Social Media: It's all about telling stories

I recently returned home from a 10-day national sports championship - the 2017 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the Canadian women's curling championship, in St. Catharines, Ont. I was on my phone and computer all day and into the night, providing the social media coverage for the event.

And it was awesome.

Gruelling. But also awesome.

As a fiction writer, I had a chance to tell some stories about real people and real events. That's what social media is all about, right? Telling stories? Connecting with people and sharing your stories with them? Getting their stories back in return?

As the fill-in social media coordinator - our regular expert was on assignment elsewhere - there was a bit of a learning curve, but learn I did.

And here's what I learned about telling stories using Twitter, Instagram and Facebook:

1. A photo tells a story. A photo with a well-written comment (it might be only one word) tells a story. People like to hear and be part of stories. So tell them a story. My favourite device is using made-up conversations:

Joanne Courtney (second from right) has just won her first Scotties title. So why wouldn't she be checking with teammate Lisa Weagle - who's winning her third - to make sure it really just happened?

Joanne Courtney to Lisa Weagle

Alberta/Team Canada's Amy Nixon just announced that she had probably played her last game ever at a Scotties. Retirement. A huge surprise. She did this while holding her little girl in her arms (and yes, I asked permission to take a photo of her daughter. Always, always ask when it comes to kids.)

Amy Nixon has just made a surprising announcement...

2. Hashtags are great, because they give followers a way to search news and stories, but they also allow for some creativity (i.e. storytelling) on the part of the poster as well. Or a punchline.

Pranksters. Sisters. That's how Alberta's Heather Nedohin described the relationship between teams at the highest level of competition. And she made us all laugh - which this photo captures.

Pranksters. Sisters. 

Nice photo of Team Saskatchewan. That guy in the back, though...

Team Saskatchewan and - who is that?

Trying to entice fans and followers to come to the lounge and join the fun because that's where the cool kids are. And they were, truly, cool kids!

Team Newfoundland and Labrador

3. How do you decide which platform to use for your story? Facebook should be used carefully, since its algorithm can randomly send your stories to the top (or bottom) or followers' Newsfeeds. Twitter is quick and newsy and easy for followers to engage with. Instagram is for the more "artsy" posts - less news, more "moments".

Instagram: A nice moment, doesn't need much of a response.

Another nice moment, as the Northwest Territories team came off the ice after their last game. They'd survived the pre-qualification process and battled hard, but they were going home, out of the playoffs. Their coach - John Epping, a high-profile curler on the men's circuit - was there to greet skip Kerry Galusha as she came off the ice.

Another special moment happened during an important playoff game. I captured this fan moment organized by the sponsor during the break between ends, and because it was so special - the two teams joined forces to make sure that rock made it to the button - I posted it to all three platforms. It did well. Why? Because it was a lovely story. Take a look, here: Teams become teammates

Instagram

Facebook

4. Timing is everything. Veteran Alberta skip Shannon Kleibrink had missed a number of games during the week because of a back injury, but she wanted to give it once last try in the final game of the round robin with her team out of the playoffs. But the pain returned, and she pulled herself after two ends. The moment itself was quick, and loud, as she came off the ice and the crowd cheered for her - an emotional moment, but a newsy moment as well. Everyone was clicking away with cameras and phones.

So I waited until the game resumed, and captured this image of a teary Shannon, on the bench, instead.

It was an emotional moment, all the more poignant for being taken after the noisy, newsy moment
that everyone else captured as she came off the ice. 

5. Yes, there will be trolls who interfere with your storytelling. Especially in sport, there are the fans - the lovers and the haters, the cheerers and the boo-ers. Anticipate and respond, of course, but don't let the trolls keep you from telling your story. And that's all I'm going to say about that, because I refuse to feed the trolls!

6. And finally: yes, it's important to be in the right place at the right time, but it's also about not being afraid to wait for the right moment to tell your story.

Of course, sometimes that means waiting for the national broadcaster to get out of the way so you can have your turn, but hey, that's okay...

The Ashes: Cricket has a language all its own

Yes, but what does it mean??

My day job (well, one of them) is Coordinator of Web Content Services for the Canadian Curling Association. This means that from September to April, I write about the sport of curling - a lot!

A month ago I posted a story to my blog Grassroots Curling about the strange and wonderful words and phrases we curlers use to describe the action in our sport. (Here's a link to that post: Curling lingo: Anyone ready to weagle? if you're interested). It was inspired by comments made by a friend of mine during the 2010 Olympics about the indecipherable commentary from the announcers and players at the curling competition in Vancouver. The curling lingo made her laugh out loud.

Okay, I get it. The trademark "Hurry haaaaard!" has become the poster child for funny curling phrases. But you know what? I believe lingo belongs on the Fun Side of language. When a group of communicators - be they curlers, or politicians, or pipe fitters, or knitters, or musicians...well, you get the picture - gets together and talks about their enterprise, magical things happen. Individual words are thrust together in the most extraordinary combinations, taking on new meanings. And in many cases, completely new words are created.

I was reminded of the joys of lingo as I was reading about The Ashes, the famous cricket contest between England and Australia that takes place every other year. My friends in the UK assure me that this year's first Test match was unusually exciting and close. All I know is this: when I read reports about the games, I am confounded. And impressed. And delighted.

"Century partnership?" "Drinks break?"

I love this passage: it's language at its most creative and meaningful, even if I don't understand any of it. These words, put together this way, make perfect sense to cricket fans everywhere: a secret code. And if I want to, I can put in the effort and break that code too. And isn't that what language is? Coding and decoding, using specific words put next to each other, just so?

One day, I might even be able to speak Cricket as well as I speak Curling. Long live lingo!

Writing When You Don’t Really Feel Like It

A recent blog post on the website of my local chapter of the Professional Writers Association of Canada referred to a handy site that forces you to sit down and write for a selected period of time (10 minutes, 2 hours). If you stop writing, dire consequences result, such as loud, annoying sounds, or, even worse, the word-by-word disappearance of whatever you’ve already written. The point of the site is to get you writing and keep you at it, even when you don’t feel like it.

Welcome to one of the writer’s biggest challenges: self-discipline. Writing when the words aren’t there. Writer’s block. Lack of inspiration. Waiting for the muse. Call it whatever you like.

Consider my sad situation. The sun shines on the dewy green grass outside my window. The birds chirp and sing and hop across the lawn. The gardens bloom. It’s summer, finally. And I’m writing about…

CURLING!

Yes, that winter sport played inside on long stretches of man-made ice. It’s a great sport, but it’s an environment about as far away from the one I’m currently living in as the North Pole. No matter. I have a deadline, a group of people waiting for me to show up with this book project, on time and on budget. Not only that, but they expect the book to express all the joy, excitement and pride they feel in their curling club and the sport they love.

Well, I love curling too, but not on a shiny summer morning that is calling me outside.

The bottom line is that I will stay at my desk and write about curling. I’ll use every trick I can to evoke the sound of rocks sliding down the ice and voices calling the sweep. I’ll turn a blind eye to sunshine and climbing temperatures – and I’ll get the job done. That’s what writers do.

(Photo by Kelly Atkinson)