The Power of Storytelling is Authenticity

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Stories are authentic human experiences. Stories can also build relationships, and bring people closer together.  Stories connect us to each other.  Whether we are aware of it or not, stories have a huge impact on who we are, the way we learn, and the way we teach. A good story can capture the attention of a huge audience, and really cement a point that you are trying to make. Stories leap frog the technology and bring us to the core of experience.

There are several psychological reasons why stories are so powerful.    

  • Humans are narrative creatures by nature.  And stories have always been a primal form of communication.  They connect us to a self larger than us and to universal truths. They bring us back to ancient traditions, legends, archetypes, myths, and symbols.  They also transcend generations.
  • Stories are about human connection and relatedness. They engage us through emotions of joys, laughter, sadness, hardships and passions. Stories allow us to understand ourselves better, to find our commonality with others and overcome differences, to share meaning and purpose in the different aspects of our lives.
  • Stories reveal our thought processes and how we make meanings of life.  Psychologists use different names such as mental schemas, scripts, cognitive mapping, mental models, metaphors, or narratives.  Nevertheless, they all lead to a common purpose — We use stories to explain how things work, how we make decisions, how we justify our decisions, how we persuade others, how we understand and define ourselves, and how we teach human values such as responsibility, commitment, compassion, and the like.
  • Stories can be therapeutic and provide order.  People seek certainty and this is a universal truth.  And narratives offer a structure that is familiar, predictable, and comforting. Within the context of the story, we can withstand intense emotions because we know that resolution follows the conflict. Narratives can provide solutions and a safety net.  In my private practice, I have used stories to help children gain mastery and overcome some of their intense experiences (e.g., separation anxiety, low self-esteem), fears and emotions that can be too overwhelming.
  • Stories can be gateways that tap into our right brain and trigger our imagination. Through imagination, we become participants in the narratives. We can step out of our own shoes, see things differently, and increase our empathy and compassion for others. Through imagination, we think outside the box and harness our creativity that is the foundation of innovation, self-discovery and change.

In the context of social media, organizations, causes, brands or individuals identify and develop a core story.  They create and display authentic meaning and purpose that others can believe in, participate with, and share. Stories are so important today because there is SO much information out there and stories can serve as an effective filtering agent. Good stories will get someone to pay attention without clicking on the next link, changing the channel, or flipping the page. So what makes up a “good and powerful”  story? Most good stories will have the following elements:

  • Must have a Clear message (be engaging with tension or drama to evoke a powerful emotional experience
  • Mush have a Powerful introduction
  • Be Authentic
  • Be Relevant
  • May or may not have a call to action

Why Visuals Are Very Powerful Tools in Social Media Marketing

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Social media marketing is more than just setting up a Facebook account with contact information and a few press releases, then waiting for the masses to “like” you.  It is also more than just tweeting and getting people to sign up and follow you.

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A recent survey by UK marketer Dave Chaffey asked managers to rank the current key challenges of social media marketing. The top results were:

  • Managing reputation
  • Delivering customer service
  • Acquiring new customers
  • Increasing sales from existing customers
  • Increasing engagement with brand
  • Acquiring insights (analytics, ROI, brand preferences)

Small business owners are constantly facing these challenges.  And one of the keys of developing a successful social media strategy is to Focus on Visuals.  Why?

Visuals Equal Value

Visuals are a critical part of any successful marketing program. In the past, the visual part of your identity was a mere static logo. A little color, a little swoosh, and you’re done.  But in today’s social media age where videos and interaction have become an important part of the online presence, visuals take on a whole new territory.

In Universal McCann’s renowned “Wave 5″ report, watching online videos is the top social media activity.  Videos are great because there is a huge demand from users to develop a more social and interactive relationship with brands.  In other words, we must move beyond the simple product or service demonstration.  Interactive visuals are very powerful tools to tell a BRAND STORY.

Take the video of Corning:  A Day Made of Glass.  This video was intended for a small group of the company’s investors. And it carries an incredibly compelling look at the near future based on Corning’s innovative products. And it’s gone very viral. Since it launched on February 7, 2011, it has 19,523,661 views to date.

The phenomenal rise of social media sites like Pinterest and applications like Instagram has demonstrated that people are far more receptive to visual content than they are to written text. Short, sweet and to-the-point copy/text along with an enticing graphic or video generates so much more interaction than a long, written-out paragraph or slew of tweets featuring “How To” articles. And today’s online technology tools make it so much easier for you to share photos and videos from essentially anywhere.

Many small business owners are still gun-shy about getting too personal on social media sites.  However, the truth of the matter is that the personal element is what is going to make your Facebook business page, Twitter account, Pinterest boards and blog STAND-OUT   —- simply because they engage and connect with your customers.

For the most part, the first interaction a person has with your brand is through a social media site. If you do not have a branded presence on these sites, you’re instantly making it harder for new people to do business with you! Why? Because you’re making them work to recognize, remember, or figure out who you are!

