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I recently wrote about how I rediscovered the importance of storytelling at TEDIndia. I have been thinking a lot about storytelling since then, especially the role of storytelling in social media marketing.
I have come to the conclusion that social media is most powerful when its used for creating, collecting and sharing stories. In fact, I now believe that storytelling is the key to social media marketing success. Here are three reasons why:
1. We love listening to stories.
We loved listening to stories as children and even though we have grown up, we still love listening to stories. We love the drama, the ups and downs, the plot twists, the ability of good stories to take us through an emotional roller-coaster. That’s why we loved fairy tales as children, that’s why we read novels and watch movies as adults, that’s why case studies are such a powerful part of business literature.
2. We learn from stories.
Stories have meaning embedded in them. The fairy tales we heard as children were, in fact, complex morality tales with layers upon layers of meaning. The stories we love the most shape us the most because we model our lives on the lives of the heroes and heroins in these stories. We learn from stories: about who we are, about how the world works, and about how business and marketing are changing. We become the stories we believe in, we become the stories that we share with others.
3. We love sharing stories.
Stories are meant to be shared. If we like a story, we share it with others, instinctively. Before writing was invented, human knowledge spread, and survived, because masters told stories to their disciples who shared them with others. But we don’t only share stories to transfer knowledge. We share stories to build relationships, build kinship, as individuals, as groups and as civilizations. We share stories to bond with friends, attract potential mates and rally together our friends against shared enemies. Sharing stories comes almost as naturally to us as remembering to breathe.
Given how central storytelling is to the human condition, it’s not a surprise that social media is most powerful when it is used for storytelling.
These stories can be about the organization and its brands, but they are more powerful when they are stories about the role these brands play in the lives of their consumers. The most powerful stories are about what these brands stand for, if they stand for a larger social object: a lifestyle, a cause, or a passion.
For instance, for an food and beverages company, these stories can be about individual brands and their campaigns at one level, about recipes, flavors and consumption occasions at another level, and about being a homemaker, growing up as a teenager, or living a healthy lifestyle at yet another level.
Social media can play an important role in creating opportunities for new positive stories, collecting stories being told elsewhere, sharing these stories on a high-engagement social platform, and spreading these stories through influencers and evangelists using existing social networks. TV and print are only good at packaging and broadcasting a single blockbuster story. Social media, on the other hand, lends itself naturally to the messiness of such multi-layered storytelling.
Finally, storytelling works best when its tied to specific business objectives. For the food and beverages company, these stories can serve multiple business objectives: usage and behavior research, engagement, trial and advocacy.
So, the next time you are thinking about using social media for marketing your brand, start by asking yourself about the stories you want to share about your brand, your users and the bigger social object that brings them together.
Here are some other resources you should look at for learning more about the intersection of social media marketing and storytelling:
- Ed Schipul defines the modern storytelling narrative as it applies to social media.
- Elizabeth Sosnow shares seven types of business stories.
- Alan Levine shares 50 web 2.0 ways to tell a story (wiki).
- PRBlog asks: what’s your story?
- Gregg Morris has a great compilation of storytelling resources.
- Kathy Hansen has compiled a free e-book where 40+ storytelling professional share their secrets.
- Finally, Reuben Steiger on Advertising Age asks if the internet has failed as a storytelling medium.
What are your favorite resources about social media and storytelling?
Photo Credit: @kodomut on Flickr via CC license.
Cross-posted at 2020 Social: Because Business is Social.
Some more resources I would suggest – though not directly linked to social media marketing are:
1. Dave Snowden's book on storytelling http://bir.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/16/...
2. Steve Denning's work on story telling for organizational change
http://www.stevedenning.com/Storytelling-in-the...
Thanks for the link to Elizabeth Sosnow's guest post on my blog. She's very sharp. Her main blog is PR for Thought Leaders at http://blog.blisspr.com/
Cheers,
j
Ya i am totally agree with that topic. Story is wonderful thing and very human like to listen it. so some brilliant putting many advertisements….Like some time a scene of ovie and angelina drinking pepsi.
Three great reasons and there are many more, connected not only to content and sharing but to the very essence of the way human communication works.
I agree with you , social media is very inportant in our life
Hello, I am putting together a marketing plan for the theatre companies of the NGO Kuttu Kalai Kudam – The Kattaikkuttu Young Professionals and the All Girls Company. (learn more at kattaikkuttu.org.au) The Kuttu Kalai Kudam is based in Punjarasantankal, just outside of Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu. It exists to support Kattaikkuttu theatre (sometimes known as Theru-k-kuttu), kattaikkuttu performers and their families. A major part of the Kuttu Kalai Kudam's work is to run the Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam, a school students of Kattaikkuttu (also study academics, first group of 12 std students preparing for exams now) the students senior students of the school form the very capable Kattaikkuttu Young Professionals (KYPC), and the girls (the first girls to study and perform Kattaikkuttu theatre) also perform in the All Girls Company. The KYPC is very popular with traditional (rural) Kattaikkuttu theatre goers, but wish to break into the urban market. They have had a number of performances in Chennai, at Kalakshetra, and will perform at Dakshinachetra early 2010, they have also performed at the Rabindranath Tagore Utsav in Kolkota, at Prithvi theatre mumbai and other Indian cities. This is just a beginning however.
I was hoping you, and your followers could provide me some guidance as to what social media tools are popular in India (as i am based in Australia). I would also appreciate some advice on reaching rural audience in Tamil Nadu. I was thinking tried and true handbills and posters, word of mouth and have been considering SMS messaging to promote performances and festivals to supporters, probably those who have booked a performance in the past (in Tamil obviously).
Some feedback would be great!
thanks (sorry about the length of the post -
@jaybaer Thank you for pointing to @elizabethsosnow's blog at http://blog.blisspr.com
Belina: The internet penetration in India is less than 5% (about 40m) and English is the predominant language. I suggest using Frontline SMS (http://frontlinesms.com) for running an SMS campaign.
Great post! There is certainly no doubt that, after the dust settles and we can agree on the lexicon and metrics, everyone will see the great opportunities that story will provide in entertainment, messaging and education. You are absolutely correct about storytelling being so central to the human condition and as we move away from calling things “social media” and “digital tools”, what we'll all be looking to do is tell and experience great story that exists across any and all platforms.
Great post! There is certainly no doubt that, after the dust settles and we can agree on the lexicon and metrics, everyone will see the great opportunities that story will provide in entertainment, messaging and education. You are absolutely correct about storytelling being so central to the human condition and as we move away from calling things “social media” and “digital tools”, what we'll all be looking to do is tell and experience great story that exists across any and all platforms.
i believe in the power of storytelling. who will convince my bosses?