Examples of stories using interactive tools

In some emails last week and in my post on a workshop last Friday, I asked for examples of effective use of interactive storytelling tools.

Below are examples sent by some friends. I haven’t had a chance to check them all out, but I trust these friends’ judgment, so I pass them along enthusiastically. With the exception of Mike Reilley, all the examples come from my former colleagues at Digital First Media. I was seeking enterprise examples, but they sent interactive stories from a variety of situations. I think in many of these cases, other colleagues were involved. I wasn’t asking just for their own work, but for good work they had seen lately. With light editing, the list is pretty much what they sent me.

Buffy Andrews’ interactive stories

Buffy, assistant managing editor at the York Daily Record and a novelist, sent along these:

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Ben Garvin’s advice: Illustrate your tweets

Just for kicks, a screen capture of @bengarvin‘s instructions on how to take a screen capture pic.twitter.com/WSED5jlqDc

— Amy Nelson (@AmyPioneerPress) January 7, 2014

When Jen Westphal shared the email below with me, I quickly asked Jen and Ben Garvin, who wrote the email, if I could use it as a guest post. Ben’s Twitter bio describes him as a “Multimedia producer, photographer, photo editor, blogger at St. Paul Pioneer Press.”

I did a little editing and added some links and embeds to make this part of my #twutorial series. So here’s Ben’s advice on using photos with tweets (with tweets from Ben interspersed between the paragraphs):

In late October Twitter changed the way it shows images within your stream–images now automatically appear if they are tweeted from Twitter itself, not a third-party app. This small change has allowed for images to have much more impact and is something I think we all should be taking more advantage of!

(graphic photo) it’s so dangerous outside, be careful. #Frostbite patient at Regions http://t.co/VERk3gr1q6 pic.twitter.com/wh14hFvFzq

— bengarvin (@bengarvin) January 6, 2014

Before you hit send on a tweet, ask yourself–what can I illustrate this with? A staff photo, a mugshot, a map, a screenshot of a website or headline, scene of a crime, even a selfie? Anything and everything is game. By attaching an image — any image — you immediately give your tweet a certain visual importance that will increase its reach. You will get more retweets, favorites and followers and slowly help the Pioneer Press TAKE OVER THE WORLD.

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