Invisible Storytelling (Part One) — What's new, and what does the future of content have in store for us?
Not long ago, I was on Imgur. For those of you new to this platform, think of it as a content-sharing sharing hub of sorts. That said, it's incredibly topical and shows how we socially craft little bits of stories into the fabric of a larger picture. I once read an Imgurian saying, “I don’t watch the news; I can get it all here in memes, videos, and images.” This was the seed for me to watch how people compile stories, build myths (and conspiracies), touch topics, and play a small part in endless narratives being played out online in real-time.
When was the last time you were on Facebook and saw that someone had shared or even created a meme about an article about something topically substantive? It happens all the time, right? Don’t overthink it, but let's zoom into this endless cascade of ecosystems and try to make further sense of it.
I, for one, have been engaged in social media for as long as I can remember. My 1Password is overflowing and holds keys to some fantastic graveyard fences – MySpace, Vine, Google +, Tumblr (yes, I know it’s still around, but let’s be real), and the list goes on and on. For most of these platforms, the thing that gave them a pulse was the fact that they held the willingness of an audience to feed it user-generated content (UGC).
And I’m not talking about Tik-Tok challenges, flash mobs or photoshop battles. I’m speaking about little bits of video, animated gifs, static memes, and simple run-of-the-mill text. Come to think of it, William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition was closer to this concept than I had originally given it credit for.
"Yeah, but this is just lame humor; half the time, it's divisive bullshit!" Let's circle back to that; it's not wrong but also a matter of interpretation.
So much of the internet comprises unique content ecosystems, in such cases, of those with its own territory, audiences, villages, factions and so on. An example of this might be – Facebook, I have an interest in camping, and now I belong to a big community of people who follow National Parks. <side note> Consequently, if you're not following, you're doing yourself a great disservice as it has brilliantly written humor-based social media. </side note> From national parks, I might be in a Glamping group, or [FILL IN THE STATE WERE YOU LIVE] groups; there's a marketplace for used gear and reviews, then we dial into brands like REI, North Face and even smaller products and services. There's user-generated content being uploaded to hiking and 4x4 trail apps like onX Offroad, and then we dial down to single-user accounts (aka influencers) teaching you how to make a gourmet meal using the heat of a candle stick on a flat rock. It's like a movie where they show you a galaxy and then zoom into the Milky Way, our solar system, our planet, through the clouds, down to the city, past your house, and land on a macro shot of a ladybug on a leaf. Let’s enhance that! Clarify.
So, what does this have to do with storytelling? More than you think because you don't think about it when it's happening. Moreover, it’s truly the nature of ‘viral marketing’ (rolls eyes) because often, it’s the unintended UGC byproduct, and it’s sharing that makes it so.
What's happening is that your story's being brought to life and served to you in a non-linear fashion. Think of a movie that gives you glimpses of the future, the past, and the present, then introducing you to other characters, and you're compiling a “Choose Your Own Adventure” version of any given narrative. This is far more powerful than you think because you're getting these pieces, in all likelihood, from sources, people, and brands you trust. Therefore, your story version becomes more concrete when the collective weight is tallied.
There's a good side and a terrifying side to this coin. One side is filled with inspiration, curiosity, and excitement, while the other is filled with anger, hatred, and confirmation—aka: "my truth." I've come to use this term when the pieces of the narrative support or guide you to a falsified conclusion—or worse, spawning a new story you didn't know you feared. You're all smart people; I'm going to let that simmer.
So "storytelling" is making a comeback, as a real technique to connecting brands, businesses and services to new customers, mavens, and loyalists. And before we all go to the comments like the sky is raining fire, talking about how storytelling is in all marketing—don’t because it’s not, and hasn’t been for some time. Why is this?
When done right, you can offer guidance and support, create a flashing arrow at nay-sayers, and even amass a more kindred following. So why aren't marketers using this all the time?
It's hard.
It's in real-time.
You need a neurodivergent A-team.
Budgeting for it can be a scope-creeping Kraken of a nightmare.
Knowing it or not, online audiences want to participate in the process. (like having a volatile client wasn’t enough)
The outcome is grossly uncertain.
Think of "going viral," but it takes six months. Or being seen as the brand that 'shit the bed' because they didn't have mindshare, planning, and 'war room' to support creating the proper ethos to speak to their unestablished segmentation. Wait what?
See, in this story, it's not enough to craft and see the best-case scenarios. You have to play hero, victim, and prosecutor (aka: "The Drama Triangle"). You have to understand and often become your story's protagonist and antagonist. And this, my friends, is no easy task because, societally, we are predisposed not to trust anything that looks, feels, or sounds like we're being sold to. Conversely, we are generally skeptical about any growing wave of inspired belief or interest.
But isn't this just "omnichannel marketing?" No. Please allow me to explain why.
Let's return to an earlier point that is often misrepresented in client pitches and concept meetings alike. Invisible storytelling is happening in real-time. Remember 15 years ago when everyone told you that social media is a conversation? They weren't wrong. If you go over to a BBQ in the backyard of a friend’s house, you cannot predict how long you'll be there, who will show up, how the food will taste, what music is playing, if someone has a food allergy, what the calorie count of the afternoon is and if someone will get too drunk and take a swing at you. That's before the conversations even started. Moreover, let's imagine that this microcosm is a model for a story. Unique people are talking in the kitchen, backyard, pool, front yard, and secondarily, what the neighbors are discussing behind our backs.
In marketing, there's also the false sense that we should push all the conversations in one direction into a hub where we can control them. Okay, puppet master, let's see how well you do when you ask everyone to leave a bar and return to your office, where you can show them why they want your products.
In part two, we'll run some invisible stories by you and see what you think, whether you agree or disagree, and hopefully start some discussions about what you might do or not.
Complete transparency—In my longish’ career, I've crafted 'complete' (while grossly presumptive) campaign architectures, real-time marketing, alternate reality gaming storylines, and endless supporting materials for brands, products, and services, and I feel WOEFULLY inadequate to position this idea in a public forum. Nevertheless, we can all benefit from some best practices and fundamental human truths as we sculpt this monolith.
I'd love to hear your thoughts (email, TXT, 1993 Motorola LX2 pager) or scathing criticism about my theory, and it will help me be a better version of my profession because of it.
