If you think about it, almost all of the hallmarks of the digital audio revolution were first previewed in cassette form. The whole idea of walking around in your own private musical headspace—now a ubiquitous experience in the post-iPod era—first appeared with the Sony Walkman in 1979…The practice of curating your own Spotify playlists has direct roots in the mixtapes that music fans would construct for their own personal enjoyment, or to share with their friends or romantic partners.”(6 min read)1000 Awesome ThingsI discovered this from the link below. It’s a lovely list of awesome things that bring moments of delight. Things like clicking pens with really strong springs, seeing your parents dance, that one guy who starts a standing ovation, the moment when the lights dim at a movie theatre, tossing garbage in the trash can from far away, and one of my absolute favourites, the moment just before you fall asleep when you know you’re just about to fall asleep. (List)Ooh DirectoryThis is so useful. As people moved away from social, and algorithms made finding interesting stuff harder to find, a tool was needed. Something that really helps you find the good stuff you’re interested in really easily. Thankfully, the brilliant Phil Gyford has built this tool. Enjoy. (Tool)

No More VerySort out your over-use of the word ‘very’ with this simple tool. You could say it’s very good. Or better still, it’s marvellous, sterling, exceptional, splendid or excellent. (Tool)

We hope you've enjoyed this week's newsletter. I'm sure some of your friends would love to read it. Sharing it would be really appreciated. If you've received this from a friend you can subscribe here and get it direct to your inbox every Friday.

Thanks for reading. We’ll see you all next week.

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the whole team at Storythings.