By When the newest Congresswomen were elected, they instantly became a group of historic lawmakers. But they didn’t wait for anyone else to tell their groundbreaking story; they took to Instagram and to Twitter to share their platforms, their beliefs, and their lives. They weren’t waiting for a newspaper or word of mouth—though they've taken advantage of these mediums too—but instead, they used the power of technology to enhance their voices and tell their stories. And they’re just a few in a long line of women to do so.
On January 9th, ELLE hosted a panel led by ELLE fashion and technology editor Jenna Blaha at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show to discuss technology’s impact on storytelling from the female perspective. Blaha was joined by Karen Kahn, HP’s chief communications officer, Claudine Cazian, the head of entertainment partnerships at Instagram, and Wendy Nguyen from Wendy’s Lookbook.
For Nguyen, social media platforms are essential to her job. As an influencer and blogger, Nguyen’s career depends on sharing through social media, which she’s leveraged to become her own boss. “That wasn’t available 10 years ago,” she said. “Before that I was a banker. I started basically blogging and creating an online brand.”
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Of course, we're all telling our stories through social media. We're all scrolling through Instagram and Twitter constantly. That means consumers can sniff out a Facetuned photo or plagiarized Tweet lighting fast.
The panelists agreed that authenticity is key and that, especially for brands, it’s about connecting to a reader’s humanity. Kahn, who previously worked as a writer at the Wall Street Journal and later for PBS Frontline, says it’s all about figuring out your narrative and how to reach people in ways that are empathetic and human-centric.
“I think probably the biggest transition, whether it's micro stories or your stories on Snapchat or Instagram, or we tell long form stories on The Garage on HP, it's figuring out how to find insights and empathy with your readers and the people that are going to use whatever it is that you create or do to find purpose and meaning and value,” she said. “I think that will never change with storytelling.”
Nguyen shared that back in October, she decided to connect with her audience in a big way when she posted a series of Instagrams detailing her own experience with child abuse. In a series of three Instagrams, she went deep with her followers and offered up her Instagram page as a place of encouragement and support, especially for other survivors.
She explains, “I had no idea this was gonna happen, but the post literally went viral. It had more views [collectively] than everything I ever posted. After the third day I said, ‘Hey, you guys, thank you so much for being on this journey with me. I think I might just delete it,’ and a lot of people DM'd me and also messaged me and said, 'You can't delete your post because our stories are on your post now. So if you delete your story, you're deleting our reality and our stories as well.' I didn't realize how storytelling can connect you with the community, and it actually continues the conversation and your own story, and I think that was probably the most empowering [and] heavy lesson I learned from last year.” Two weeks after posting, Nguyen began to speak to a former police commissioner to understand what child abuse looks like in homes and in schools, and she’s talking to politicians to find lawmakers who are interested in focusing more on the issue.
There's this instant connection, an ability to find comrades within seconds of posting, no matter where you are, that would be hard to find outside of the internet. Cazian said that, at Instagram, they believe technology has democratized storytelling and given people new pathways to express who they are and what they care about on a global scale. (And she really means global; she said 80 percent of Instagram’s one billion accounts are outside the U.S.) “I’m constantly reminding people that we are all now global storytellers,” she said. “That is our role in this.” It extends to activism as well, where you see people—and brands—understanding that it’s important to harness technology to be a part of the national conversation, when possible.
“Of course we exist to drive a profit, but for good companies, we exist to do more,” Kahn added. “There’s an expectation in this time, when trust it at an all-time low… there is a sense that all of us collectively, as brands, are going to do more.” At HP, she explained that the focus is on telling specific stories, rather than focusing on about data-heavy subjects. “We could talk about carbon disclosure, we could talk about reforestation, we could talk about the circular economy, or we could talk about projects in Haiti where people are removing ocean plastics and how it's helping to build the local economy by generating tons of recycled plastics that are creating jobs and growing the local community and economy. We could talk about education, or we could talk about what refugees are doing in Syria with technology to reduce poverty.”
The conversation continued at a dinner hosted by ELLE and HP at Cipriani in the Wynn Hotel. There, Kahn told ELLE, “I do think that brands are doing more because there is a sense that government isn’t. And it’s not just government here, it’s government everywhere. You look at research from Bain or Edelman or McKinsey and it all says that people will stop buying from brands if they don’t trust you and if they don’t believe in your mission or your purpose.”
“I think that’s what’s really cool about the kinds of technology platforms that we talked about on the panel today is being able to tell your story and propagate your story,” she continued. “It doesn’t have to be about being paid or being famous. It’s really about tapping into the zeitgeist of something that’s important to some community—people want to understand you and want to connect into who you are and what’s important.”
Madison is a senior writer/editor at ELLE.com, covering news, politics, and culture. When she's not on the internet, you can most likely find her taking a nap or eating banana bread.
