in a digital age
Did you know that 1 in 3 consumers use Social Media to discover new products and brands?* Additionally, 1 in 4 also use social media to purchase products.* What does that mean? That people crave genuine connections with brands. However, it's no longer sufficient to simply exist online; brands must engage in ways that resonate emotionally and reflect their values.
This is where Digital Storytelling becomes indispensable. Through story, you can effectively humanize your brand and communicate who you are, convey your purpose, and show how you provide value to your audience. The more authentic and compelling your story, the stronger your brand stands out—earning trust, recognition, and a lasting place in today’s dynamic marketplace.
​
But how can you use storytelling in your strategy? What channels will work best for you? By now, we know that there isn't one answer/model that will work for all cases. First, we need some extensive research to collect some information for our brand and what we are trying to achieve. Each project/case is unique and has its own specifications, therefore each strategy needs to be customized and personalized in order to reach those specific goals. Each customer/user must feel as the brand is directly addressing them. Follow along to find out some of the general steps that I use in creating a digital strategy with a focus in content and storytelling.
​
note: Want to skip my thought process and jump directly to examples and case studies?
​
Go to:
Your brand is a story unfolding across all customer touch points.
-Jonah Sachs
How to build an effective strategy?
The Brief
A good strategy starts with a brief, which serves as a blueprint where brand and vision are communicated consistently both internally and externally. A creative brief is a comprehensive summary of your project, background, target audience, and campaign goals.
Questions to get started on a creative strategy
What are the primary objectives?
What is the primary message?
What is the brand's purpose?
What are the brand's values?
Who is the target audience?
What do our customers want?
What calls to action will we use?
What digital channels will we use?
What is our budget?
What is our timeline?
What do we want our audience to think/feel?
How will we measure the success of the campaign?
Who are our competitors?
What is the tone and style that we will use?
Explore
Analyze
Test
Research
After completing the brief, you'll have a clear idea of your starting point, how you stack up against your competitors and a deeper understanding of your customers. Now it is also a good idea to analyze your performance. Start by evaluating your performance over the last year or last few campaigns. Dive into analytics to determine what worked/didn’t work and why. Before implementing any of the new strategies, it is crucial to run some A/B testing (run some tests over: landing pages, CTAs, content, email subject line, headlines, layouts, forms etc..) and learn why certain elements impact user behavior. As the digital space is a very fast paced environment, you need some good, coherent research to keep up with the latest social media news & trends.
​
You want to create and curate relevant and valuable content to attract potential customers.
How will you reach your audience?
A good model that I've found very effective is the PESO Model, created by Gini Dietrich. PESO stands for “paid, earned, shared, owned,” media and serves as a means of segmenting all of the marketing channels at a brand’s disposal into discrete groups. We can look at all the efforts through any one of these four lenses of the media to see if there are opportunities to integrate additional channels into new or existing strategies. The model also allows for us to make sense of and to organize the channels in which we are currently investing. It gives a full panorama of all the channels that you can use to reach your audience. It is suggested that in order for it to be effective you have to integrate all four lenses when you're creating your strategy, but of course you should depend on your brief and research and pick and choose what makes sense for your brand, budget and timeline.
Take some time to familiarize yourself with all the channels, and then figure out what makes more sense to use and integrate in your strategy. If you want to read more about this model and learn how you can utilize it,
follow here.
The fun part: Creating Content through the art of storytelling
Storytelling is not intended to be a “selling” tool; rather look at it as a method of building strong relationships with your customers and a thriving, engaged community of loyalists over time. Your story identifies what your brand stands for, what you are passionate about, and it serves as the foundation for all your future content developments.
How to make your story
IMPACTFUL ?
Make it PERSONAL
People need to feel personally connected to your story. Don't just pique their interest but draw them into the story.
Make it EMOTIONAL
Stimulate emotion and empathy. It’s not just about what you do, but how you affect your audience.
Make it AUTHENTIC
Be open, honest, and transparent. Cultivate consistency so that people can not only identify but trust your content.
Make it MEANINGFUL
Your story has to be interesting and relevant to the people you’re trying to reach.
