Are you sitting comfortably, then I shall begin...
Posted: Friday 08 April, 2011
Philip Keightley
Quite a grandiose introduction I grant you, but it is supposed to segway nicely into a short blog piece about telling stories. You see, as my role here at Punch is increasingly social media focussed (although very much still at the vanguard of traditional PR too, I’d like to add), it has become more and more focussed on telling stories. Now, I’m not for a second implying that we regularly down tools for story time with Mr. Keightley, but rather, that telling stories has become an implicit element of what we do in social media.
With the competition for user attention in the social sphere so fierce, brands that are able to introduce a narrative structure to their status updates or tweets are giving themselves the best chance of ensuring their hard fought (and often hard-bought) eyeballs are engaged. Just because we’re dealing with social media here, it doesn’t mean that we necessarily treat the art of entertainment and storytelling differently to the traditional media, be that TV, Magazines or Newspapers. Looking at the magazine sector for example, publishers and editors will ensure that their content (on the whole) consists of a series of regular and standalone content (as well as news in some instances). Certain elements of that audience tune in, or buy that publication for very specific elements that they come to expect each day, week or month, depending on publishing frequency. The same should be true for social media audiences; give fans or followers a reason to come back to find and engage content they enjoy interacting with and look forward to. But in addition to this, serialised narratives offer brand publishers an even greater opportunity to keep their audience engaged. Just as the most popular television genre – the soap opera – has done for years and years, brand publishers need to have an element of serialised narrative that engages their audience, fearful that they might miss the next thrilling instalment of... You get the point. Social media or traditional media, the rules remain the same; people like being told stories – and that’s where we come in.
