A look into the concepts and ideas of Social Network storytelling using the case study of Friend of a Friend Project and the development of Zoetic Labs. This presentation was given on January 30th for the Transmedia SF group's Meet the Makers night.

1. Social Network
Storytelling
Sunday, February 12, 12

2. Justin
Oliphant
Filmmaker
Photographer
Editor
Storyteller
enjoy watching roller
derby and baseball
* obligatory shot of me “directing”
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3. Personal Projects
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4. Worked at ImageMovers Digital
2007-2010
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5. How far can social media networking
take me and can I use it to tell a story?
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6. Sunday, February 12, 12

7. How far can my social
network take me?
Guidelines:
• Travel from place to place
based on friends and friends
of friends suggestions
• Places I would go in a city
were based on suggestions by
friends
• Things I ate and experienced
were based on what was my
hosts favorites were
• Say “yes”
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8. Typical interaction
Current city status changes
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9. Typical interaction
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10. So how far can my social
network take me?
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11. 6 months,
over 50 cities
Feb 2010 - Aug 2010
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12. Met over 80 hosts and personal guides.
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13. Can social networking
tell a story?
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14. Storytelling Tools
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15. •Each tool had pros and cons and
were good at telling different
aspects of the story.
•The audience would fill the
missing parts not updated.
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16. So can social
networking tell a story?
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17. Success with Friend
of a Friend Project
• Social networks connect users to
the story and characters closely.
• Finding the right tools can help
tell the story.
• Marketing tool was your
storytelling tool.
• Characters can be tied to real
people and places.
• Ended due to FoaF Project more
of a documentary, but I wanted
to create a fictional worlds.
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18. San Francisco became my home base
and I immediately began work on taking the
lessons learned into my next project.
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19. Zoetic Labs
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20. Zoetic Structure
• Take lessons learned from
FoaF.
• Theme based storytelling.
• Let the audience experience
the magic first hand.
• Engage the potential audience
more thoroughly than
traditional/passive media
• Create story and touch points
to be released over time.
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21. Basic
Storyline
• Modern day, 2012
• Prof. Henry Lightman asked
to figure out if the world is
going to end and if so how.
• He and his wife create 3 little
robot travelers to document
the best things in life (just in
case the world does end)
• Henry is also dealing with his
wife being terminally ill
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22. Zoetic Guideline 1:
FoaF Lessons
• Use social networks to
connect users to the story and
characters closely.
• Utilize specific tools available
for the right story points.
• Use the storytelling platform
to market the project.
• Tie characters to real people
and places.
• Create a rich fictional world.
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23. Tools for the
Characters
• Facebook
• Google+
• Twitter
• Tumblr
• Youtube
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24. Zoetic Guideline 2:
What’s the theme?
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25. Theme Based Storytelling
“Discovering the Best of Human Life”
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26. Zoetic Guideline 3:
First hand magic
Give people outside the story
the choice to be the hero
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27. “Help me Obi-wan Kenobi”
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28. Thadeus
Shewsbury, MA
Los Angeles, CA
New York, NY
SF
facebook.com/ThadeusBotman
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29. Hubert
Carson City, NV
SF
Vancouver, BC
Sausalito, CA
facebook.com/HubertBotman
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30. Nova
SF
Charlotte, NC
Austin, TX
San Francisco, CA
Boston, MA
facebook.com/NovaBotman
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31. Zoetic Guideline 4:
Engaging the Audience
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32. Design a little traveler robot
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33. #Zoetic
“Discovering the
Best of Human Life”
Twitter.com/ZoeticLabs
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34. Zoetic Guideline 5:
Releasing story and touch
points over time
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35. Time
It’s an advantage
• Develop a strong foundation
• Get the story going
• Build on top of the foundation over time by
adding more features that enhance the theme
• Grow the community
• Story and features are released over the course
of 1 year
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36. Next few months
for Zoetic Labs
• Henry’s Story Progresses
• Printable Robots
• Creating Camera App
• Reveal of Emily’s story
• Youtube Channel
• Quarterly Ebook - Curation
• Continued travels
• A few surprises...
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37. Complexity is a
Beautiful thing
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38. Special Thanks
• Paul Garber
• Fon Davis
• Allison Murphy
• Fonco Creative
• Maya Zuckerman
• All the hosts
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39. Transmedia SF
Hope to see collaboration
education and development of
new stories in the Bay Area.
JustinAOliphant@gmail.com
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40. ZoeticLabs.com
@ZoeticLabs facebook.com/ZoeticLabs
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