Top 10 Storytelling Event Tips for Creators and Brands

This past May, I had the opportunity to Story Tell for DocuSign’s largest event, Momentum 2017, a 2 day event. On the surface, it was me in front of the camera, taking over their Snapchat, their Instagram Stories and even doing a LIVE Periscope, but behind the scene was truly where the magic took place. It really takes a team to prepare and create multiple stories at an event on the spot, in real time.  Before I begin talking about tips, ideas and what to think about when planning to capture a live event, please take a moment to view the below recordings of of my Docusign takeover on their Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter’s Periscope. What you’ll notice is that we didn’t repurpose the stories from one social platform to the other, each day had specific multiple stories and we captured what we could and complimented where we could on the other platforms.

Snapchat Takeover

Instagram Takeover

Periscope Takeover

As you can see, each platform told multiple stories from the same event. We tried our best to use snapchat for behind the scenes, Instagram to capture the story and Periscope to go live in the moment for a few interviews. Below are my Top 10 Tips and Ideas that I learned and put together to help both the Creator and the Brand be ready for their next event when taking over multiple Social accounts. They are in no particular order.

Top 10 Tips for Creators
1. Have many external batteries to keep your phone charged as you shoot. You will not have time to sit and charge your phone.
2. Have FREE licensed music downloaded to your phone readily available to compliment the story you want to create. You do not need any copyright issues later.
3. Get with the Brands Social Media or Marketing Team to fully understand what the event is about and what is the most important information for them to be captured.
4. Communicate with the Brands Social Team about your ideas and the direction you want to take. Alignment makes it easy for you to do you.
5. Have a printed Agenda in your pocket to know the times of each session that is happening at the event. Highlight the sessions you and the Brands Social team agreed on being important to capture.
6. Pre-plan/Storyboard a basic idea of what you will capture. It’s great to be spontaneous at times, but make sure you stay on task with narrating your story.
7. Create micro stories vs a long days worth of footage. This will help to keep your audience interested.
8. Decide what kind of content you will create for each platform. Snapchat should be different than Instagram Stories.
9. Pre walk the event, get familiar with the entire space that the event will be utilizing.
10. Never question what you are capable of creating, just do you.

Top 10 Tips for Brands
1. Have a schedule of the event prepared for the Creators to look over well before hand.
2. Get on a call and walk through the event step by step a minimum of a week in advance. Highlight what is a must to capture at the event.
3. Provide any and all creative assets that will be used during the event to the Creator so he/she understands what the visuals or voice of the event will be a minimum of a week in advance.
4. Introduce the Creator to all Event coordinators. Last thing you want is the Event Director or Producer upset because the Creator didn’t know who this person is and have access to doing.
5. Give the Creator a full access badge to be able to be at the right place at the right time when needed.
6. Create a new password for all your account and make sure the Creator has it available to log in an out as need.
7. Include the Creators in the morning team meetings before the event to stay updated with any changes or reiterate what is needed to be captured. They are part of the team.
8. Introduce the Creator to the team and staff so they know who will be creating content at the event.
9. Give the Creator a list of people they should familiarize themselves with.This will allow them to google people if needed.
10. And most importantly. TRUST the Creators process and give them room to create.

For my first time taking over multiple accounts all at one time, it was an amazing experience. The Docusign Social team was amazing! From making sure that we storyboarded an idea of things they wanted captured before hand, to allowing me the freedom to just create. The above tips and ideas is just a guide of things everyone should keep in mind during the collaborating process and when going live.

As an artist in the platform as well, I remember my first Event takeover for FOX (Bob Burgers Event) it was pretty challenging especially having to draw on the spot. It takes A LOT of time and by having to take the time to do that in real time, you might end up missing many opportunities to capture the “real story” that’s taking place. As the Creator, be realistic about what you can achieve, and be upfront about that when collaborating for LIVE events. The goal is to always create and tell a narrative that make sense to the audience.

Now go capture that incredible event!

Guest Star

This article was written by a guest Snapchat writer.