Storytelling in Live Communication: Opportunities & Risks

We all feel how much communication has changed in the last 10 years - and continues to change rapidly. Especially significant here is the influence of social media.

Social media is pure storytelling. And of course, the everyday influence of communication on social media has an impact on live communication.

Provocatively, one might even ask:

Is social media the death of storytelling in live communication?

Let's start with storytelling on social media, because every little thing is now a big story. What are your impressions? More and more posts on social media, be it related to business or on a private level, evoke, to put it mildly, at least ambiguous reflections in me:

- Impressive ways of life or interchangeable calendar references?

- Profound experiences or everyday experiences?

- Interesting statement or irrelevant self-impression?

- Exciting personality or phrase monger?

Everything is presented, exaggerated, integrated into an important story - and in the meantime causes me to become increasingly tired and frustrated. The relevant content hardly counts anymore and the packaging becomes more and more important.

However, storytelling is a powerful opportunity and an important tool for market integration. We have all learned that information in the form of a coherent story is better remembered than pure information, ie: the numbers, data, and facts.

In this respect, the development on social media is completely understandable. Everyone is trying to present themselves in the best possible light - and sees themselves as a brand. Unique. Unmistakable. With strengths the world needs to know about....

But it is far too often just hot air...and incredibly obvious!

What is the possible effect of this? Will it lead to wear and tear and dullness? Will the story still be relevant in the context of market communication, even though any content is presented as story? Is it becoming more and more pronounced, higher, wider, faster? Or does a counter-reaction set in and the relevant content as well as the substance regain their value?

In order to better recognise the opportunities for live communication, it first makes sense to think about the possible risks of storytelling.?

Risks

Appearances are now often far more important than reality. A development that cannot function in the long term and will not be convincing.

My hope is that in the short term we will learn to focus again on the substance.

Is a "less is more" already on the horizon? Is this where the real impact, the difference, lies?

Therefore it would be all the more important to know what one's own substance is. What acceptance it finds among the target group and what relevance it has in comparison to the competition.

Instead of building on these simple foundations, a superficial and often empty interchangeable quality test prevails. The individuality is sacrificed to the divergent image, the own market character becomes exchangeable. This is because the perceived (competitive) pressure to produce new content again and again must inevitably lead to less relevance in terms of quantity.

Which story is really interesting? Of course, somehow everyone always reacts to people, beautifully staged photos. But is it always enough to combine them with general opinions, as contrasted at the beginning of this entry? Does this strengthen the person and/or institution?

From my point of view, a clear no! And I assume that we are currently already at the tipping point, after which a corrective sets in and actually relevant contents gain more importance again. Relevant (for the target group), authentic (because credible), differentiating (from comparable content)!

Opportunities

And it is precisely in this development that, in my view, the opportunities for live communication lie!

Institutions can only survive in this flood if they have a clear strategy that leads to convincing, differentiating, and precise content which is geared towards the brand.

At this point, a brief clarification of the terms in order to avoid misunderstandings. In fact, in this case Wikipedia offers a good summary of the definitions from the specialist literature:

Storytelling

Storytelling is a narrative method with which explicit, but above all implicit knowledge is passed on in the form of leitmotifs, symbols, metaphors or other means of rhetoric. It is mainly used in digital media, but has a long tradition. The audience does not only consume the story by listening, reading or watching, but can also be actively involved as prosumers in the implementation on news portals, blogs, streaming platforms and in virtual reality. The term "storytelling" is closely related to the narrative.

It is used, among other things, in education, in scientific management, in corporate communication, as a method for solving problems and as a marketing method. In science, it is used to convey expert knowledge to a layperson, but is often rejected because of its allegedly manual nature.

(Wikipedia)

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a marketing technique that is intended to appeal to the target group with informative, advisory and entertaining content in order to convince them of the company and its range of services or its own brand and to win or retain them as customers.

In contrast to advertising techniques such as advertisements, billboards or commercials, the content of content marketing does not focus on the positive presentation of the own company with its products, They offer useful information, useful knowledge or entertainment. Content marketing orients itself in its approach and subject matter to trade press, consulting and entertainment publications. Content marketing achieves its goals by presenting the content producer as an expert, consultant and entertainer who demonstrates competences, know-how and value propositions through the content instead of just asserting them.

Content marketing is part of strategic marketing. It focuses on the creation and dissemination of valuable, relevant and reliable content in order to attract and retain a clearly defined audience and ultimately to generate profitable customer behaviour.

(Wikipedia)

Both definitions can be summarized like this: "Storytelling is a narrative method of transmitting knowledge in the form of motifs, symbols, metaphors or other means of rhetoric - and content marketing focuses on the creation and dissemination of the relevant content.“

Storytelling has always been essential for our industry. Whether corporate, employer or public event, the staging of the brand through tangible storytelling is the heartbeat of each of our client projects.

Knowing the uniqueness of the brand is the basis for this. The brand core, the brand positioning and the brand identity must first be established and thus recognised. This results in the relevant content for the product and thus the knowledge of which content is relevant to it.

This leads to unique, unforgettable and non-exchangeable experiences at our events! We all know this and use it successfully.

Even more - but far from sufficiently recognised - our brand events are the basis for successful social media marketing. Because based on our brand knowledge, we produce so much potential content for social media through the corporate, employer and public events that we are able to counter the superficial and exchangeable posts with much more substance on this medium as well. Our clients can benefit from this as a further added value of our work if we think in a networked way and use the media skillfully.???

Let's start! There are great opportunities here to turn storytelling within live communication into storytelling on social media. Because then, in the end, the inflationary storytelling on the social media will not have contributed to its death, but to the further refinement and sharpening of this indispensable instrument of marketing production! And of course our own success.

About the author

Ulf Gassner is Managing Partner of CONCEPT X Group in Germany and founder of 27Names . Having moved directly into self-employment after graduation in 1993, Ulf describes his eventual development of a group of companies with 4 locations and being the recipient of numerous creative awards as “far beyond my imagination at the time.”

“The clear success factor for this was the partnership with incredibly great people, nationally and internationally, who believed in the collaboration and the potential. The best example of this is also the initiation of 27Names, in which the best personalities from Europe come together to be better together.”