With a customized, branded social media design strategy using videos and photos, you create a consistent look and feel for your brand that matches your website, email marketing, and print marketing materials. Creating a consistent brand which includes the look-and-feel for your business through social media will reinforce your credibility, your dependability, and your expert status. It will also make your prospects take notice, and your brand stand out from the crowd.

Some Tips for Creating Successful Visual Content for Your Brand

People are curious of what their peers and online connections are up to.  The reality shows prove that. The same thing holds true for the success of social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest, etc. This is an important mindset to keep when creating your social media presence.  Here are a few ideas on posting interesting, visual content that will still keep things professional without getting too personal:

•    Post Short Videos. Posting 1-2 minute informative videos once or twice a week is always a great way to get people stay interested, engaged and feel connected.  Videos are powerful ways of evoking human reactions and emotions.

•    “Share” photos/videos from other businesses you are connected with. Give recognition to businesses you connect with by sharing their photos and videos.  This shows you like their content.  And this breeds good karma.  Down the line, they’ll reciprocate the nice gesture and give YOUR profile some exposure or testimonial, as well.  Now, that’s free advertising.

•    Take snapshots of your everyday life and community.  On your way to work or doing an errand, snap a photo of a funny sign and upload it to Facebook.  Did you recently win an award or celebrate a happy occasion? Instead of just announcing it, take a photo of it and tweet it. People want to know what you’re up to each day in your business. There’s nothing wrong with taking a few photos each week and sharing them with your online community.  There’s nothing with sharing some warm, fuzzy feelings.

•    Infographics.  These are interesting images that people create that showcase facts about a particular topic in a visual, intriguing way. It is a great tool to use for highlighting valuable, up-to-date information to your network.  People like that.  It keeps them in the loop, so to speak.

Word of Mouth Marketing is More Powerful Online

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Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM), is an unpaid form of promotion—oral or written—in which satisfied existing customers tell other people how much they like a business, product, service, or event. Word-of-mouth is not new at all.  It is in fact one of the oldest yet most credible forms of advertising because people who don't stand to gain personally by promoting something put their reputations on the line every time they make a recommendation.

George Silverman, a psychologist, pioneered word-of-mouth marketing when he created what he called “teleconferenced peer influence groups” in order to engage physicians in dialogue about new pharmaceutical products. Silverman noticed an interesting phenomenon while conducting focus groups with physicians in the early 1970s. “One or two physicians who were having good experiences with a drug would sway an entire group of skeptics. They would even sway a dissatisfied group of ex-prescribers who had negative experiences!”

Now that we are in the online space, Digital Word-of-mouth marketing can influence the consumers’ buying decision. All of us are influenced by the word-of-mouth in one way or the other. Just think back to the time you asked for advice or an opinion from your friends and peers before purchasing a relatively expensive commodity. Or think about the last time you did online research to finalize your service provider or to purchase a product.  In my case, by default, I would read online reviews from previous customers when buying things at Amazon or Ebay for instance.  All these are the outcomes of  the digital word-of-mouth marketing.

So, let’s go a step ahead and explore what modes of digital word of mouth marketing are available to us:

1. Share with a Friend

Social networking websites provide us a great platform to connect with our family and friends located anywhere across the globe. Facebook,LinkedIn, Twitter etc. have now become a part and parcel of our daily lives. Happy, sad or confused- our status can spread the word within our network.   For example: – on purchase of every product from your website, give an option to your customers to share that with their connections on the social networking websites.

2. Reviews & Testimonials

Whether going out to dine at a restaurant, or about to purchase a laptop, or intending to hire a web consultant, etc., we all tend to go through the testimonials, reviews and ratings prior to making our purchase.  This is the power of asking for a review or a testimonial from a customer .  The previous buyer would give a review, which can then be shared with others.  This would be a good referral mechanism to build trust on your company without incurring additional costs.  These testimonials serve as effective marketing collateral for your website that can potentially increase more traffic to your website or fanpage.

3. Fan Page

Creating a Facebook fan page is an excellent and cost-efficient way to connect with your clients, prospects and business partners. A number of activities can be done through Facebook apps that can aid you in doing your digital word-of-mouth marketing.  Things such as status updates on Facebook, adding photos and videos to catch the eye of the target group, creating events and inviting your fans to attend, interactive activities such as games, online contests, promotions, etc. to engage your fans and the like, are some of the ways to do viral marketing organically through Facebook.

These are just some of the online ways of opportunities to do digital word-of-mouth marketing. For businesses, customer evangelism using entrenched advocates is one of the most affordable marketing channels; yet it provides some of the highest return on investment. More and more companies expand their reach thanks to the help of existing customers.  And the existence of Social Media like Facebook only allows the WOMM to grow virally in an exponential way.  This is what Social Loyalty or Digital Word-of-Mouth Marketing is all about.