Is TikTok the new Hieroglyphs?

As an archaeologist (yes, for those of you who don’t know, before I was a marketer I qualified as an Archaeologist) I’ve always been fascinated by how humans have developed over millennia both physically and psychologically and I recently came across a brilliant blog by Dasha Borysov called The Parasitic Storytelling Crisis and white paper by BornSocial, which talks about how storytelling has been changed by the modern world.

The history of storytelling goes back thousands of years, from ancient cave drawings detailing everyday life, to the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt telling stories of great kingdoms. It is believed that through storytelling, humanity gets stronger, and tales and myths lead generations to exciting innovation.

It struck me/ depressed me that gone are the beautiful painstakingly drawn murals of life from ancient artists, and our modern world storytelling is someone telling us what they’ve eaten that day in a Twitter post. Is that really humanity getting stronger? Is this really our new ‘storytelling.’

But, it got me thinking, over numerous jobs and numerous clients I’ve been given the brief ‘to create stories about the brand.’ Sometimes this is easier than others; when the client understands that storytelling is a softer form of marketing, it does not always have a direct trackable ROI (down to that particular post), instead, it builds overall brand reputation, affiliation and contributes to the connection an individual has with a brand (which can be tracked through things like brand sentiment). Sometimes, its harder – when a client asks what a specific social media post will do to their bottom line, they are missing the point of ‘story-telling’ in the modern age.

So, how do we tell great stories about a brand (a commercial ‘being’) without turning off anyone ‘listening to us’? Well, Borysov, talks about how due to technology and modern life the story-telling arch has changed.

There was a time when we built excitement gradually, then hit the height of the story, and then came gradually back down often quite quickly, or how you tell stories to your children, you build to the climax.

Traditional Story Telling Arch. Taken from Borysov’s article,

But, as times have changed and technology has driven how we interact with stories and news (continuous scrolling, constant double screen consumption, and watching our social feed whilst completing other activities), stories start at the climax (often 3 seconds in, and try to maintain momentum as quickly as possible.” Borysov quotes YouTubes leading storytelling practices to summarise this story arc:

“The emerging story arc starts fast, keeps up the pace, and delivers messaging with unexpected surprises until you fade out — no more build up, climax, and pay off. Go fast!” 

Emerging story telling arch. Taken from Borysov’s article.

So, what advice would I give clients who are looking to connect with their consumers through storytelling:

1. Understand your audience’s mindset: at the moment they will be consuming your story – if this is a piece of social content, adopt the emerging story arc, it’s likely to be a passive medium. If you’re hosting a webinar or publishing an article which is relevant to a group within a specific context consider a more traditional approach, bringing people on the journey with you and building excitement.

2. Understand the backstory of your leading characters: perhaps your story is about how you move boxes around in the warehouse, perhaps it’s a new restaurant dish, perhaps it’s about a new service your offering, or perhaps (like my brief once was) its to promote a new shrimp (helpfully named – Sexy Shrimp (this is from my aquarium marketing manager days)). Whatever subject, think about the core components of the story and really understand them before you jump straight into content creation.

3. Accept that stories sometimes take time to gain momentum: not every story can be a best-seller, some stories are ‘slow-burners’ and sit there in the background gradually gathering likes and shares once you’ve moved on to the next thing.

4. Take time to work out what stories matter: I once had a boss who said to me “there are so many stories here – find them and tell” but couldn’t articulate which stories mattered the most. In ancient societies, certain stories were told over and over again, because they mattered. Prioritise what matters to you, and most importantly what matters to your customer.

5. Understand technologies impact: the practical and analytics side, where is your story going? how will you maximise the platform to get the most out of it?

If you’re looking to start telling your businesses stories and are not sure of your next step, get in touch for free discovery call on how we can help.