5 inspiring storytelling social media stories

Nowadays, a personal network of social media is ready and waiting. Nowadays, anyone can access the latest news at any time and from anywhere and then like and share it. As a brand, it is now a matter of playing and using that social network optimally. The brand that succeeds best will eventually walk away with the full prize. Is there a recipe for this? How about storytelling?

Successful brands know how to tell compelling stories that both strengthen the brand and boost sales. Why does storytelling - because that's what we're talking about - work so well? It has everything to do with the fact that people are visual storytellers. Everyone can imagine stories. And if those stories are captivating, they will be remembered. Just think to yourself, you can reproduce a story, at least in outline form. But can you see yourself relaying a presentation consisting only of bullets? So how do you apply storytelling to social media?

Storytelling Tip 1. Know what kind of story you want to tell

This first tip may seem obvious, but make no mistake. There is a lot involved in thinking up and writing or visualising a good story. Let alone to share that story on the various social media. But it can be done. In fact, there are plenty of beautiful and appealing examples of this. In any case, make sure that your story contains a human element with which your target groups can identify. Also make sure that the values of your brand are well highlighted. An example of such a success story, you ask? Then we would like to mention the multimedia story 'The Vanishing Game' by Landrover. The Vanishing Game is in fact an interactive online novel, written by the internationally renowned William Boyd. It was made available on a custom Tumblr page and as a free e-book at Apple's iBooks Store and Amazon's Kindle Store. The story consists of eight parts with interactive text, photography, video, sound, animation and narration. With The Vanishing Game, Land Rover reached an entirely new audience and significantly increased brand awareness. Finally, take a look at this short film about Land Rover - The Vanishing Game.

Storytelling Tip 2. Know the key characteristics of a strong and powerful story

Very briefly and to the point, a technically good story has a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning describes the main character and paints a picture of the situation he or she is in. The middle describes the main character's problems and the conflicts he or she has to solve. The end shows how the main character's life has improved and enriched after overcoming all the obstacles. What can such a build-up lead to? A good example is the series The Gentleman's Wager by the whisky brand Johnnie Walker, starring Jude Law and Giancarlo Giannini! Very worthwhile, we tell you! This series of small feature films, because that's what they are, also had a strong multimedia character. In this campaign, social media played an important role by showing the teasers! On the You Tube channel of The Gentleman´s Wager you can watch the films at your leisure.

Storytelling Tip 3. Create reliable main characters

The power of a story stands or falls with its ability to make readers identify with the main characters. And yes, this requires that you know your target audience or audiences. But let's assume for a moment that you have them in mind. You can then, for example, choose to tell a story from your customer's point of view. The advantage of this is that you do not have to invent a fictitious main character. Remember how Dove used 'real' women in its Real Beauty campaign instead of supermodels? Dove launched this multimedia campaign (including making-of films, exhibitions, a Self-Esteem programme and self-esteem workshops) to reinvigorate the brand but also to boost female self-esteem. Therefore, instead of the stereotypical thin models, the various expressions used sympathetic, everyday women of different sizes and body shapes. To be fair, the campaign did not only generate positive responses. But the fact is that Dove generated a lot of exposure and, more importantly, increased its market share.

Storytelling Tip 4. Be authentic

You may wonder why Donald Duck, with all his misfortune and bad luck, is so much more likeable than his cousin Guus Happiness. The answer is that everyone has to deal with setbacks from time to time. This is recognisable and it is easy for people to develop a soft spot for a duck like Donald Duck. But in real life it is no different. Real life is also about falling down, getting up and going again. As a brand, you can benefit from this fact. A beautiful and rather poignant example is Adidas' 'Impossible is Nothing' campaign, starring Lionel Messi among others. But few people know that Messi had serious growth problems as a boy. That he would become a football legend was therefore far from certain. Before that happened, he had to suffer a lot. Adidas has written a story about this, a film if you will, that is as poignant as it is iconic. A film in which Messi tells about his problems as a child and how he overcame them. The reason why the campaign was so successful is because it was a true and realistic story. Adidas created a very authentic campaign and created an emotional bond with the audience with the three stripes. Adidas showed with the film that indeed nothing is impossible. And for those who have never seen the film: Impossible Is Nothing - Messi. The complete series of films can be seen on the You Tube account of AdidasllN.

Storytelling Tip 5 . Get personal

One feature of powerful storytelling is that it allows your brand to build an emotional bond with your target audience. Try to make your story or stories personal. A listener identifies more quickly with a person than with a group of people. An example of such a personal story campaign is the eBay campaign 'eBay Thanks You'. The campaign consisted of several videos starring eBay customers. The starting point of the campaign was to show and experience that there is emotion involved in almost every eBay transaction. For example, one of the key players in the campaign is one Ed Church. Ed Church sold his motorbike 30 years ago and found it again on eBay. For Ed, finding his old bike was much more than just a purchase, it was about reclaiming beautiful and priceless memories. As a result of this successful campaign with multiple personal stories, eBay saw an increase in their YouTube subscribers of over 100%. Also, over 1 million people watched the campaign videos on YouTube. Curious about Ed Church? Meet him on eBay eBay Thanks You -- Ed Church ¦ eBay.

Getting Started

Do you want to start storytelling right now? You can start by taking a look at our websites storytellingpeople.nl, storytellingpeople.com or corporatehistory.com.

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Storytelling makes the abstract corporate story accessible in stories by and for people.

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