I read a lot of drivel about storytelling especially on Linkedin. One post that ‘got my goat’ and gave that ‘goat’ a good kicking stated something along the lines of ‘there are only seven basic plots.’ Therefore writing and storytelling was easy.
See that monkey over there, sorry I mean see that huge corporation over there? The one called Google? Well, read some of the poetry created by AI it’s created.
The Missing Element of the Statement
Digital people are great in the main but some miss the point. It’s AI all the way and not people. People make stories, people love stories, people are reacting to the emotions, the drama, the comedy and the ‘what’s in it for me.’
So, before you go off and try to create a story-telling algorithm ask yourself what is important? Where do you find that? Who is storytelling for? People. You, me and everyone in between.
How do you tell a Story?
We, all tell stories, we all have anecdotes that we tell family and friends. You. You’re a storyteller.
The Simple Stuff
‘I want a bit of content for online’, ‘I want to do a video for my business’, ‘how do I use a story to engage with my social following?’
The three acts is a good starting point, a frame work:
Setup
Complication
Resolution
How do we use that to tell a story online? How do we make it compelling so people buy stuff? Well, not for me to say or preach on but I can tell you this, it requires thought and experience, o’ and two things, one is people and two is honesty.
Not really, you can exaggerate, that’s an honest form of storytelling and you could make the story about anything, say badgers and people will identify with the story.
For example, a story on you about page:
Set up
I first got into selling floral umbrellas because a friend gave me one.
Complication
I was made redundant. I didn’t know what to do. Then Barry, my friend, suggested selling them online, so I bought floralumbrellas.com and then the fun started, etc, etc.
Resolution
I now run several websites dedicated to rainwear and I am successful.
That’s a basic introduction to storytelling. If you want to go further, well you’ll have to put a lot of work into it.
Persona & Themes
For example you could uncover your business personas. That is the different segments of your audiences that either act as a word-of-mouth awareness maker or buy. You give each a name and flesh them out as characters.
You could also create multiple stories from the categories of information that you address with your business. From these you can choose themes. The themes becoming your content. You create a schedule and you track what works.
With what works, you refine the story for your online marketing.
Yes. There is a lot more to it than setup, complication, resolution and creating characters but storytelling is and ALWAYS will be an art and not an AI algorithm.
Hallelujah!
About Conversion Detectives
Conversion Detectives is a full service digital marketing agency in Hertfordshire.
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