Now, Storytellers Need to Become Storysellers
Ravi Raman
Publisher - Fast Company Middle East & MIT Sloan Management Review ME | Led brands like Bloomberg Businessweek, T: NYT Style Magazine, Khaleej Times, & India Today | TEDx speaker | Passionate about sustainability
The alarm was set for Friday 9AM, too early for a weekend. But this was new episode of Brooklyn 99, season seven, which my teenage daughter was eagerly waiting for months. One of the rare occasions, when she just watched the twenty minute episode and did nothing else.
Normally, watching my teenage daughter do her homework is a masterclass in multi-tasking. She’s watching a YouTube video, WhatsApping, listening to music and yes finishing her assignments. Contrary to popular belief, the new media consumer may not have shorter attention span, rather that attention is being segmented between various platforms. So the challenge is to get a share of that attention.
Content needs to fit the context.
Plato, one of the most celebrated philosophers said “Those who tell the stories rule society”. Before there was history, there was storytelling. And for long, leading media brands especially magazines used narrative journalism to captivate readers. An immersive style of storytelling readers could relate to. Stories raising questions, or in many ways provoking debate.
But as the age of broadcasting and mass reach is ending, engagement is becoming the new metric, with social platforms turning interactions into experience. We may be seeing just the dawn of the age of interaction, with comments, shares, and likes, becoming just a basic metric. Big media brands need to face new challenges of the digital reality, where customers expect relevant content to be available at any time and any place.
And the only way big media brands can serve this consumer is by offering personalized content powered by AI and big data. Allowing them to tailor content packages according to the behavioral insights, personal data and preference. Application of data science allows recognizing and segmenting readers, gathering actionable information in real-time basis.
Writers, journalists and editors need to use deep analytics, not just to develop story ideas, but also to target the right readers, at the right time. Today, it is not just about telling a story but selling it.
CEO Gaharu Lestari Resources Sdn Bhd (Malaysia)
4 年Interesting ??????
The CEO’s Voice - lifting leaders on the screen, stage and page | Author | Board member | TEDx speaker | Public speaking coach | Ghostwriter
4 年While I fundamentally agree with the storyselling idea, your point about "the only way big media brands can serve this consumer is by offering personalized content powered by AI and big data" is perhaps a bit extreme. Where's the role for human ingenuity, emotion and connection in this? Or, perhaps, the answer lies in using AI and big data and combining it with human ingenuity, emotion and connection...
Product @Tamara
4 年Great perspective. In 2020, a brand's success is grounded in its ability to create contextual content, at scale,? on all social platforms that matter at that point in time. I slightly disagree that it needs to be powered by AI and big data; sometimes, going back to basics is the best way to do it. Every brand, company, and marketing team know who their consumer(s) are, and the challenge is always to figure out the subtle differences between platforms and their users, and then figure how to tweak your content and messaging to the fit the platform.
Health and Safety Professional (Freelance) | Consultant | Coaching & Mentoring
4 年So very true. People would more likely read and appreciate stories that resonate with how they're feeling or going through. ????
Speaker consultant using analytics to influence, Professional Speaker
4 年100% agree. Great article and well written. I would even go further to say this has always been the trend (think tv to YouTube to Netflix) The ability to say the right thing at the right time to the right person in the right way has always been the hallmark of great communication including storytelling. The reason it works is belief. What we stand for is essential to connect and engage ("I have a Dream" for instance). We need to do more than sell, we need to humanly connect. One is outbound, the other is 2 way. Content, context and INTENT. Megan Davis Shawn Callahan Mark Schenk