Storytelling Is Having a Comeback Moment and I’m Here for It

Credit: Wall Street Journal

There is a recent Wall Street Journal conversation about how storytelling is coming back to the center of social media and communications. The data is catching up to what some of us already knew in our bones. Storytelling is not just cute packaging. It is the work.

Me when my brothers got in trouble for no reason

I have always been a storyteller. As a kid I was that girl watching The NeverEnding Story and The Pagemaster on repeat, reading on a twelfth grade level in elementary school and getting completely lost in other worlds. To this day I follow writers and directors more than actors. I care more about the lyrics in a song than the beat. And yes, I was very good at lying on my brothers. That was survival with three of them in the house and in a strange way it was early practice in understanding characters and outcomes.

All of that shaped how I see communications. This is why I have never believed that communications is an industry that can be wiped out completely by AI. AI absolutely makes parts of the job easier. It can draft, brainstorm and clean up. What it cannot do is live your story for you. People still crave a human connection before they buy, donate or believe in an idea. They want to feel like a real person is talking to them, not a script.

If you want your communications plan to work in this new season, you cannot just add a hook and a call to action at the end and call it a day. You have to tell the story from the beginning to the middle to the next chapter.

Here are three simple ways to do that.

1. Name the main character and the moment

Every good story has a who and a what now. When you sit down to create a campaign, ask yourself two questions.

Who is the main character in this story.

What moment are they in right now.

Maybe the main character is a parent trying to find a better school, a student who just discovered a talent or a teacher deciding whether to stay at your school. The moment might be confusion, hope, frustration or celebration.

Once you decide this, write your post, email or video as if you are walking that person through this moment side by side. Use their language. Acknowledge the tension. Do not start with the event or the program. Start with the human and what they are feeling.

That is the beginning of your story.

2. Map your chapters, not just your posts

Most organizations treat communications like a series of announcements. Post about the event. Post about the deadline. Post about the win. Then move on.

Instead, think in chapters.

If you are launching something new, for example a school, a program or a campaign, sketch out the story arc.

Discovery. This is where people first hear there is even an option.

Decision. This is where they are comparing you to everything else.

Belonging. This is where they start to feel like they made the right choice.

Now look at your calendar and ask what content you are sharing in each chapter. Early on you might tell origin stories and share the why. Closer to a decision point you might share clear FAQs, testimonials and behind the scenes looks that lower anxiety. Once people join you, you tell stories that reinforce belonging and show them in the center of the narrative.

That is the middle of your story.

3. Always close the loop

The part most people skip is the follow up. We invite people to act, to show up, to apply or to give. Then we disappear until the next thing.

Closing the loop is where trust is built.

If families show up to an information session, tell the story of what happened and what you learned from them. If students complete a program, share what changed for them and where they are headed next. If your community supports you in a campaign, come back and show them what their support made possible in real life.

This does not have to be a polished documentary. A short recap email, a carousel of photos with honest captions, a quote from a parent or student and a simple “here is what you helped us do” goes a long way.

Darth Vader has a great story

That is the next chapter of your story and the bridge to the one after that.

AI can help you format, edit and even brainstorm pieces of your story. Use it. But the heart of the work is still human. The organizations that will stand out are the ones that remember this and build communications plans around real people, real moments and real follow through.

In other words, do not just tell people what you want them to do. Tell them a story they can see themselves in from the first page to the last.

Do you need help telling your story?

Contact me today!