Flattr is a new service for paying or “rewarding” creators of digital content on the internet. Below is a video describing how it works.

I liked the video and I found it appealing to the eye and well produced, still they failed to deliver the message correctly. Which is a shouldn’t be the case when you are trying to change how people pay for content. Don’t get me wrong, I think the idea is awesome and disruptive, however it could have been presented in a better way.

Note the reader: Following are my thoughts on how should the idea been presented and will try to avoid talking about if it will work or not. that will be for another post.

When it starts running the first thing you will se is the following image:

Even if it is only shown for around 2 seconds, this is most important piece of information, due to this two words presented: social micropayments. In my case, the first thing that came to my mind was that this was a service like kiva.org (given it uses similar colors). Then I realized I was wrong when the video mentions content and consumers, the flattr button and the cake.

If the service is about showing appreciation or love to content creators, then they should remove “social micropayments” and replace it with some other message. The problem is that the service is about showing your love and appreciation to the artist or create, while the word payment is related to something more cold such a commercial transaction. Second, micropayments has been widely use hand by hand with microfinance in third world courtiers, which is out of context of where flattr will be used.

Instead of using social micropayment, they could have use something like:

rewarding content creators, flat rate love or flattering creators

In addition I will have change the way the cake analogy with a story, which will be of somebody using the service, while keeping the black graphics used (we don’t want it to look like a “revolutionary” vacuum cleaner commercial ).

Here is an example:

Tom is 29 year old web designer, that spends his day working, reading blogs and posting on twitter.

In the past year or so, Tom has found an interest for mashups of music. Most of the mashups are given for free by the DJs, so he just downloads them. Recently he found a mashup album of Jay -Z and Marvin Gaye called Brooklyn Soul, that he loves. He tells all his friends about it and enjoys to play it while commuting or just walking. So, he decided to show his appreciation to the producers of Brooklyn Soul with a Flattr.

Tom has 2 eruos in his account and in the past 3 weeks he has given a Flattr to Xaphoon Jones for his Mixtape and to a couple of writers for their free ebooks. In total it has been 4 flattrs and the month will end in two days. By then the 2 euros will be split in the four flattrs equally.

Why did Tom decide to give 2 Euros? Well he figured out that if he didn’t drink a latte a month, instead he could use the money to show his appreciation.

Why a story?

Is less abstract and is more down to earth. Also, by mentioning what is the give and get, the audience has a better understanding of the service.

If you want to now little bit more about why using stories to pitch an idea, check my previous post.

Next time you are going to make a presentation, consider using a story to warm up things and get your audience involved. You could use two stories: one to start the presentation and another to finish it. With it the audience can focus on you, not your slides and don’t lose interest from the start.

A story is much better that saying “eh. my name is John and this are the points of the presentation”.

So, other than warming up, getting confidence and comfortable with your audience, you should consider using stories for the  for the following reasons:

Stories don’t need a script, they have an idea and a message, therefore you don’t have to remember extract phrases and stumble because you forgot what was next.

The are part of our lives, since the very beginning. As kids, the grownups in our families used to tell us stories about their when young. As teenagers we tell stories to show off to our peers or impress a girl/guy.  We tell stories about our travels, parties, etc. They are integral part of our lives; our life is a story.

Is easy for your audience to spread the word, when you give them a story they can tell others. This is due to stories being flexible enough for people to grab them and make it their own, while maintaining the core: the main idea or message.

Finally everybody loves a good story, while we listen we imagine what is happening while the narrator speaks, especially when there is a teaching to save from it.

Even if you don’t have great stories, there is a better chance at connecting with your audience and delivering a message with a casual narration, than a cold list of bullet points.