WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY ... STORYTELLING
There are so many definitions on Storytelling. It´s confusing, isn´t it? Since nearly ten years Storytelling is THE main buzzword in Marketing and Corporate Communications but everyone talks about something different and it looks like there is no end.
At the last conference I attended I was the fourth speaker to talk about markting trends. I always like to join this meetings as soon as possible to listen all speeches - specifically those before me speech. I also try to embed what I´ve heard before into my talk and help the audience to make connections between different speeches. At this conference - no surprise - all previous speakersmentioned Storytelling somehow and used the term at a specific point. But all of them gave the word "Storytelling" a different meaning. So I skipped parts of my original speech and tried to sort out what I´ve heard:
Storytelling? That´s a format
Facebook promises to present your content as a story. They promote Facebook Canvas is an immersive and expressive experience on Facebook for businesses to tell their stories and showcase their products. Same with FB Carousel. Also Multimediaformats such as Storify or Storyful do promise to support your Storytelling. But you should know all this has nothing to do with the elements of true Storytelling. All this platforms, tools and techniques do help you to give content a specific FORMAT. And this is what they call "storytelling".
Storytelling? You mean structur, right?
And be careful when you hear "story" as this term might be used in the meaning of "structure". When someone tells you "the story of this advertising" or the "story of this multimedia projects" starts with ... let´s say "basic elements", then comes an "inciting incident", followed by a "climax and turning point" and the end of this story is a "call to action" ... all this gives you a hint that it´s not "stoytelling" we are talking about. Or well, a sort of. The better word would be structur. The "order" or "sequence" of information. It´s the logic of the content and the context you are giving within the whole "story".
Story? That´s the content, or?
But what we are truely looking for is "content told with the technique of a story". Storytelling is an emotional way of persuasion (in comparision to rational persuastion through facts and figures) and has five elements are key: 1. Every story has a reason to tell (Reason Why), 2. Every story has a hero (a main character), 3. Every story starts with a conflict (and a transformation of the hero), 4. Every great story touches our heart (with Paul Ekman you can work with minimum of six different emotions) and 5. Every great story goes viral (fairy tales have been told again and again since generations - even without the internet!)
So next time you hear "Storytelling" be careful and ask "what do you mean by story"?
