Photo from @NickPiggott on Flickr

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a storyteller at heart. It’s how I introduce myself and my business whenever I’m at a networking event or asked to give my “30-second commercial.” I believe in the power of story, whether it’s to teach a lesson, make a point, entertain, sell a product, or win people over. At least once a day, my daughters ask me to tell them a story [and usually they want to hear one from my own childhood]. They have figured out, like most people, that stories can engage us, make us feel something, and help us understand someone or something a little better than before we heard the story.

I came across an article on Forbes.com that talks about storytelling being the key to good leadership. In the post, the author states, “Storytelling has taken on greater prominence and is “the new black” for leadership and influence today.” I agree completely with that, and I think it spills over into marketing as well as leadership. If you think about it, good marketing is about leading and influencing people to recognize your product or service, as well as their need for what you have to offer, and to motivate them to take action.

I’m currently working on some case studies for a couple of businesses and organizations that will help demonstrate the power of story–both internally as a way to communicate and build a corporate identity, and externally as a form of marketing and branding. I’ll be excited to share these with you once they’re complete. In the meantime, if you have a good example of a brand or company that has done great things with their story, let me know. I’d love to hear about it!

It’s always exciting for a business when they start adding more people to the team. VOD Communications is thrilled to have Shawn Lamb joining us for the summer as our intern. Shawn recently graduated from the University of Dayton in Ohio with a degree in communications and marketing. She’s ready to jump in here and will soon be contributing to the VOD blog on a regular basis, in addition to helping us develop social media marketing strategies for a few clients, and collaborating on whatever else she can. Shawn has a great marketing mind, and we’re looking forward to a fun summer with her!

So make sure you say “hi” to Shawn either here or on one of her upcoming blog posts.

Last week my husband overheard a guy in the coffee shop telling someone else that he sold shoes for 42 years. This got us talking about “the old days” when people like our parents or grandparents shopped at local stores where they were known personally by the staff. Imagine walking into the shoe store where this guy worked, and having him call you by name, know your shoe size, and your favorite color. Ok, so maybe Al Bundy isn’t the best example of a shoe salesman, but he is the only iconic shoe salesman I could think of, and he seemed like a great contrast to Gary Vaynerchuk. As the world has grown, we moved far from that kind of reality. The Walmarts took over and we all became unknown. But, my hubby and I also talked about how social media is shifting us back to that “old days” kind of interaction between businesses and customers.

It’s been mulling around in my head since we talked about it, and tonight I saw a clip of Gary Vaynerchuk on MSNBC talking about his new book, The Thank You Economy. Check it out here:

I’ve been a fan of @garyvee for a while now, and really dug his first book, Crush It. After seeing this interview, I know that I have to read his new book. Gary talks about the power of the social graph, and the data that businesses can have about their customers…the fact that he could track a customer on Twitter and know what he or she likes enough that they could reward that customer with a personalized gift. It really does take us back to “simpler” times in some ways, where connections are made between people [powered by amazing technology], and those connections lead to deeper interactions as people and as consumers.

It’s no surprise to anyone who knows me that I love social media. I am continually amazed by the things it allows us to do, and the opportunities it opens up for us personally and professionally. And I love it when people like Gary, who can totally relate to the local small business owner [since he started out in his dad's liquor store], talk about how social media really is revolutionizing the way we do business…the way we interact with people. Gary sort of reminds us that we could all be that shoe salesman [or woman] who knows our customers by name, knows what they like, and knows how to meet their needs. And for the record, I really don’t know what Gary and Al Bundy have in common, aside from the fact that they both make me laugh.

When I couldn’t log onto the Bank of America website Friday to schedule my mortgage payment, my first thought (as it usually is in these kinds of situations) was to check Twitter to see if anyone else was having problems with the site. Well, I quickly realized that I was not alone in my frustration (and I also realized that people who can’t access their money can get VERY angry and say some of the most incredible things!).

To their credit, Bank of America did have a Twitter team responding to the issue. But here’s where the lesson is, so pay attention. The response team’s Twitter handle is @BofA_Help. So every time I searched “Bank of America” or even “bankofamerica” I wasn’t seeing them. All I saw was tweet after tweet berating the bank for it’s down site (and even a threat by one disgruntled customer to burn it down!). I searched BofA too, and somehow never saw their tweets in that search. My tweet about the downed site was actually more to point out what seemed like a huge lack of response:

It wasn’t until they responded to my tweet and included “I work for Bank of America” in their tweet that I knew they even existed. (A sidenote here: BofA Help team, please ask someone if you can take another photo for your profile where it doesn’t look like one of those family portraits where everyone is matchy-matchy. Honestly, until I looked closer, I thought it actually was someone’s family portrait.)

So the simple lesson, as I see it: make sure your company’s name is actually part of your Twitter handle. And if you can’t get a twitter name with your business name (or your name is so incredibly long that it would cut down on your RT-ability because it uses up too many of the 140 characters), you better make sure you know what people are searching for when they look for you…and include those words in your tweets on a regular basis! (But, really, it makes more sense to just make sure your biz name is part of your handle.) Seriously. If I had searched for “Bank of America” and seen tweets like this, it would’ve been a completely different view of the company:

According to the Associated Press, the site was officially down for four hours. But the stream of irritated tweets went on for what seemed like forever… And, unfortunately, if anyone else was searching Twitter like I do, they probably wondered if BofA was even listening.

It’s been a week since I left for NY to attend the MediaBistro Circus and I’ve yet to find the time to sit and sift through all the notes I took at the event. I had planned to do that on my flight home, but I had to dash out after my flight got canceled and changed, and left my notebook at the conference. Thankfully, my friend David was there, and he FedExed it to me. So, I’m hoping to take some time this week to really think about everything I heard and figure out what it all means for me, for VOD Comm, for my cleints, etc. So stay tuned. I hope to pour out all the wisdom I gained from people like TIm Ferriss and Keith Ferrazzi and Steve Rubel in the next few days.