There are many ways to tell good stories: Depending on the company and the best form of communication or content that best matches the target group, almost all (multi)-media approaches, from video clips to formulated stories in text form, are conceivable. The first thing to consider is your target group: who is the story for? How is the group comprised – what are their desires, hopes, and interests? Which medium does the group prefer? You first need to answer these questions by carrying out market and target group analyses.
Should the story be written in text or be in the form of a (short) film? When you’ve decided this, you can then orientate yourself to the classic drama and narrative theory in storytelling: it is a question of continually building suspense to pull readers, listeners, or spectators along and then end with a moral or a message. At the beginning, there should be an initial situation that the target group can identify with. The story should have one or more main characters, one of which the reader should be able to identify with, and follow them along as they solve problems, overcome obstacles, and develop. The story should end happily: the problem or mystery is solved, obstacles are overcome, and the main character(s) have achieved what they set out to.
Make sure to avoid complex storylines and don’t change the time and location often. While stories can convey a more complex message, they should be as easy to understand as possible so as not to discourage the recipient, and at the same time encourage them to get involved in the topic. Particularly in the case of online articles, readers tend to skim texts and read faster, since their attention span is shorter when surfing. This means you need to impress the reader right from the start of the story. In this respect, you can roughly orientate yourself around the three Aristotelian unities: unity of action, unity of time, and unity of place. In our article, we reveal how reader behavior online differs from that in print media.
In the fast-paced world of the internet, first sentences are extremely important. Inspiration and examples of good opening sentences can be found in abundance in literary history. Two example are: 'There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it', by C.S. Lewis, The Voyage or the Dawn Treader. This sentence introduces a person, and leaves the reader wondering what he did to deserve it. 'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen', by George Orwell, 1984. The point of this sentence is to disorientate the reader and let them know that confusion is to be expected in this story.
If the story is to be told in moving pictures, the first few seconds are of crucial importance: Since video clips (in addition to on the company blog) are mainly found on social media such as YouTube or Facebook, distracting videos from third-party providers are only a click away.
The example illustrates that the beginning of the story doesn’t have to provide maximum information – quite the opposite: At the start, a teaser usually leaves some questions unanswered. Answers are then revealed as the story progresses. This piques the viewer’s interest and keeps them in suspense until the ending.