Social Media Storytelling: What? Why??

Remember the Adidas - “Impossible is Nothing” campaign?

You surely do. Don’t you?

The stellar success of the entire campaign was triggered by one simple concept.

A true story. Extraordinary and awe-inspiring.

It’s been more than 8 years, and yet every one of us distinctly remembers the fact that Lionel Messi had a troubled childhood, never really “growing up”! Also, since then, the phrase “Impossible is Nothing” has been resonating like a roar of glory across the globe.

Now, that is storytelling!

As a matter of fact, a greater majority of the target audience is not interested in marketing at all. So basically, it’s not about just “sharing” content on social media. It’s about “telling” the tale, and “narrating” the brand.

What is storytelling?

“Storytelling is what allows brands and products to ‘un-thing-themselves’ so that they can actually speak and captivate.” -  Christian Salmon

The biggest product of all: the Google search engine came up with a classic example of being “un-thinging” and captivating.

A couple of months back, I happened to watch this video by Google India, “Google Search: Reunion”.  The images, the characters and their actions, the narrative journey, all in all it was an excellent story that could totally captivate, excite and emote any and everybody.

Google made it more than just clear as to how it adds value to people’s lives, and why loyalty to the brand is totally worth it.

Why storytelling?

• Its “cause and effect” narrative structure is the same one our brain uses to configure thoughts, everyday speech, and decisions.
• Uniting an idea with an emotion, and in turn being able to feel, allows the concepts, ideas, statistics, dates, colours, and all that comes with the story, to be stuck and retained in our mind.
• The emotional process in which we get involved in through storytelling gets rid of the skepticism.
• People don’t buy products, but rather the stories that these products represent.

The finishing note

Storytelling is everywhere, and will continue to be everywhere. As a matter of fact, it’s the only format that has excelled and will continue to eclipse, with time. Today’s social media totally understands that. Needless to say, they are constantly adapting and evolving themselves.