Obama Social Media Strategist Dan Siroker speaking at SoCon10

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to talk about social media storytelling at Kennesaw State University. I was there for  SoCon10, and it was great reconnecting with Dave Felfoldi, Bert Dumars, Toby Bloomberg, James Andrews, Carol Flammer and several others from Atlanta’s social media community. And congrats to Leonard Witt and the Center for Sustainable Journalism for pulling together the great day of talks and workshops on social media.

My workshop broke social media storytelling into some of its basic elements. It’s a topic we will explore in greater depth in the first session of PR+MKTG Camp Seattle, which is only a month away.

Storytelling is a core competency of any PR professional.  Good stories drive coverage, generate awareness and build relationships.  But today’s storytellers need more than a good pitch and a receptive reporter.  And a good press release needs to be more than a compelling lede and reasoned argument.

We work in an environment that is nonlinear, operates independently of news cycles, uses multiple authors and resides on a variety of platforms.

By viewing social media as another form of storytelling, we can be more effective in mastering the tools that are redefining our relationships and reshaping our stories.

Five Elements of Social Media Storytelling

1. Disintermediation

Disintermediation is giving the user or the consumer direct access to information that otherwise would require a mediator. In days gone by, that mediator was the reporter or industry analyst; today we go directly to the end user.  The New York Times said it best:

“Gone are the days when snaring attention…meant mentions in print and on television, or even spotlights on technology Web sites and blogs. Now PR gurus court influential voices on the social Web to endorse new companies, Web sites or gadgets – a transformation that analysts and practitioners say is likely to permanently change PR’s role in the business world.”

Journalists still clearly matter. I am quoting the NY Times. But today PR professionals no longer have to solely rely on journalistic filters to validate us. The challenge of course is identifying these “influentials,” gauging their influence and understanding their rules of engagement.

2. Word of Mouth

In the social media word, links, tweets, retweets, viral marketing and other forms of word of mouth are critical in rapidly reaching large numbers of influentials.  They can be more powerful than a well placed, stand alone story in a national paper.  The challenge here is tapping the right individuals to activate their network of followers, friends and connections.  And in the case of viral marketing, success may require leaving your brand’s comfort zone – infusing humor and the off beat to drive word of mouth. Think about the Will It Blend? campaign by Blendtec.  They took a big risk with the brand, but reaped even bigger rewards.

3. Messaging and Key Search Words

Both messaging and key search words are critical to telling their story, but they pose one of the greatest challenges to PR professionals. Messaging is generally a core responsibility of PR. It’s about repetition and consistency, control and limited flexibility over time.  Messaging is often driven top down from executives whose perception of their company is often different than their customers.

Conversely, key words generally fall in marketing’s camp and are about constant testing, experimentation, and access to feedback loops that allow for new ways to present the brand.  They are generally generated top up reflecting the way people search for the products we sell.

Unfortunately, PR and marketing often fail to align messaging and key words, which limits the power of both. We fail to track the effectiveness of our messaging in search results. Consequently, our messaging may be less effective in reaching and influencing our customers. By paying greater attention to key word/messaging alignment, we are also better positioned to minimize the technical jargon and the corporate speak that we are so accustomed to using.

4. Storytelling as Content Creation

Thinking broadly, our stories are essentially content.  PR is not only about telling stories for others to access; it’s also about customers sharing our stories across their networks.  By posting reports, surveys, graphics, pictures and video, we are giving customers the story elements they need carry our message and tell our stories for us in their own way.

5. Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is almost the flip side of disintermediation. It’s all about customers coming to us with their stories, brand experiences and suggestions.  Companies like Starbucks and Dell are successfully soliciting ideas from their customers – using them to not only tell stories for us, but creating story lines we may never have anticipated.

—-

Clearly, social media storytelling challenges our assumptions about news and narrative as well as message and messenger.  But I don’t want overstate social media’s role.  Mainstream journalism is not dead and still can exert tremendous influence on online traffic.

To share your ideas on storytelling and how to use social media more effectively to do, go to the PR Camp Facebook page or Linkedin Group.

Let me get back to you.

Tweet This Post 

Browse Timeline

• « PR+MKTG Camp Seattle
• » Social Media Week – Atlanta

Comments ( 3 )