The importance of story telling

Stories get our attention. Good stories are easy to remember. Story-telling is the oldest form of human interaction, and helps convey meaning, values and custom. If we ignore the power of story-telling in building our online communities we are missing one of the most powerful conversational assets. Yet how many sites looking to engage with their audience demonstrate an awareness of this natural form of interaction?

Let me tell you a short story. It all started in early 1996. A young accountant who had trained at KPMG used to return home from work and fire up his PC in his bedroom and contact his colleagues with news and titbits about the accounting profession that had piqued his interest. Ben was a natural networker and this seemed to him to be a good use of the Internet. His colleagues responded, many asking if they could forward his mail to acquaintances and friends.  This rapidly developed into a regular thing. People began expecting Ben’s next ‘update’.

Ben was not only a natural networker, he was also an entrepreneur. He formed the idea that, if his newsletter was that interesting, perhaps there was scope to develop it – perhaps to attract sponsorship from companies interested in his recipients.  By May 1997 ‘The Prudent Surfer’ newsletter was being more widely distributed. By December it was rebranded as ‘AccountingWeb’ - just in time to win the European Internet Product of the Year award. A new business was born which Ben called ‘Sift’, and today over 90,000 accountants in the UK and 58,000 in the States are receiving a variety of newsletters on accountancy from us.

So that’s the Sift story. At least, it’s the story we tell when we meet prospects for the first time. But the true story is the one in Ben’s own words ‘The Sift Story’ – but perhaps a little less romantic and for that reason not one for easy retelling. Good stories always have an element of myth about them.

Do you know the story behind your organisation?

The answer to the question ‘why are we called Sift?’ is that the strapline for the company at its inception was ‘Sift before you surf’! It doesn’t sound quite so good 13 years on, which probably explains why not many people at Sift know this. However, everyone at Sift should know the story-telling version of Sift’s beginnings. 

Similarly, when we work with businesses and organisations to help attract and engage their audience online, we start with the simple request, ‘tell us the story of how your organisation began’. It’s often a surprise that there’s no one in the room who can. In one recent case we were told how a handful of professionals were attending a conference and found themselves under the stairs in an alcoholic haze; and in that haze decided to form a new professional body. This story was told to the rapt attention of colleagues – the staff of that same body today – most of whom had never heard it before.

The thing is, businesses and organisations are ultimately about people – and, in the moment of their formation, about the one or two people who got something done. As organisations grow over the years they often become de-personalised – and that is exactly why they find it so difficult to engage (or even want to engage) with their audience online. How you treat your own story is at the heart of your organisation’s culture - and, by extension, at the heart of how you engage online. Like any other human interaction, online engagement ultimately only works if it’s personal.

Stories that work for your organisation

There’s no better way to make your site personal than to pepper it with stories. The most fundamental one is your history – not written in a corporate manner but told in the highly personal way in which it actually unfolded. Next come compelling ‘case studies’, which, to be truly compelling might be better called ‘real life stories’. These are the stories about your own successes, about the experiences of your customers and clients, and about new developments. As for any good story, include photographs of people, not buildings or logos. The subjects of your case study will have their reputations enhanced alongside yours, and quotable quotes or testimonials will soon follow.  These stories can feed the conversations in your community and trigger other forms of story-telling.

For example, the blog is a perfect format for story-telling. As described in To blog or not to blog, there are many types of blog but the ones that are great platforms for story-telling are the CEO’s blog (assuming this is truly the CEO in her or his own words) and a device called “A day in the life of …”. We often recommend this in a professional context where a named individual describes a typical working day – the ideal story for someone interested in getting into the profession or making a career change.

Your personal story

A website where stories are told is an attractive place to leave your own story. Our individual stories are all over the web, whether explicit (on Facebook or LinkedIn pages) or implicit (preferences and purchase decisions). If we really want to engage with our audience, we need to create a place in which you’d be happy to profile yourself (including linking to existing social media profiles) and share your interests and expertise with others. A profile that also records your activity on the site and demonstrates what you have put back into the community all goes towards enhancing how you feel.

In certain communities (What is an online community?), a great way to start the conversation is to invite ‘founder members’ to introduce themselves in a discussion. As well as reinforcing their own sense of belonging and supporting their personal stories, this also encourages others to interact and empathise. Take a look at such an exchange on the TalkAboutAutism site, where this has proved to be a great way to discover champions to take the community further.

You’ll know your story-telling initiatives have started to gain traction when they are repeated elsewhere … and it really doesn’t matter about the context as long as you are attributed.