Humans of New York: telling stories in a storytelling era
- Xiao
- 2016年2月6日
- 讀畢需時 2 分鐘
Well, I'm not saying the past eras are not those of storytelling. We are living in a digital era, in which everyone has access to let people know his/ her story. However, with so many stories, to catch the eyeballs has become harder.
For most brands, storytelling began from offline. But for Humans of New York( aka, HONY), storytelling began from the online platforms.
This is a brand whose daily routine is telling stories. Why would a blog become so popular in a short time?
In terms of the content, those tiny stories are touching. There's always something that makes you feel "oh my god, that's me". One picture, one quote and one short story make something like an appetizer. There is just enough room for imagination. You simply want more. But that's it. By the way, if you are allowed to have more, probably you will lose interests. There are relatively longer stories. However, Brandon Stanton have divided them into several parts. And telling stories of people from the streets is consumer-generated. Since so many people have been willing to show up, I guess there're a lot more waiting to be in Brandon Stanton's camera.
And thanks to this digital era, HONY can go viral. HONY began its baby step on Tumblr. The toddler was just smart enough to create a Facebook page then. Those who look at their smart phones are still not numb. One "like", one share. Oh, man, this is how we do word of mouth in a digital world. When it comes to Instagram, don't you think HONY and this sharing community make a true match?Instagram is looking for pictures with several words, and HONY is providing. Besides having over 16 million followers on Facebook and 4.7 million on Instagram (via Wikipedia), HONY is going worldwide. I came to know HONY from the popular Chinese social platform Wechat.
HONY is just there being itself and people happen to like it. I guess the most important thing for Stanton is to use the picture carelly.
By the way, maybe you will be the next one that Stanton comes to and asks "can I take a photo of you? "
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