“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make but about the stories you tell.” Seth Godin
Like oxygen, like story. Yes!
The earth revolves around its own axis, and human beings around stories. We tell stories & listen to them everyday. We are all held captive and entertained by stories of all kinds. It is through the stories that we define our values, dreams, opinions and desires.
No more is the medium for storytelling restricted to books or movies. Social Media is over-flowing with stories. It in itself is an ocean of people with varied and interesting stories, including brand stories.
Today, it is important to be aware of how your business or brand is being perceived. You need control of the stories being circulated around your business or brand. Most importantly, you need to ensure that your customers know about your business’s products / services. They need to be continuously aware and feel connected with your brand. This is what we call global village: global yet local!
What Is Social Storytelling?
From a marketing perspective; Storytelling is “the art of giving shape and meaning to a piece of information that is dull and boring”.
– Josephina Casas
In simple terms, storytelling humanises your brand and allows it to be more interesting and relatable in order to captivate your audience in a much more effective way. Social storytelling is a powerful tool for capturing customer attention and persuasion. By social storytelling, you deliver a concept or an idea in such a way that evokes an emotional response in your audience/customers.
Importance of Social Storytelling:
According to many market researches, social storytelling has indirectly or directly influenced customer purchase behaviours.
Some of the many important ways in which storytelling via social media marketing can be used to the advantage of your business/brand includes:
- Let your brand breathe: Like a living being, let your brand speak the stories that take place behind the curtain. Pronounce your excitements about the business by which people can relate to it and feel connected.
- Convey the story: Reinforce your message and what your brand stands for.
- Engage and Tease: Like all other stories, your brand’s story needs to be engaging and should tease your audience to look forward after the interval.
- Create narratives in your updates: Share photos with a punch-line, write a tweet of few limit lines, put up a Facebook / Instagram post to grab the attention of your audiences.
How to use storytelling in your social media marketing campaigns:
- Identify and know your audience.
- How does the audience perceive your brand?
- In what way is my brand different from my competitors?
- How do I want my brand to be perceived?
- Make your customers the Hero of your story.
- What is the brand’s core story?
- Keep in touch. Have regular posts so that your audience have you virtually on the tip of their fingers.
- Say relatable stories; something that your audience can relate themselves to.
- Post your fundamentals: the way you do the business (behind the curtain glimpse). Audience love to have a peek at the know-how and the making.
- Simplify: We are often swaying with complicated content and ornamented information. Keep your posts as simple and as possible. A layman approach should be good. Your audience should be able to comprehend.
A few popular brands that use storytelling via their social media marketing:
- Starbucks
- Amazon
- Nescafe
- Cadbury
- Old Spice
- Hyundai
- LG
- Dove
- Land Rover
- Nike
- Spotify
- GoPro
