I do love how an entire industry almost entirely shifted from “doing social media” to “doing storytelling”.

I am not ironic, really. Finally from tools to purpose.

• Tool: I post stuff on my brand page to get likes and comments (short term commitment)
• Purpose: I post, continuosly, to tell my story (long term commitment)

I am also so amazed about millennials creating an entire culture based on digital. And while brands and organisations are trying to catch them up posting on Facebook, developing apps and replying on Twitter, all those kids are creating mindblowing tumblr, gifs and selfies.

It’s like they are saying: “sure, play with Facebook. Let’s be friend. I do actually have some complaints to do while I am snapchatting with my friends.”

They say that we ruin social networks, and Facebook was actually fine before parents decided to join. People working behind massive Facebook pages could tell you that, sometimes, there is not so much difference from a call center.

Economy in the past has been driven by two factors: houses and cars. Those two things that millennialls (but neither people in their 30s) cannot afford anymore, and they cannot be bothered anymore.

In the storytelling age, this cannot be ignored.

Millennials are reported to snub the most powerful brands. And if the brand storytelling is not right for them, having a social media presence turning to be a facebook/twitter powered customer service can be easely turn to be true.

Nothing wrong with giving a great customer support online. But is this the best that social media can do?

How the game is changing?

With Offic.in/a we ran a research to learn more about the digital habits of the millennials, expecially with their smartphone. The data tell us that:

• They cannot live without their iPhone (or Android).
• Their life is augmented by their mobile devices.
• They are mobile-first. The so-called second screen is the first screen.
• Apps and social networks are tools of communication.
• Emoji, gif, meme are their codes of communication.

Stats can be found here in Medium

It is not a surprise that, while tools are embedded to devices, codes are embedded to their personalities. And it should not suprise that millennials can hop from an app to a social network so fast and easy. Those are just tools, at the end.

Storytelling is made of codes of communication. And you should know yours.

There is a story, and you can (and should) help.

The selfie is the most popular code of communication. Call it burst of pride, call it cry for help, call it for what it is: a story.

Every bit that we see published online, that we are publishing online, is storytelling.

A selfie is the tip of the iceberg of #me: my very personal storytelling.

Millennials are an evidence of what we are all doing: we are telling our story online. Who more, who less, but we all have something to tell. And with the digital world so full of noise, is hard to have our stories heard, so we are down to one very natural option:

Let our story be contaminated by the relevant stories of others.

• Playing alone in the digital world never worked.
• Playing together in the digital world, well, is collaboration.

As you, I have a story to tell. And I will use all the codes and all the tools that I need to tell it. And I will also let other stories join mine to show relevance and to be relevant. And viceversa.

Millennials, on this, are the strongest one. The are the real storytellers.

What you can do, then?

There is just one question that you should ask yourself:

Is my storytelling helping others to advance their stories?

[ ] YES: Good.

[ ] NO: Time to rethink your place.