CHAPTER 16

Social Media and Story Sharing

Over the past 60 years, marketing has moved from being product-centric (Marketing 1.0) to being consumer-centric (Marketing 2.0). Today, we see marketing as transforming once again in response to the new dynamics in the environment. We see companies expanding their focus from products to consumers to humankind issues. Marketing 3.0 is the stage when companies shift from consumer-centricity to human-centricity and where profitability is balanced with corporate responsibility.

—Philip Kotler

As it is so prevalent today, a discussion of storytelling cannot avoid looking at the way narratives are being constructed and altered via social media. How does the rise of social media affect your brand narrative?

This chapter will analyze the construction of brand narratives in the world of social media, their use in tribal formations and community growing, and how to best shape social media stories to lead to the greatest levels of engagement.

I think it’s safe to say that with the rise of social media, the way you need to tell stories in order to achieve success has changed. By now, it should be clear that you need to do more than just list product benefits.

In our world of complete brand landscapes in which stories exist far and wide beyond the supermarket aisle, you need to show how your product or service provides an experience that adds value to someone’s life through fulfilling a need or satisfying a desire. You need to connect with your customers via a strong brand narrative that translates into all forms of digital media, as well as social media.

In order to ensure consistency in how your brand is perceived, every touch point that a consumer has with you and your product must revolve around your Brand DNA and the narrative that emerges from it. This is something you can control, but it all starts with your brand narrative and how you translate that into video and language-based content that is delivered via the Internet.

In the past, you would create a brochure or a print ad or TV commercial with information that you wanted to convey to consumers. If it was a new product, you would list your primary attributes to create awareness. If it was an older known product in which listing the primary attributes felt redundant and unnecessary, you would talk about how it is new and improved and list the new and improved attributes. Or, if there happened to be nothing new and improved about your product or service, you would talk about some other qualities not previously mentioned. For example, Pepsi now no longer needs to discuss what a cola is or what Coke tastes like, so they have moved on to defining emotional properties that they want to associate with Pepsi, such as positive uplifting experiences that are associated with their new “Out of the Blue” campaign.

What you might have noticed with all of the above is that none of it is narrative based. As I have already pointed out, traditional brand communication tends to generally employ non-narrative methods to sell and, in many cases today, these methods now seem rather outmoded. To convey your message today, many times you have no choice but to employ a brand narrative because it is one of the few methods left to create engagement and interest among a cynical consumer who has seen it all.

These traditional non-narrative selling methods might at first help to further you brand, but they are essentially a one-way street in which you can focus on a few main points you want to convey. Then, you put that message out to consumers and hope that they get it. Period. Pray and see. So, it is a game of chance and prayers wherein you usually create little engagement and have little means to gauge success.

Today, the game and the rules have changed. The age of the one-way non-narrative street is over. Brand narratives are now the basis of a conversation in which you have a chance to frame the narrative and set the tone for the conversation where your stories and then consumer’s narratives are shared by all: brand creators, marketers, users, and customers. If you don’t frame it well, your story and your brand can run away from you and the conversation can be dictated by your consumers for good or, potentially, for bad. Consumers are empowered in a way they have never been before, and if you can’t set the stage with your brand narrative, there is a good chance that the story can turn on you and potentially provide great harm to your brand.

If you understand the need for story and why your particular narrative conveys the Brand DNA of your company, that story can become the touchstone for all conversations about your company or product. You can control the online conversation instead of being controlled by it.

So rewrite and activate your brand by learning about the story you are telling and how you can improve that story, so that it will both frame the conversation about your product and company as well as inspire consumer stories that build off your narrative.

Set the tone for online and offline brand narratives that will lead to the future success of your company and product.

The question then becomes how? How does one gain control and become empowered in an age when the consumer seems to have all the muscle? Well, let’s start with the language of your story. If knowledge and language are power, you need to really consider the content and language of your brand narratives and then compare that to the information and language captured in the many forms of social media.

What this means is that you need to look at the concerns that are raised by your consumers and tell stories that extinguish these concerns. You need to look at the very language that your customers are using and embrace that language.

What terms are coming up often? If you reflect the language that you see your customers using online, they will be more open to receiving your message. Speak in their words, but at the same time, craft their words to fit into your new brand narrative.

In his wonderful blog on copywriting, the talented and gifted copywriter, Joel Klettke gives some specific places that you can mine to find the language you need for your new business narratives:

• Reviews—These are what your customers will be looking at, too—so finding objections in reviews gives you a chance to write copy that addresses them or cuts people off at the pass before they even worry about it.

• Testimonials—These help you understand who your customers are and how they talk about your solution. You can get some real gems from here!

• Forums—The most raw, unbiased conversations on the Web, these are great for recon on your benefits and shortcomings—as well as those of your competitor.

• Q&A Sites—From Quora and Yahoo Answers right down to the lesser-known hubs, these help you understand what questions or pain points people are dealing with.

• Your Sales Team—Nobody knows your customer better. Your sales people will know the questions they’re constantly being asked and the objections your customers have, as well as the things they share that are able to push customers toward making the purchase.

• Your E-mails—Hardly anyone uses these, but don’t overlook ‘em! These are conversations you can mine for important intel.”

So be brave and release your highly tuned, finely crafted brand narratives to the social media world. And then sit back and get ready for the onslaught. The world of social media will give you tons of feedback, whether you want it or not. So, take all that great raw material and mine it for all its worth. Be part of the conversation, connect, and stay connected.