How to be a Storytelling Superhero 101
Tap the power of storytelling ecosystems, Now
A transformation is underway at the intersection of storytelling, social media and your mobile device. If you can see it, you will have access to the powers of a superhero. Is that something you’d be interested in? You could even become a superhero in your own right and can take your place in the Justice League. After all don’t we all want to save the world in our own special way?
Tapping superhero powers is pretty cool and understandably a bit daunting. Fear not! We will break it down into two parts to get you on your way: PART 1 — Storytelling Ecosystems and the Seven Superpowers. PART 2 – Meet the ‘Justice League’ of Storytelling Ecosystems and build your superpowers.
The goal of the Superhero 101 framework is three-fold: 1) to create a fun and effective way to talk about this exciting and confusing time and build a deeper understanding of key social media titans; 2) to offer ideas to capitalize on what I call ‘storytelling superpowers’; and as a result 3) cut through digital noise pummeling every user, the arch nemesis of gaining attention and driving engagement in this brave new world.
In this ‘always on’ world when literally millions of services live in peoples’ pockets, combined with social platforms, we can all feel like we have new found superpowers as we create, share and act stories that matter to us.
Plus, my five-year old son thinks Mom must have a cool job, if we can discuss Superheroes together over Cheetos as part of Mommy’s work.
PART I: What is a storytelling ecosystem?
Before you put on your cape, consider the following:
Countless ways of thinking about and measuring the effectiveness of social media companies (and increasingly any company that engages regularly with people) exist — monthly/daily users, level of mobile usage, revenue generation levels/forms, market cap – but one phenomenon, and maybe one of the most important, is missing. The incredible powers of what I describe as storytelling ecosystems.
A storytelling ecosystem is a dense, dynamic network of story ‘molecules’ that helps individuals and organizations build meaning, belonging and usefulness.
• Each ecosystem emerges from billions of interactions between individuals, brands, and devices.
• Each new combination of story molecules can foster a sense of deeper meaning, connection, togetherness and usefulness.
• Each ecosystem is shaped around what are often termed as a social platforms (e.g. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest) in concert with other branded sites/experiences/applications.
• Each platform has its own strengths, vulnerabilities, participants and culture
• And dominant platforms possess “superpowers” elevating them to ecosystems with Superhero status
Superhero ecosystems are powerful because they tap into something primal. It’s well documented that our brains are hardwired to crave and respond to story. Stories activate parts of our brains that fire up when we experience events, in addition to the processing functions. We remember story, we have personal connection to them and respond to them. According to Uri Hasson from Princeton, “whenever we hear a story, we want to relate it to one of our existing experiences.” In fact, we create narrative all around us, whether explicit or not, as we experience our everyday lives.
And now, at any time, anyone with a smartphone or wearable device can create, share and act on stories that matter to them. These devices will be location aware and increasingly interconnected to many contextual facts about your wants and needs. The potential impact is enormous — according to IDC, over 1.4 billion smartphones will be in use worldwide by the end of this year.
Companies and brands are tapping into this storytelling force. Through prioritization, constant testing and iteration, users’ wants and needs are further illuminated and can be served more effectively.
All in all, the act of storytelling which is so deeply embedded in our collective consciousness, is a superpower that can make the world a better place, one interaction and one user at a time.
And why does this matter for YOU?
Storytelling ecosystems are vitally important because they drive both breadth of reach and engagement with and between users. And reach and engagement are essential to building brands, impact, community, revenue, and overall growth. The ecosystem lens can help foster conversation about how and when to use these ecosystems in connection with your digital brand/presence — based on their strengths and weaknesses and similarly, your own.
However, storytelling ecosystems are not created equally. Only a few have ‘superhero’ status and we need a framework for assessing their unique superpower strengths and vulnerabilities, attributes and cultures. This framework is a key to unlock and unleash your own superpower MOJO.
