https://nasacademy.com/blog/article/the-art-of-storytelling-get-started-on-social-media
We tell stories of people, places, traditions and brands almost every single day. But what sets apart one story from another? And out of all the stories we hear every day, which are the ones we remember the most? The answer is simple – you’re more likely to recollect stories that have left a lasting impact on you. That’s why, today, more content creators and companies are invested in perfecting the art of storytelling than ever before.
Telling great stories is an art and just like any other art form, you need equal amounts of passion, skill, creativity and technique to master it. This does not happen overnight but there are certain methods to help you understand it faster. So, if you’re wondering about where to start, this guide is your best bet for becoming a master storyteller on social media.
Storytelling is the art of communicating narratives either in an oral, visual or written manner. People have been sharing stories for ages – in all cultures, languages, mediums and traditions. In fact, there is evidence of our earliest ancestors using cave drawings to tell stories of unknown animals, humans and even objects.
The truth is stories help us understand the world better. They’re an integral part of a universal human experience that allows us to connect to each other. This is because each story gives us an opportunity to make sense of how others feel and think. It provides a window into different ideas, opinions and emotions – something we might not have otherwise experienced or considered on our own.
But not every story is told for the same reason. Some are shared to simplify complex subjects, like the time your math teacher gave you an example of a family buying an insane number of fruits. Or when tech brands use videos to show you how their products can help in real-life situations – minus all the technical talk.
Other stories help to bring people together either for a common cause or a collective experience. A good example of this is the Humans of New York Project – the brainchild of photographer Brandon Stanton who spent five years photographing and interviewing tens of thousands of strangers on the streets of New York.
Their stories ended up attracting a following of more than 30 million people across several of his social media channels. The universal appeal of the project ultimately grew to such an extent that even the UN got involved – sponsoring Brandon’s trip to war-torn countries and expanding the platform to stories beyond the Big Apple.
It’s interesting to note that scientists have discovered that stories even help release certain chemicals in the brain – chemicals that are responsible for making memories, managing emotions and forming relationships. This means, that each time you hear a story, chances are you’re putting yourself in the same situation. The more you’re able to relate to it, the deeper you’ll connect to the story and remember it for a long time – and this is how the art of storytelling helps in building a stronger online presence.
If you’re still wondering whether social media is the right place for you, then perhaps it’s time you turn your attention to its power of ‘influence’. According to Data Reportal, there are currently 4.33 billion social media users around the world – that’s more than 55 percent of the total global population. So, it’s not entirely surprising that influencer marketing – which forms a sizable portion of the creator economy – is expected to grow to around $13.8 billion in 2021.
This only proves that more people are beginning to trust influencers today in order to make purchasing decisions. That’s because these creators are able to tell their stories in a way that makes millions of people around the world believe them. So, when creators like Lele Pons or Alexa Chung, for instance, recommend a particular line of cosmetics, chances are you’ll be more willing to listen to them.
That’s why, brands have been incorporating influencer partnerships in their marketing strategies for years – they understand the importance of user-generated content and consider hiring influencers as a valuable investment. Another advantage of working with influencers relates to their exponential reach on different social media platforms, helping brands get maximum exposure to a wider target audience than they could have possibly reached using their own resources.
For this purpose, as a content creator, you should rely on mastering various elements of the art of storytelling – especially the visual and digital elements of storytelling that can help you establish a stronger online presence.
If you’re a creator, you’re probably already looking for ways to leverage the power of visual content on social media. Images provide a simple yet effective tool for highlighting the type of emotions you wish to convey in a story. These will also help in building your brand identity which should ultimately differentiate you from other creators.
When you use relevant images to tell your story, it allows you to gain people’s trust while delivering a vital piece of information. But more importantly, it helps you increase your engagement. In fact, a study conduced by Hubspot, revealed that Facebook photos generate higher engagement than the average post – receiving 53% more likes than a regular post.
But perhaps what ultimately pays off in the long run is originality. You need your post to generate interest and catch people’s attention. Think about it – there are millions of pictures being uploaded online every single day, what would make someone stop at yours while scrolling through all the others? While there is no secret formula to being original, a quick look at competitors’ posts should help you understand how to make yours ‘pop’ more. Make sure you use the right colors to evoke the right emotions too.
