Connecting people through stories
I’m a journalist by training, but my work goes beyond writing and editing… a deep passion for connecting people through stories drives everything I do.
My work at the Guardian on the news community team, Instagram’s flagship community team and Vogue international editorial team has cultivated an approach to telling stories in new and experimental ways, always through a community lens, with impeccable journalistic practices. My work is infused with with tried and tested formats using the latest up-to-date strategies.
If you are a potential client, take a look at what I can do for you below, check out some examples here, and then say hey!
“Our session with Hannah was short of revolutionary - so enlightening and liberating, leaving us with a fresh new perspective and understand of how to approach Instagram, how to have fun with it and how to engage with our audience with a new depth which we now feel sure will help our Instagram community to grow and flourish in the right way. ”
Community consultant
I provide 1:1 consultancy for people, brands and communities on community strategy, brand tone of voice and messaging, editorial strategy, creator events and account suite analysis.
I help you identify and understand your community, workshop tone of voice and community guidelines to underpin all your content output, identify your content areas and troubleshoot production workflows and blockers for content creation and community management. I create community content programs and series to help your brand reach the right people in the right way.
I assist with hiring community staff and advising on team growth and hiring strategies.
Community trainer
I run one-hour, half-day and full-day workshops on visual storytelling, community development and engagement, caption writing, video shooting and producing, and Instagram Stories for in-house teams and small businesses to invigorate, inspire and train in new skills. I created a signature workshop series for 2020. This includes:
Signature workshop
Tell Their Stories: How to Connect Community through Artful Storytelling
Tell Their Stories is practical guide to connecting and creating social mobile communities through storytelling. Drawing on experience from journalist Hannah Ray’s specialist expertise, developing from Instagram to Vogue, the framework takes you through Hannah’s theory and method, fortified by core exercises and examples. Attendees will have a chance to look at their overarching mission and vision, then deep dive into a step-by-step for applying this into finding and nurturing an online community.
Key tips, support and feedback from Hannah will help shape the development of a usable engagement project for attendees to execute beyond the session. This is an essential workshop for anyone embarking on using social storytelling to develop community for their brand or business in a way which feels true to themselves and what they love. Tell Their Stories puts people back at the heart of stories for platforms, businesses and branding on social — underpinned by Hannah’s genuine passion for connecting people through stories.
Visual Storytelling & How to Up Your Game Right Now
A comprehensive four-lesson course designed for micro- and small-medium businesses wishing to harness the power of storytelling on Instagram to elevate and further develop their brand, take their content to the next level to connect with their community.
This course will cover the key elements of visual storytelling on Instagram, explored from the lens of editorial best practice and community engagement. Each workshop is a mix of theory and practical skills-based learning in key visual storytelling techniques, which can be applied to a range of social presences with a variety of measures for their success.
The core principles which underpin the Instagram app form the basis for the course, as well as Hannah's first-hand experience working at Instagram on their community team, and later with a range of big media brands on developing their visual storytelling to transform their business
Session one:
Mobile Video Workshop: Practical Session on creating mobile video for short-form social stories, particularly Instagram Stories. This is a practical session covering the basics, with an opportunity to add advance skills for enhancing your Instagram Stories; including shooting from the hip, building a narrative, pacing and sequencing, editing and producing on the go, storyboarding and post-production.
The workshop will cover on what to look out for when creating and producing social short-form video from events or experience, with a focus on engaging your community while creating beautiful visuals for your audience.
Session two:
Short-form Caption Writing Workshop: Writing to an image is a nuanced skill, similar to reporting, headline-writing or poetry requiring extra practice and training. The best visual storytellers are proficient in caption or 'legend' writing and understanding what to leave in and edit out of a caption to shape it perfectly. This session will cover the basics of caption writing, plus how to engage readers and share the messages you want them to understand. Will also cover using hashtags, location and other Instagram caption features to engage your audience.
Session three:
Honing your Visual Voice. A session designed to help attendees drill down into their visual voice and come away with a barebones strategy including goals + objectives, target audience and tone, using Instagram furniture, content types, series and calendar, a visual voice statement and mission. This will be the foundation for developing their brand on the platform. This is also a chance to discuss your ideas with Hannah 1:1 and get her key advice and consultancy to take your ideas further.
How to Harness the Power of Engaging Your Instagram Community Learn from Community Consultant and former Instagram employee Hannah Ray why storytelling should be at the heart of your Instagram strategy—a practical session including key insider insights, community theory, and instant training on how to take your Instagram to the next level.
How to Create an Engagement Project to Reach New Communities Have a big project coming up which you want to share and galvanise new communities around? Not sure where to start or how to use social media to stoke up the campaign? This practical session will take you through the ideation, brief, planning and execution for a successful social engagement campaign from start to finish, whether it's a new direction, rebrand, exhibition opening, Instagram competition... this workshop will give you a toolkit as well as deeper understanding of how social communities can make your campaign work to deepen and drive engagement.
Editorial Direction & Strategy
I run 1:1 sessions on the above, with bespoke insights audits for clients.
Following initial visual + written tone of voice sessions, I work with clients 1:1 longterm on their digital presence and shortform or brand storytelling. My work is always through the lens of editorial — with a focus on telling stories to connect your community to meet identified goals.
Copywriting and copyediting
The mainstay of my work is now writing and editing copy for all surfaces. This includes brand copy and story, tone of voice guidelines, marketing copy, ux and microcopy, email and social copy and wherever else words and stories reach out to others through the screen.