Ernest Hemingway would fit right in with our social media world. Storytelling in 140 characters would be right up his alley. Although debated whether he actually wrote it, Hemingway is credited with a six word story: “For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.” (34 characters). More to the point, Hemingway would probably love to create an arc of a story using social media the way Dickens did with serial literature.
To me, that is where social media is heading – storytelling in its most profound state. Kind of like the kids game telephone where the person at the end of the line is supposed to repeat the message whispered to everyone before her. Making sure each person hears the story exactly as it was meant to be told is the challenge of social media. Yes, we can all follow a celebrity and hear the story that way, but, much more likely we are going to follow our friends and see the story through their eyes. Awesome stuff for creative businesses.
The name of the game used to be — get the press’ attention and you will be good – there would be newspaper and magazine articles and maybe even a TV spot. Control the direct audience and it is enough. Now the audience you want to reach is the audience of your audience at the time your audience is consuming your art. How do you craft an experience such that those who directly experience your work will relay it in a way that honors the experience you and your creative business intended in the first place?
Specifically, how do you create an arc so that the social media you receive in the moment actually takes on a life of its own as you would intend it to? Where the consumers of the social media are as engrossed in the experience as those who are actually there. How do you make your clients and their guests/employees/attendees/users better storytellers?
I think of it like a fantastic fashion show or an awesomely curated shop. We see what they want us to see and even though it is for us to form our own impressions, we are being gently directed to the experience the designer or the shopkeeper most wants for us.
Right now, social media is mostly just a series of moments, not a cohesive story. See something you like and it gets posted until the next thing you like shows up. But being guided into and through the experience – helping you become a better storyteller because you are part of the experience – we are not quite there yet. How we are going to get there I leave to the marketing/commercial storytelling geniuses out there — Rebecca Grinnals and Bill Baker coming most to mind. That is their world and I cannot wait to see where they take us. I just believe this is where we are headed and the opportunity, if it is where we are going, will be to measure success in a whole other way.
Gary Vaynerchuk is right. Even though we could not measure social media well at first, did not mean that it was not pervasive and incredibly valuable. Once we figured out how to measure eyeballs, the value of social media companies exploded, just as he said they would. Now, the future might be flow as much as volume. If that is so, we are just at the infancy of being able to measure it, which means, as Gary says, many will absolutely discount its value or ignore the opportunity right in front of us because measurement (i.e., proof) is not quite there yet. If we start to quantify the value of having the audience tweeting/Instagramming/Pinning/Facebooking/YouTubing at the right moments, building the story right along with the actual creator, what will that be worth? Ultimately, the long-term value of social media will be how well you play telephone, not how loud the phone is. Capturing a secondary, even tertiary audience, through your art and keeping them captivated is today’s challenge and, I think, the monster opportunity available to so many creative businesses.
So here it is: what happens when you make the audience the active narrator and how does it affect your art and your creative business?
{ 2 comments }
Wow…those links were a 3 hour rabbit hole. Great info on Bill Baker’s site. I’m in the middle of designing a very specific shoot for a big client–this was hugely helpful! How do you always know what I am thinking Sean–seriously??
Great post Sean, and very timely. While social media is certainly here to stay, I find that many people still struggle with how to best connect to and use it. Naturally, I look at it through the lens of storytelling and am slowly (but surely) discovering how our clients and I can better use it in this regard.
We define storytelling as “an exchange of meaning shared from one person to another for a purpose.” When I consider that definition in the world of social media, it leads me to think of (and use) social media much more as a dialogue and engagement tool than a broadcasting one. Yes, social media gives anyone with a keyboard or camera the ability to push ideas, messages and images out there into the world. But I think the real value of it comes when people engage in a dialogue and form connections as a result…much like you and I have gotten to know each other, even though we have never met.
Personally, as a business owner and as an aspiring thought leader, I have evolved my goal for social media from breadth to one of depth. In other words, I would rather have fewer social media relationships if they are more meaningful than as many relationships as possible. In turn, those more meaningful relationships can help me pass along what I want to share, exactly as you have done here, Sean. I hope you don’t feel used. 😉
If you’re interested, I’ve written two posts on social media: the first sharing good manner lessons from my Southern grandmother, the second talking about the point I make in the paragraphs above.
http://billbakerandco.com/blog/2010/11/11/remember-the-social-in-social-media/
http://billbakerandco.com/blog/2012/03/25/my-adolescent-insecurity-with-social-media/
Cheers!