Stories have been an intricate part of society for as long as there have been people. We use them to express ideas and concepts and to entertain. The ability to tell stories remains important but the way in which we tell them has evolved. There are many different ways to tell a story, whether it is using a more traditional blog format, Twitter, your website, video, audio or even games. The stories you tell are important and often an overlooked aspect of your online presence. Effective storytelling will enhance the experience you and your audience have. It can bring people closer to your organization or push them away.
The most important thing about digital storytelling is that you are telling your story. If you are telling your story, you accomplish several things. First, you attract an audience that is genuinely interested in what you are doing. These are people that will engage with you and are interested in your organization. If you are not attracting the right audience, you are going to lose people or lose focus on your goals. The next thing this will do is allow you to connect to your audience. When you get a lot of similarly passionate people, they will connect much better than those that aren't really interested in what you have to say or the things you are doing. Finally, you want your message out there. Your message is the entire point and if it isn't being expressed or received, the effort is wasted. Make sure you know the story you want to tell.
The next important thing is to decide how you want to tell your story. With so many different mediums, you need to know how you want to tell your story. It is important to use mediums that will really highlight your message and using the best medium for each message. Often, visual mediums like photographs and video will be more engaging than just a blog post but it really depends on what your message is. For example, if you are wanting to tell your story about community gardens and are wanting to promote a fundraiser or a garden planting the day before, you may want to create a short tweet regarding the event. If you are telling the story of one of your events after it has occurred, a stronger option is using pictures to show what happened (perhaps in conjunction with a blog) or posting a short video to YouTube.
An important consideration to take is that while certain mediums may seem exciting, they can involve a lot of resources to create. Technology is becoming less expensive so things like photos and videos are easy to take and still maintain decent quality. But if you want really high quality images and video, the equipment can still be expensive. Software is also needed for editing but there are more affordable, even free, options. The biggest investment is usually time. Photos can take time to go through and select the best ones, even if you don't have to do very much editing. Video can take a great deal of time to create. While having a video is fantastic, it is important to keep in mind that even a short video that's only a couple minutes long can take even experienced editors several hours to complete.
People want to hear your story and you want to make sure your message reaches them in a meaningful way. There are no hard and fast rules for telling your story because it is your story. There are things that will help, but playing to your strengths and staying true to your story will do more for you than any set formula could.
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