Humans are naturally wired to love to hear stories. Look back at any ancient civilisation in the world and you see how stories were the centre of society. Groups of people sat around storytellers every evening. Culture was built through oral storytelling and history most often. Over time stories written by world travellers brought facts and features of that geography to other humans. If you check out the Egyptian history, you will find these slices of life retold through wall carvings and writings. As time has flown by we now see small stories in social media reels and posts. The electronic media especially like to retell stories of news through videos and infographics. Entertainment has moved from stage plays and operas to videos on OTT platforms. Now with AI and VR, storytelling can actually make you relive or live the moment through digital means.
With so much going on in the theatre of the mind today, any story has to be told well to be first heard. Then of course be understood. A spontaneous storytelling mindset is an important state of mind today to have to create desired perception. After all, everything today pivots around impactful communication. If you are creative by nature, you naturally take the lead in developing this mindset, otherwise you will need to adapt and change. Some key elements of storytelling include- simplicity, credibility and most importantly the ability to wordsmith effectively.
Telling your story
While storytelling has become a defined and structured format today for corporates and especially in branding & communication, remember that everything starts with how you tell your own story. Storytelling relies hugely on the storyteller for sure. It’s not so much about personal branding but you tell your own story with many other elements that you may not be conscious about. Just to expand this thought imagine how just the background score of a film scene sets the mood for the scene being shown. The same way the tone of your voice, your body language, even the clothes you wear sets the mood in the receptor’s mind to decode your story in the correct manner. Telling your own story in an impactful manner actually positively enhances your own perception as a storyteller and gets acceptance in the cycle of trust with your own team members and important stakeholders to start with.
Four types of storytelling
Let’s look at 2024 going bye even though storytelling was established as an ancient art. Brand communications, marketing and communications especially thrive today on the art and science of storytelling. It’s more refined today and developed to be precise in terms of desired impact. However there are still four basic types of storytelling. Let me briefly take you through them.
Oral storytelling is the oldest form of storytelling through the spoken word. Very impactful for client presentations and in today’s digital world for thought leadership, podcasts and even masterclasses. Visual storytelling again a very effective way of storytelling used extensively in the ancient times, for example the hieroglyphs of Egypt. Today with modern filmmaking and digital video making available, this type of storytelling has become very effective. Written storytelling fuelled by the invention of the printing press ushered in a new era of mass communication. Today powered by the internet, written storytelling is one of the most powerful mediums. Digital storytelling has given rise to blogging and social media. Today we are all storytellers through our posts and even active digital media citizen journalists. Storytelling has evolved into a critical skill and ability today for all of us professionally and personally.
Storytelling, the real art of persuasion
You may have heard often in corporate corridors comments like “Of course our brand will sell, it’s the best” or “No one can replace our service” or even “ Just follow what MD says, who is really bothered”!
Always remember this caveat emptor, while storytelling is the real art of persuasion, it’s the 4Ps of Marketing that add the crown to your efforts. Your product/ service needs to be a winner first.
“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.”
Jonathan Gottschall
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