At PRI (where I’m CEO), we are inventing new ways to engage with people. We seek to create measurable impact by affecting positive change in the world through fostering a more informed, connected and empathetic citizenry. PRI’s work has become a petri dish. We are rapidly iterating and testing how our trusted journalism and other compelling content interacts with users, local-national partners and many of these important storytelling ecosystems. For us, it’s about how these ecosystems fuel growth by generating more value from/for individual stories, user generated content, “shows”, topics, talents, communities, tools, stations and mobile devices as part of PRI’s own storytelling ecology. I’ll share some lessons from PRI and public media to help illustrate the potential in PART 2.
Before we dive into each of the Superhero platforms in PART 2, here’s a quick primer on the Seven Storytelling Ecosystem Superpowers:
Seven Storytelling Ecosystem Superpowers
- Telepathy. Reading minds is pretty cool. Several superhero ecosystems intuit and serve up more of what you might like, contextualized to help you recognize relevant information or more stories that you would have not otherwise considered.
- Co-Creating. Creating empowers. Combining content from amateurs, professional, and somewhere in between can be powerful. When these interactions are harnessed effectively, then compiled and curated, they create deeper value and connection for everyone. Co-creating platforms often establish a new creative constraint that standardizes submissions and helps drive mass adoption; like 140 character limits or 6 second-long videos. In addition, best practices can also emerge, even ones that are not not “platform enforced,” and become norms. For instance, many of the most shared online videos are three minutes or less.
- Narrative “Punch.” Drama makes the world go round. Narrative punch can come from individual stories that are posted or shared. But, it really gets going in a storytelling ecosystem when the collective power of multiple stories, or even fragments of stories, add up to a new whole. The strongest systems can translate these pieces into new narrative arcs complete with grounding context, chapters, suspense, emotional connection, cliffhangers, protagonists and antagonists, surprising moments and resolution. Co-Creating and Narrative Punch often team up and reinforce each other (like the Wonder Twin powers that activate with a fist bump); co-creating ecosystems tend to have the most potential for Narrative Punch.
- Nesting and Clustering. Discovery can be thrilling. Nesting and Clustering describes deep discover-ability that is built from a combination of who you follow, what you share and what you comment on and clip, save, and/or like. They are then greatly enhanced by powerful machine learning algorithms that offer up additional relevant options to consider. Nesting and Clustering superpowers help the user to go deeper with new orders of nesting and clustering revealing new information and experiences. It leverages the power of the community to deliver a great experience along with the power of the tool/platform itself.
- Cool, Powerful Tools and Gadgets. Gizmos make life better. Many superheroes have tools that allow them to do more and achieve greatness. So do most platforms. By design, they are useful features that do something or solve a problem and sometimes you didn't know you had.
- Morphing. Changing shape. Creating new compilations, and curations that can delight and have not been previously seen or offered in that way before while delivering appreciable value.
- Organizing. Making good @#$% happen. Superpowers are enhanced when superheroes work together and with the public for the common good. Organizing is about people doing things together beyond Co-creating (a separate superpower category). They act together to create a new world, product, getting together, volunteering, donating/funding, etc., that can benefit one’s life, community, or both. These actions build community, participation. And these “acts” of organizing are often worthy of stories in themselves and can feed the broader narrative.
Whew. We have now mastered storytelling ecosystems and key superpowers. Feeling ready for the next step?
Stay tuned to this bat channel! Please check out, How to be a Storytelling Superhero 101, Part 2. We’ll meet the ‘Justice League’ of storytelling ecosystems and offer useful insights on emerging opportunities for all of us.
Questions like: what platforms are best at reading your mind, possess the most powerful gadgets and are most vulnerable to the digital versions of kryptonite? And give practical strategies on what that could all mean as we build brands, stories and communities over time in this dynamic and chaotic time. (I bet you’re already off and running on who makes the cut and why. I’d love to hear what you think!)
Until then…up, up, and away!
