Storytelling in social media has become a powerful tool for brands to make a real impact and build their business.

Legendary marketer Seth Godin says “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.”

In fact, storytelling is the heart of content marketing. Storytelling works – but why should you incorporate it into your social media marketing strategy?

Humans need a story. Stories make a humane connection. Humans are wired to remember stories that have an emotional component. Stories stimulate human behaviour and make people feel better.

“I’ve learnt that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. – Maya Angelou

Why storytelling in social media?

The use of social media and the internet is growing exponentially. Indeed, about 93% of marketers are using social media for business to gain new customers and generate leads. At the same time, the use of ad blockers has increased, 30% annually. This represents a significant challenge for brands that rely on web advertising. The best way to reach your audience is by storytelling in social media about your brand.

The technology, tools, and platform have revolutionized content creation. However, the challenges for businesses is to tell a story in compelling ways and grab audience attention. According to a Microsoft consumer study, the human attention span time is 8 second, down from 12 seconds in 2000. So for brands, the best way to get your audience’s attention is to create valuable content – try storytelling in social media – something that resonates with people.

How Brands are telling stories in Social Media?

If you look at some of the biggest brands around, you might notice that they are often amazing storytellers. Brands are using storytelling in social media to communicate the vision and mission of the company with their audience consistently.

Apple is a great example of brand storytelling in social media. Apple tells stories of people challenging the norms and thinking differently. They tell you a story or an experience about their product in a way that helps to connect with customers in the long-term. This is one of the reasons why people pay twice as much as other phones – the experience of buying one, talking about it and using it makes people feel better.

The notion of storytelling hasn’t changed with time. However, with the advent of social media, the medium of storytelling in social media has changed. Social networks and media sharing networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Youtube help to connect and communicate with people and share photos and videos with their friends. Brands can reach millions and billions of people through storytelling.

Storytelling in social media: The Nike way

Nike tells stories of people doing the impossible. The very first “Just do it” campaign in 1988 features a shirtless older man jogging across the Golden Gate bridge. Nike tells the unique brand story; “ This 80- year old man jogs every day, what’s your excuse”, challenging the mediocrity of life and inspiring people to push their own personal limits. This is a great example of how a brand can use storytelling in their communication and content strategy. The “Just do it” slogan resonates across all cultures and people, makes them rebel and go for what they want to accomplish in their life.

Nike has been consistent with its brand message in the 2019 “Dream Crazier” campaign. They use storytelling in social media in a way that reflects people’s lives rather than solely talking about their product. They inspire people to break stereotypes, take challenges and crush them.

Storytelling in Social Media: How to do it better?

Understand your Brand philosophy

The very important element for storytelling in social media is to understand your brand philosophy and tell the stories with relevant information. Your job is to tell the stories in a way that is accessible to the readers and users. Great storytellers don’t complicate things unnecessarily; they just keep it simple.

For instance, due to their storytelling in social media, many people have adopted Nike’s “Just do it” as their private mantra, not only people from the fitness community but people from all walks of life.  As a result, the Nike brand image skyrocketed and has become a global force.

Nike is also consistent with their brand storytelling in social media by using various content strategy and hashtag campaigns. Moreover, they tell stories of user-generated content through a fellow user who uses their product, images, and videos of training and sports competition in their social media posts.

Build your Brand story

What is the best way to tell your brand story?

Good brand storytelling sparks a conversation, engages with an audience and gets people to talk about your brand.

The 2019 Nike campaign “Dream Crazier” is a great example of storytelling featuring various female athletes. They use storytelling to convey a message – insecurities of women in society and fighting against social and personal stigmas. This ad uses the brand message as a positive solution to the problem they’re facing, an empowerment tool to women rather than just promoting a product.

Connect your product to the brand message

The best brands use storytelling in social media with a purpose – connecting the product with a brand message. Storytelling is about bringing authenticity to the product and creating a connection with your audience.

Nike is a triumphant example of a strong, emotional brand storytelling strategy. Nike featured Lebron James and Serena Williams in their ad wearing Nike’s products on the basketball and tennis court. Why? Nike’s shoes are designed for athletes, fitness and sports personalities. They used sports celebrities to talk about the product and make a connection with their target audience. They feature their story to tell about innovation, training, and determination. Moreover, they used storytelling in social media to create an event and inspire people, challenging the limits of human potential and achieving greatness.

It’s time for storytelling in social media

Storytelling in social media is all about creating alignment between your business and your customers through stories. The true success of storytelling is how your customer feels or what they do after consuming it.

Now is the time to invest in Content marketing for brands – creating valuable and helpful content that your audience wants to actually hear. Lone Tree Nepal offers Content creation and distribution solutions like storytelling in social media for maximizing the social networking and site visibility among clients. Content is at the heart of what we do as marketers, creating compelling stories that resonate with our customer, client, and readers and engage with them. Contact us today for digital marketing consultation and how to get started.