If you’re looking for an exercise in generating regular, online content with an unmistakeably memorable theme, then go no further than the website Someone Once Told Me (SOTM).
For more than five years its founder – Mario Cacciottolo – has been on an online content odyssey, posting a daily monochrome photograph of people (like the woman in the picture above) holding a sketch book adorned with a memorable comment that – indeed – someone once told them.
In terms of a compelling, online content concept, it’s simplicity incarnate; but the trick is not only having the nerve (of which Mario Cacciottolo has plenty!) to get people to share personal memories – and even more personal stories – in a public forum, it’s also about having the staying power to keep the idea alive 365 days a year and for the 2,000-plus consecutive days that SOTM photos have gone live.
Mario describes how SOTM managed to mesh his love of photography and storytelling to create something that is now taking him around the world in search of evermore engaging tales from the lives of ordinary (or, maybe, extraordinary) people. His target is to capture on camera up to 1,000 new people whose stories will provide the latest phase in the evolution of SOTM.
Metamorphic PR had the privilege of interviewing Mario at the recent smc_mcr (the group formerly known as Social Media Cafe Manchester) meeting in Manchester, and the result of that can be hear via the podcast below.
And while it’s a rare pleasure to be the subject of one of Mario’s photo shootettes, it’s not obligatory for him to take your SOTM photo to appear on the site. As he emphasises in the podcast interview, with online content it’s always useful to have something ready in reserve; so, you can submit your own photos here.
Someone once told me that your digital footprint lasts forever – with a picture on SOTM, you’re making that a definite.
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