Weaving Story Around Your Brands...

The growth of social media has opened tremendous  opportunities to tell stories as part of direct and indirect brand marketing initiatives. Brand storytelling  have become a strategic priority, although the concept is not new.

Marketers have been telling and spreading brand stories for years through advertising or word of mouth (WOM). The art of writing and telling  stories as effective pieces for social media marketing is real challenge.

Focus on increasing consumer emotional involvement in the brand through social media and weaving the brand storyline results in the success story on social media.

Following are few secrets that brand storytellers use to intrigue, engage, and connect emotionally with consumers on social media. These secrets include a mix of branding fundamentals and fiction writing/telling basics. Together, they can help weaving compelling brand stories for content marketing and integrated marketing efforts.

1. Be Honest

Brand storytelling is about honesty and transparency. Only crafting of “stories,” will not work, “stories”  need to be rooted in the reality of the brand, concepts,products,services and industry. Simply speaking, even brand stories must adhere to the three primary steps of brand-building: consistency, persistence, and restraint. If brand stories are inconsistent, they’ll confuse consumers who will turn away from the brand. Be a master story teller but don’t stray too far from the brand/product/service promise. Confusion is the number one brand killer.

2. Infuse personalities into stories.

Brand story telling is  not ads, and it is also  not a sales pitch. Brand stories should be told with the brand persona and the story teller’s personality at center stage. Boring stories won’t attract and retain readers, but stories brimming with personality can.

3. Characters the audience will root for.

Brand storytelling requires creation of characters that the audience will like and cheer for. But stop  falling into the trap of creating fictional characters . For example, create buyer personas and tell stories from their perspectives (WOM). Tell stories from your employees’ points of view or from a third-person point of view. The important thing is to create characters that enable your audience to become emotionally connected to them to such an extent that the audience wants to follow their character arcs.

4. Beginning, Middle, and End….follow the story structure

Fiction stories follow a structure that includes a beginning, a middle, and an end. follow a similar structure while brand story telling. In the beginning, open strong and establish story setting and the characters. The middle should set up main character’s problem and present conflicts that get in his or her (or its) way before he or she (or it) can find resolution in the end. This is character’s story arc, and it needs to take the audience along for the ride. If they enjoy the ride, they’ll stick around, tell other people about it (WOM), and come back again and again.

5. Don’t give it all away.

Make sure brand stories are giving effect of “ what next?”. Leave your audience wanting more, and they’ll come back again and again. Consider using “Watch This Space” hooks on your website, twitter time line or Facebook Page, or try releasing teasers via Facebook, email. Perpetual marketing tactics offer the perfect opportunity to include social media marketing in your brand storytelling initiative, too.

As with all brand building efforts, the goal is to surround your consumers with brand experiences (including stories), so they can self-select how they want to interact with the  brand. Give them multiple ways to enjoy your brand story and soon you will realize you are achieving your brand marketing goals.