Storytelling is a specialized subset of communication. And communication requires two parts to complete a circuit of meaning — you need a speaker (writer, artist, Martha Graham-type interpretive dancer, etc.) and a perceiver. Then those two halves switch sides so information flows both ways. Then and only then do you get engagement.
You, my darling little alpaca, only have control of one half of that circuit. What do I mean? Gather ‘round and let Auntie Steph tell y’all a tale. Continue reading
If you’re already an SEO badass, the cat that won’t cop out when there’s danger all about, then this blog post isn’t for you.
But if you’re new-to or on-the-margins-of or just-curious-about online marketing? Well, my friend, you are about to enter the land of the TLA — the Three Letter Acronym. You can’t swing a cat (not that you would, you’re not a monster) without hitting a B2B or a CTR or a PPC. And they’re all important. But they’re not equally important. The 800 pound gorilla, in my humble opinion, is good ol’ SEO. Continue reading
There’s always time for lateral thinking.
If you’ve been paying attention to Content Marketing World 2014, you know they got one hell of a keynote speaker: Kevin Spacey. Yeah, the Kevin Spacey. Keyser Söze himself.
(Note from 2018: Wow, did this keynote speaker choice not age well.)
But that got me thinking about one of my favorite storytelling techniques — the plot twist. Oh ye gods, I love a good plot twist. If I don’t see it coming, if like the finest stage magician you distract me with sleight of hand and then spring the surprise on me with a flourish? I am all sorts of into it.
What sort of plot twists can work in your advertising? And how can you make them work on social media? 140 characters isn’t a lot of room, so you’ll have to be clever. But it can be done.
Why would I ask this?
Because you, buddy, should start thinking about how to play with and delight your audience.
Give it a think. See what your inner magician can pull off.
As you’ve no doubt heard, Twitter is talkin’ turkey about making changes. And the user base is…let’s say less than thrilled.
Over at Gigaom, Mathew Ingram dropped the news that at a “financial conference, Twitter’s chief financial officer Anthony Noto suggested that the service will offer algorithm-driven curation of feeds much like Facebook does, in order to try and improve the relevance for users.” Possibly starting by nuking the reverse-chronological feed that Twitterers have been used to since the service rolled out in 2006. Continue reading
We’re back again. Together. You and me, ol’ buddy ol’ pal. Here to check out those classical Western storytelling tropes and how they can make your marketing awesome. We’ve already covered the protagonist vs. society and the protagonist vs. antagonist, so today, we’re going to take a look at…
Protagonist vs. Self, ie: Crippling Self-Doubt, Tony Stark’s Default State, Gregor Samsa’s Bad Day, Me Trying Not To Eat A Whole Tin Of Smoked Oysters On Crackers With Hot Sauce Don’t Judge Me They Are Delicious. Continue reading
Have you heard about Yo? It’s an app. That lets you say “yo.”
No, really. It got seven figures worth of backing, and that’s all it does. That’s it. Or rather, that was it. Yo has been given an overhaul (a yo-verhaul?) that makes it less single-purpose. Users can now send hashtags and include URLs in their messages, expanding the app’s functionality by several orders of magnitude.
Which, to be honest, wasn’t hard. Continue reading
There’s always time for lateral thinking.
Storytelling is my obsession and my life, sure, but not all stories need to be on the list of the longest novels in the English language. Ernest Hemingway famously was issued a challenge to tell a story in just six words. Here’s his reply:
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
Heartbreaking, mm? All that pathos crammed into six words. Extraordinary economy.
And that’s exactly what you need in social media storytelling. Can you do it for your brand? Let’s say, for example, you have flower shop.
“You’re in trouble. We can help.”
That’s a little too easy, isn’t it? Plays to negative stereotypes about how men and women interact. Can we do better?
“Rainy days need color. Send flowers.”
That’s a little better. Reminds folks to use your service for Just Because, not just Special Events. But maybe we can do better than that.
“She’s wondering. Answer her with flowers.”
There we go. Nice. Concise. Worth the price.
Why would I ask this?
Because you, buddy, should start thinking about making your message fit the medium.
Give it a shot. See what you get.
I’m so glad you asked! You’re my favorite. Don’t tell the others. It’ll be our little secret.
The short answer is that storytelling is narrative and narrative is driven by conflict. The long answer? Let’s dig into the guts of that.
Traditionally, conflict comes in the form of the big four: Man vs. Man, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Nature, and Man vs. Self. (But since this is 2014, I’m just going to go ahead and use the term Protagonist, or even Protag, because c’mon. There’s also some other X vs. Y ideas, and we’ll delve into those too.) What do each of these categories mean, especially in terms of marketing? We’ll take ’em one by one. Starting, in this post, with… Continue reading
There’s always time for lateral thinking.
How would you write a bit of social media copy to promote your brand that doesn’t mention it by name? AND doesn’t mention your industry?
As an example, let’s consider something near and dear to my heart: Coffee. Folgers is a popular brand, so we’ll run with that. How about a tweet? Keep it short and sweet, well shy of the 140 characters the platform allows so that there’s room for people to retweet with their own handle intact.
“You have grown-up things to do. We can help.”
“You need to be awake anyway. How about something delicious?”
“We can’t make Monday go away. But we can make it less Mondayish.”
Why would I ask this?
Because you, buddy, should start thinking about the experience you’re selling.
Consider it. See what shakes out.
Dude. Dude. No. Just…no.
Look.
There’s a time and a place, mm? And that time and that place is not “all” and “everywhere ever.” Because that is creepy. And what do we know about creepy?
That’s right. Don’t be.
Here’s an example. Continue reading
Storytelling for Success 