This is why you should consider investing in photo editing tools that can help you deliver stunning visuals on your own social media platform. Luckily, these days, most platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat provide their own creative editing tools, so you don’t need to look too far to get started. Don’t forget to craft your own story for each of these images before posting them online – whether it’s inspirational, funny, entertaining or promotional – your message needs to be clearly communicated and understood by your target audience.
Nothing can ever beat the power of a well-made video. The art of storytelling on social media can also take the form of vlogs, short videos, full-length feature films or even animated GIFs. Today, you’ll find videos everywhere – from clips of people dancing on TikTok to hilarious Instagram Reels of cats being…cats!
There’s a reason why more creators are increasingly using videos as part of their social media strategy – viewers are more likely to remember 95% of a message when they watch it in a video as compared to reading it in a text. In fact, more than 1 billion hours of video are consumed on YouTube every day. That’s quite a statistic when you think about all the information being shared online every minute.
You don’t even need an entire video production house to become a storyteller. Sometimes all you need is a good smartphone camera – and plenty of awesome ideas. Brainstorm ideas by having a look at content being shared by others. This will not only give you an idea of popular topics to cover but it might also help you find an angle that nobody has talked about yet.
Once you have your ideas ready, the next step is to prepare a script and record your video in the right settings. Make sure you have plenty of light and a suitable background that won’t distract viewers too much. After the recording is over, start putting all your video clips together using a video-editing tool. You could choose to invest in one or browse through the numerous free video tools available online. Lastly, don’t forget to optimize your video for social media before uploading it.
This is the future of storytelling – and creators who invest in technology like virtual or augmented reality are a step ahead of the rest. By choosing this sort of immersive storytelling experience, you’re giving your audience a chance to live your story as if it were their own – something images and traditional video cannot provide.
Virtual reality creators essentially rely on two methods of content creation in the art of storytelling. The first is the least expensive one: 360-degree videos made with an omindirectional camera to offer an immersive experience. The footage is then spliced and edited in order to optimize it for viewing on a head-mounted display device. This is by far, the most effective way for broadcasting live content such as concerts, conferences or sports matches.
The second method is a bit complicated as it requires the use of costly 3D development software. These so-called ‘engines’ are used to create new experiences for audiences that are far different from reality. It could involve building up new worlds from scratch or an immersive environment where viewers are able to interact with their surroundings such as picking up objects or moving things around. So, this way, you’re literally able to bring your own visuals to life as a storyteller.
If you’re not convinced about the popularity of virtual reality, consider this report published by Allied Market Research last year. According to the global market research firm, virtual reality content creation market is expected to reach $46.54 billion by 2026. This is linked to a surge in demand for head-mounted display devices especially in the gaming and entertainment sector along with a rise in virtual marketing – among other factors.
Before getting into the secrets of storytellers on social media, let’s take a look at the characteristics of a good story. While stories can be of various kinds, there are certain qualities that you’ll find most interesting stories have in common:
1. Engaging: Your story manages to capture a viewer’s attention and makes them interested in finding out more.
2. Relatable: Regardless of where the story was made, its content should be able to ‘speak’ to your audience in a way that feels authentic and real.
3. Informational: A good story helps your audience learn more about a concept or experience that they did not know about before.
4. Structured: Stories should follow an organized structure so that audiences are able to make sense of it.
5. Extraordinary: Ordinary stories will never get you the views you’re looking for – try and make your stories stand out in a memorable way.
Now that we know what a good story looks like, let’s get into the five secrets to storytelling on social media as a creator:
This might sound pretty simple but the truth is without the right medium for storytelling, your chances of telling good stories become slim. This is because each social media platform gives you certain advantages in terms of audience and reach. So, it helps to have a clear definition of the type of people you’re reaching out to before deciding on a social media channel.
For instance, if you’re a fashion influencer and your target audience is primarily women, you’ll have a better chance of succeeding on Instagram with 57% female audience than Facebook with only 44% of women users. But if you’re planning to make content for a younger demographic, your best best would be either TikTok or Snapchat – the former now being increasingly used by adults too.
