I was in, I’d say, about third grade. I was sitting in my Social Studies class and we were looking at two different accounts of the same battle. The accounts were completely different, and yet both men had been at the battle.
“How could that be?” The teacher asked us in a “I’m going to guide you” kind of way.
I pondered the question. In the end, we ended up discussing that people can perceive things in all kinds of different ways. It shapes how we tell stories, and it shapes what we believe.
This was in third grade, mind you.
People in the online world often talk about engagement as a light, fluffy, kumbaya sort of thing. But let’s face facts here. Sometimes, interactions with people are not fun. Sometimes we disagree with each other. Sometimes someone says something that really throws you for a loop. Sometimes someone disappoints you, misunderstands you, or lets you down. It’s hard online to figure out how to deal with these situations. Do you defend yourself against every perceived offense? Do you ignore every scenario where your feelings get hurt?
Last September, I was flying high. It wasn’t just because September is my birthday month, either! It seemed like I could do no wrong on my blog. Every post was doing magically well. On Twitter, I was getting about 100 new followers a week, which was incredible because it had taken me about 3 months to get my first 100 followers. I was riding high and was rather happy with everything.
Today, as some of you might know, the long-awaited 2012 New, New Beetle is having its send-off party in Shanghai and New York. There’s a lot of interesting buzz about this product launch. Volkswagen called it a redesign, which is tricky because the look of the Beetle is so unique and recognizable. People are already questioning whether the promotion of the redesign was overstated, while other people are wondering if it’s updated enough to keep interest in the line strong.
Over the weekend, I finally got around to watching Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, a rather interesting flick about a group of rogue US soldiers who specialize in killing Nazis during World War II. Like just about all of Tarantino’s films, the movie is divided into chapters. While I was focusing on the movie, I was also once again enchanted by the tools Tarantino uses to engage his audience with his storytelling. There are five keys that I’ve noticed in Tarantino’s method of storytelling, and I think all five could unlock the power of engaging storytelling for your blog and all of your marketing materials.