See a photo of Annie, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, and Part 3.
Q&A with Annie Hart, Questions 6 and 7:
Q: The culture is abuzz about Web 2.0 and social media. To what extent do you participate in social media (such as through LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Second Life, blogs, etc.)? To what extent and in what ways do you feel these venues are storytelling media?
A: Well this question gives me the biggest laugh of all. I am a former technophobe and I thought Twitter was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard of. But then through a personal transformation, in which I forced myself to get up to speed on technology, I’ve become a social media queen! One of my mentors recently said to me, “You’re on fire as a web presence!” He couldn’t believe how I have been using blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn to make my work known in the world.
Now I’m having so much fun using blogging and social media that I’m even teaching it to others! What a riot. A lot of people of my generation have a fear and a distaste of social media. I try to hold their hands while they learn and I make it fun for them. I use a lot of social media now. It’s one of the mainstays of my business. By the way, blogging is the most fantastic medium for storytelling!
Q: What future trends or directions do you foresee for story/storytelling/narrative? What’s next for the discipline? What future aspirations do you personally have for your own story work? What would you like to do in the story world that you haven’t yet done?
A: I foresee an explosion of the use of story for marketing purposes. It has already begun. Years ago you couldn’t find much written on the use of story in business, just a few books. But a few weeks ago I was at the bookstore and I found at least four popular books on marketing that mentioned storytelling. Storytelling is finally becoming known for the force that it is and I am thrilled about that.
What do I aspire to personally? Well like my website says, I want to change the world through story. I want to continue using the power of story to inspire collaboration, innovation and change in business and training. I want to inspire leaders to be more articulate and more able to grab people’s attention through storytelling skills. I like to add to their personal pizzazz.
There are too many boring presenters out there!
I have created a body of work called, “Stories From the Heart of the Cosmos.” It is story, performance, workshop experience with a cast of inspirational and wacky characters who really wake people up and show us how to love and live right on this planet. So I want to continue to expand that and take it out to bigger audiences. My story performances generate a lot of connection and community amongst audience members and that is the most fun of all. So I am intent on enlarging that as well, getting large groups of people to work well together.
And I’d like to go back to Europe and take some of my work there! I have a few stories in Italian that need to be told.