TikTok provided the perfect platform for teenage influencers like Charli D’Amelio who became the poster girl for its short-form content. The 17-year-old’s quick rise to fame is attributed to a number of factors including consistency, timing, TikTok’s algorithm and of course, plain luck. Charli also grew her brand using cross-promotion with other TikTok channels, creating hashtags and promoting dance challenges. This is a good example of what happens when you choose the right channel for your content – you can literally get creative and make it work for you.
What type of stories are you going to tell? How do you want your audience to feel at the end of it? In order to tell good stories, you need to first define your content and decide its objective too:
– Inspire action: If you’re looking to inspire change or action, you need to describe success stories of people who took similar action in the past. For instance, if you’re trying to promote veganism, consider telling stories of people who managed to see positive results by changing their lifestyle. But avoid distorting facts or exaggerating claims while you’re at it.
– Collective experience: Sometimes stories are told simply to promote a sense of community. In this case, it helps to choose content that can be relatable to a wide variety of audience. Experiences with a universal message can help in starting a conversation or bringing people together.
– Develop a loyal following: You could simply choose to tell your own story too – your struggles, your achievements, your journey, etc. This will help connect you better with your audience while gaining their trust. As your followers begin to see an authentic side of you, they’re more likely to remain loyal to you too.
– Educational: Maybe you’re creating stories to spread information about a certain subject. Make sure you’re able to talk to your audience with facts, statistics and references. This should make it easier for them to understand all the information better.
You need to have a clear idea of how you’re going to tell your stories on your social medial channel. Is it through short-form videos? Or would you rather tell your stories through images instead? Once you decide on your style, you’ll have a better idea of which platform to choose too.
Facebook reports the highest organic engagement on video posts as compared to the other social media channels. It is also the most popular social network, being used by over 2 billion people every single month. This means if you’re choosing long-form video content and are hoping for it to go viral soon, you can’t go wrong with this platform.
On the other hand, if you choose images instead, you’ll have an easier time posting your stories on Instagram which relies heavily on high-quality photos. But you should also note that Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels are also becoming an increasingly popular choice for posting video content. So, you could even use this type of platform to experiment with different types of content. Once you get a better idea of what works for you, you can modify your storytelling style accordingly.
When you collaborate with someone, you’re essentially showing everybody that you want others to be a part of your story too. Collaborations will provide you with immense benefits in the long run because not only are you inviting others to help tell your story, but they will eventually share it with others too.
It shows that you’re open to new perspectives and are willing to reach out to more people beyond your target audience too – as this will allow your story to gain more exposure while becoming an opportunity for you to learn more from other creators. It should be noted that social media collaborations can happen between an influencer and a brand too.
An example of this is Murad Osmann, the Russian travel photographer, known for creating the ‘Follow Me’ series which features his wife, Nataly Osmann, leading him around the world. The series instantly became a hit online and made this duo a social media phenomenon, gaining them millions of followers across the globe. Today, he’s known as one of the biggest travel influencers and teams up with tourism boards to create breathtaking content in different countries.
This is also known as content recycling and can provide you with a number of benefits. You can compare this to finding an old book at the back of your bookshelf and reading it all over again. Chances are you won’t get bored because it’s still great content. The same theory applies to your own content which you may have posted weeks or months ago.
You could either choose to repost old content or reformat it – so it can be customized to suit audiences on different platforms. This way, you’ll still be telling a great story with less effort while finding time to create new ones. Repurposing content also helps you reinforce a message, reach a new audience and raise your profile on multiple platforms at the same time.
There are different ways to reuse your old content. Firstly, look for your best performing content. Once you have this content, you could either create a spinoff or break it into individual pieces of content such as short-form videos. Another great way to breathe new life into old posts is to add new information which should help enrich your content even more. Once you’ve mastered the art of storytelling, you’ll find it even easier to get creative with old content.
Storytelling is a process that is worth both your time and effort. Today, as countless of stories are being shared both offline and online, your stories will not only build your identity but also help you reach out to millions of people around the world – people just like you.
Moreover, with social media platforms such as TikTok introducing new incentives such as the launch of marketplaces to match creators with brands for sponsorship deals, your stories can eventually help create multiple streams of income.
So, not only will they inspire change or action, but also help you make money. This is why the art of storytelling will never go out of style and for creators like you, it will continue to be one of the best ways to make captivating content on social media.
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