A presentation given to MA students in PR at the Laban Centre, London for Greenwich University.

1. Public relations as narrative:
Understanding social narratives
Ann Longley
Group Head of Social Media , Hays
September 2013

2. Social media has democratised publishing
Image source: Time Magazine, 2006

3. Changing the ways we tell stories

4. Today, no one narrative source can control a story
And with social media they can take on a life of their own….

5. As they are are now made up a plurality of voices
Expressed across a wide range of social formats and channels

6. Story telling may now be participatory

7. And it is spawning new narrative genres

8. It is changing our view of history
The Library of Congress is archiving Tweets to preserve history
http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2010/04/how-tweet-it-is-library-acquires-entire-twitter-archive/

9. Transforming traditional institutions
It is sometimes referred to as the 5th Estate – by offering transparency it
can enable greater accountability.

10. And our relationship with traditional media
Some news stories may now break first on social media

11. In some situations it may capture truth, whilst in
others, it may distort it
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/interactive/2011/dec/07/london-riots-twitter

12. One thing for sure, it is changing role of media
Source: https://witness.theguardian.com/

13. For brands, the way to overcome media fragmentation
is with strong creativity
['The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.' Albert Einstein]

14. SO WHO IS DOING A GOOD JOB
TELLING SOCIAL NARRATIVES?

15. RedBull excels at brand story-telling
http://www.youtube.com/user/redbull

16. The Australian government has reinvented PSAs
Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/DumbWays2Die

17. Whilst the department of Health effectively used video
bloggers to engage a youth audience

18. What do these examples all have in common?
They leverage social graphs and encourage social sharing
http://www.touchgraph.com/navigatorhttp://www.touchgraph.com/navigator
Source:http://www.touchgraph.com/navigator

19. One thing that hasn’t changed is the aim of storytelling
- or its importance
How many people are talking about this = social proof.

20. THANK YOU
annlongley@gre.ac.uk
@annmargaret