On the Right Track: Biden’s Boost for Amtrak and Commuters

Do you know about the billions invested last week to improve public transport in the North East for millions of Americans?

"President Biden today announced $16.4 billion in railroad investment to rebuild century-old tunnels and bridges and upgrade tracks, power systems, signals, stations, and other infrastructure, enabling higher speeds on the route and cutting delays. This is in the heavily traveled northeast corridor, which carries about 800,000 people a day and serves the region that produces about 20% of the country’s gross domestic product." - Letters From An American

Why does news about programs to benefit millions of hard working Americans get so little press attention? But news about the latest outrage or conspiracy theory is covered extensively? How can stories about important issues be crafted to increase their chances of getting more exposure? Follow these digital storytelling principles to make a bigger impact.

Get to the point... fast

Use a pyramid structure in your story and make your key points upfront. Not at the end. This story is crafted in this manner, so you can read it at a glance in 3 seconds. Watch a video in 20 seconds. Or read more and find out about the Amtrak service and stations near you in more time. Read it based on your level of interest.

Use visual storytelling

People have short attention spans. There's nothing like an image, cartoon, GIF or map to attract and retain attention. The element of animation also works to retain attention and make things easier to understand. ezGIF, iMovie are two free apps used to design this StoryMap.

Personalize stories

People are most interested about how an issue affects them personally. How is the investment in public transport mean for them individually? There's nothing better than an interactive map for people to see the direct impact of a program to their lives and their community. They can explore this map for details on nearby train stations and tracks.

Sell the sizzle, not the steak!

What does it mean to “sell the sizzle, not the steak?” It means that you should focus on the benefits of your product or service rather than the features. It’s not about what your product or service does; it’s about what it can do for your customer. It’s about how the product will make the customer feel. People don’t care about the specs and details; they want to know what’s in it for them. Think about the last time you made a purchase. Why did you buy the product? Was it because of the features, or was it how it would make you feel?

Sell benefits - not features. Upgrading Amtrak train tracks is a feature. Safety for your family while traveling is a benefit.

TakeAway: Use better storytelling to have a bigger impact with your stories.

Deepak
DemLabs

This StoryMap can be freely share with this link https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b6d7770215714acd95d6676c83e84368

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