Story Collection
Guidelines on how to collect and showcase EP stories
Content - Customer Flow: a closed cycle
- The importance of Story Collection - What is storytelling? - The art of collecting stories
- Guiding your EP to the perfect story - It’s all about showcasing - The Story Collection CHECKLIST
Customer Flow: a closed cycle I’m sure you are all familiar with the “AIESEC Customer Flow for Youth” the core of each of our product and the mean for us to deliver successful experiences to youth everywhere. In order to take full advantage of this well-structured flow, we need to Close the Cycle! Meaning that the “Brand Advocacy Phase” shall benefit us in the “Attraction Phase” sparking interest in new potential customers, by showcasing concrete and substantial experiences that previous Exchange Participants had.
CLOSE THE CYCLE
The importance of Story Collection Stories are captivating for a reason. From early ages, we are drawn to the lessons we learn, the exciting journeys we embark upon, the knowledge we gain and the opportunity to unleash our imaginations. Stories celebrate our culture, and stories are a testament to the lives we have led. Stories also make messages pass easier. If a potential customer was hesitant to go on exchange, afraid of the unknown, haven’t heard anything concrete about AIESEC products, coming across a story from a former EP will encourage him to take action, knowing how life-changing this experience can be.
GOOD STORIES COMPEL PEOPLE TO CHANGE THE WAY THEY FEEL Stories demand an emotional intelligence
THE WAY THEY THINK Stories pique and hold interest
THE WAY THEY ACT Stories bring energy to the message
THE WAY THEY BEHAVE Stories cause them to take action
What is storytelling? Stories are the oldest form of passing knowledge and much of how we look at what we like to call facts is influenced by stories and how we interpret them. There is a whole marketing strategy that lays behind these stories: Storytelling. By giving our products an identity, capturing and sharing the stories they really are, we can take our target audience on a journey they yearn to experience, enabling our potential costumers to form a personal connection with our brand. All this is done by:
collecting and showcasing authentic creative stories that make emotional and personal connection and inspire action.
The art of collecting stories To make it easier for you to collect original stories you’ll be able to showcase later, we need to define a clear strategy on how this stories will be used far along, having the content ready for you to explore and publicize at ease. When your EP is about to go back home, whenever you’re his Home or Host entity, you need to make sure that you collected these 3 major element :
EP Pictures
EP Videos
EP Articles
Preferably at some known landmarks. It’s the easiest element to collect because EPs already want to capture their experience abroad.
Two kind of videos, a testimonial video about the EP’s experience, and another one where he’ll showcase a typical day during his exchange experience.
Some written materials, it can be as short as a small testimonial or a full article that can be published in a blog.
Guiding your EP to the perfect story In order to define the process of collecting stories, here are some guidelines you might use to direct your EP to the perfect story, making it easy and interactive for him to tell it.
Pictures No difficulties there, they should reflect his everyday volunteer work, but also, the time he spent discovering the new culture he’s experiencing (pictures at famous landmarks are always interesting).
Videos As explained earlier, one showcasing a typical day in the project he’s working on, another one sort of an interview or testimonial. They don’t need to be perfect, you’re just going to showcase some parts of his journey.
Articles It helps to have your EP answer to specific questions if he’s not keen on writing a full article. Some of the questions can be: What qualities did he develop? How did he experience the new culture? How impactful was his volunteering experience on the country?
It’s all about showcasing The showcasing framework is the easiest part, it can be a picture with a testimonial as a caption, a video montage of the EP’s Journey, an article post with a lot of pictures, you have the choice, depending on what attracts your fans the most, and also, your social media strategy. You should bear in mind that every exchange participant has a unique story to tell, because he’s living an exceptional adventure abroad. But it’s up to you to showcase the most attractive part of that story. A funny anecdote, a surprising adventure, an unplanned gathering, the awe factor of each exchange story.
A Keep it short (and have a great title to grab people’s attention).
B
Deliver content that is linear and expresses a clear narrative.
Show, don’t tell. Use images/videos for more compelling content.
The Story Collection Checklist
I have prepared my EPs to the importance of collecting their stories I have sent my EPs all the necessary materials to support them in creating their stories
I reminded my EPs every once in a while to take pictures and make a video about their experience (they can write something after the experience ends) I have collected High-Quality Pictures from my EPs I have collected some Videos from my EPs I have collected a testimonial/article about my EPs experience I have put all the materials collected in a specific folder in my LC Drive to be ready to use
ALL CHECK! MY WORK HERE IS DONE
Contact
Mehdi AMAR CHERIF MCVP Business to Customer mehdi.amarcherif@aiesec.net
mc.algeria@aiesec.net