Make it SIMPLE
Focus on one person or one problem at a time so you don’t confuse or distract your reader.
Make it MEMORABLE
Whether through inspiration, scandal, or humor, good stories stick in the reader’s mind.
In the digital age, many of the tools and techniques we use are created while keeping in mind the digital channels of communication. But, in order to be effective when using different tools, traditional techniques should be respected. In our case, the storytelling method is no different. Elements like framing, plot, character development, and narrative all play a significant part in order to tell a great story.
Social Media Storytelling
Storytelling plays particularly well with Social Media. In order to be effective, you have to share different aspects of your story across multiple formats. Since different social media platforms cater to different mediums and audiences, posting intentional content to your different social media channels can really help with brand storytelling.
Think strategically about your social media plan and campaign. Once you know what your aims are with any of your social media accounts, it’s much easier to work out a road map. In most cases, there are 4 main areas where you need to concentrate:
Brand Awareness
Customer Acquisition
Lead Generation
Content Creation
Mediums to use:
etc.
Storytelling formats
The most important goal for every piece of content is to communicate your brand story as efficiently and effectively as possible. Therefore, choosing the right format is vital. You might get caught up in trying to produce the flashiest, trendiest types of content, but this is a disservice if it doesn’t fit your story and in some cases it can even detract from the story. Identify the best format for you before you dive into content creation, as the format will influence the way you craft copy. Some storytelling formats that brands use are: Blog posts; Articles; Videos, Interactive Infographics; E-books; Charts, Graphs, Maps.
Lastly,
Companies and brands that excel at storytelling have a strong team that includes people from multidisciplinary fields and professions. A collaborative and interdisciplinary approach is vital because you’ll want multiple perspectives in the same room focusing on the problem space. For each business strategy, it comes down to two fluid realities: the possibilities afforded by digital technologies and the needs and wants of customers or end-users, partners, prospects and others. This intersection is a place of great complexity and ambiguity. It’s also, by extension, a place of exploration, discovery and opportunity. A good interdisciplinary team can reduce complexity and ambiguity while catalyzing the ability to explore new territories and discover new opportunities.
So, go on: interact, let you ideas flow, be empathetic and enjoy the process of Storytelling. Master it and you and your team will greatly improve your potential for success in the digital space.
Up Next
**“The Future of Social Media: New Data for 2021 and Beyond” poll, on behalf of Sprout Social, surveyed more than 1,000
US consumers and 250 business executives to better understand how they use social media and its impact on an organization.
© TUMO Tirana
Digital Strategy and Communication plan
Brand Strategy, 360 campaign, Media Planning, Content Strategy, Experience Design, Social & Influencer Marketing.
Main Message
Your journey towards digital skills starts at TUMO. Step by step, you will explore new fields, be inspirited by innovation and arts, discover your talents and create fantastic projects. Each step you
take at TUMO is engaging and fun, and it brings you closer to a brighter future.
Brand Description
TUMO Center for Creative Technologies is an international educational center that puts teens in charge of their own learning. At TUMO, teens gain cutting edge skills at the intersection of technology and design while also gaining industry knowledge and soft skills essential for success in the 21st century. With 9 TUMO centers across the globe, in 2020, the brand expanded its presence in Albania. TUMO Tirana offers the same educational content and innovative, software-based delivery strategy used in TUMO Berlin, TUMO Paris, TUMO Lyon and all TUMO centers in Armenia.
​
The launch
From launching at the peak of the pandemic to celebrating first anniversary, TUMO Tirana has brightened the minds of over 1,000 teens in robotics, animation, programming, filmmaking, game development, graphic design, music and 3D modelling. In less than a year, we were able to reach our goals and even exceed them. Talking in numbers:
​
-
TUMO Tirana has +15K organic followers in the social media channels;
-
TUMO Tirana is the 2nd most followed account from all the TUMO centers; (1st is TUMO Armenia, which opened in 2011)​
-
More than 1,000 students visit the center weekly;
-
130 workshops have been completed in 8 disciplines;
-
Through successful partnerships, 600 scholarships were offered so all teens can attend the center.
​
.png)
TUMO on Social
