Advanced Social Media Marketing

Project 6: Storytelling

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Project 6: Storytelling Project

(Expected completion time –60 minutes)

I. Project Goal/Objectives/Problem Statement:

 To brainstorm and outline a story narrative that both defines your brand identity as
well as pushing consumers toward a defined conversion point.
II. Skills that you will acquire after completing the project:
 Ability to ask the right questions of your conversation monitoring team to identify
potential consumer based story ideas.
 Ability to use existing brand narratives to generate story ideas.
 The ability to weave a story based message that both boosts the brand and
encourages a conversion point.
III. Learning outcome of the project:
 Individuals who complete this project will have identified which internal teams are
responsible for conversation monitoring. They will also how have learned how to
work with existing brand guidelines or consumer narratives to identify topics or
incidents that lend themselves to solid story development.
IV. Project Description:
 In this section, you learned about the importance of storytelling, consumer stories,
and matching consumer stories to motive. In this mini project, apply these concepts
and answer the questions.
V. Project Tasks:
 Social media has helped shift marketing from a purely sales-driven mindset into a
relational mindset. Stories are a powerful tool.
 For each topic, answer the questions keeping in mind your current organization.
Download the questions from the Learning Tool to your local drive, answer them,
and submit the project.

Topic 1: Internal Story Ideas

Sometimes, the stories we tell within social media are the ones we fashion ourselves. Whether we
are at the forefront of innovation, our founder has a fascinating background, or we choose to create
stories to make our brand more accessible, many of our stories are built by our marketing teams.

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 There are wide ranges of starting points that can help you build a great story. Use these questions to
brainstorm ideas for brand-driven stories from the questions.

1. What problems do your product or service solve? (Or, what issues does your organization
address?)

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2. What emotions tend to be tied to your brand, your industry, your product, or your services?

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3. Do you have a defined brand mission? What is it?

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4. What have you introduced that has changed your industry or area of focus?

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5. What do you want people to know about your company or organization?

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Topic 2: Customer Story Ideas

Sometimes our best stories come from the mouths of our customers. What themes tend to pop up
frequently among those who are loyal to your brand? Do they share their experiences? Can you use
them as examples or create brand stories based on their experiences? Use these questions to help
you brainstorm about consumer-driven story ideas.

1. What life events or business challenges cause an interest in your product or service?
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2. Which persons within your organization have contact with customers? Do they have any good
stories of happy customers or outstanding experiences?
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3. Do you currently have brand evangelists? If so, what are their stories like? Can you leverage
them?
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4. Can you run a contest that generates consumer stories or content ideas?
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5. What needs or desires drive consumers to engage with YOUR brand in particular?
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Topic 3: Identifying Stories

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 Often, the best stories are the ones that are not directly solicited. Therefore, it is critical to have a
plan in place for listening to and identifying solid consumer stories. Use these questions to examine
your current internal processes.

1. Find out the teams or individuals who track online conversations around your brand. If no one
does, who is best suited for this task?

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2. How do we decide which stories to use? What are our goals and our focus?

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