11 Storytelling Formulas to Supercharge Your Social Media Marketing

Marketing is the art of telling a story that resonates with your audience and then spreads.” If you look at some of the biggest brands around, you might notice that they are often amazing storytellers. Here are some tested-and-proven storytelling formulas used by companies like Pixar, Apple, Nike, and more.

Star

Chain

• Hook
• An attention-getting, positive opening

Pixar’s award-winning formula

Introduce a character or a group of characters, describe their usual routine, present a twist that disrupts their daily lives, explain how they overcome it, and celebrate.

• Known as “The Story Spine,” it was created by Kenn Adams, a professional playwright and improviser.

Parachute in, don’t preamble

The best storytellers draw us immediately into the action to capture our attention and set the tone for a unique audience experience.

• Avoid opening with “I’d like to tell you a story about a time when I learned…”
• Instead, drop the action and the lesson out later.

Create detailed imagery to craft the setting you want

Tell people what they are getting swept up in, and they will respond

• Implementing the “real” into a fantastic setting helps create a better connection with the reader
• Use multimedia such as images and videos to complement your words

Before- After

Bridge

• Set the stage of a problem that your target audience is likely to experience.
• After, imagine what it would be like to have Problem A solved. Explain how to get there or present the solution (i.e. your product or service).

Problem- Agitate- Solve

Present a problem

• Agitate an Agitate the Problem
• Solve the Problem by Offering a Product or Service
• Similar to the Before-After-Bridge formula
• You present a problem, but instead of “before”, you intensify the problem with emotional language
• Then, solve the problem by offering your product or service

Dale Carnegie’s Magic Formula

Share a relevant, personal experience

• Action
• Describe the specific action taken to solve or prevent a problem
• Benefit
• State the benefits of the action
• How to Win Friends and Influence People
• Open your story with a personal experience relevant to your point to grab your audience’s attention. Then, describe the actions you took chronologically, showing that a change was needed. Finally, connect the change to its benefits

Three-Act Structure

Setup

• Set the scene and introduce the character(s)
• Confrontation or “Rising action”
• Present a problem and build up the tension
• Resolution
• Resolve the problem
• The three-act structure is one of the oldest and most straightforward storytelling formulas used in storytelling.

Get Personal

Anchor your stories through real people, and tell them through a personal human lens.

• The hero of your stories should be your customers and community, not your company (e.g. Airbnb’s hero is often their hosts or guests).

Freytag’s Pyramid: Five-Act Structure

Exposition

• Introduce important background information
• Rising action
• Tell a series of events to build up to the climax
• Climax
• Turn the story around (usually the most exciting part of the story)
• Falling action (continuing the action from the climax): end with a falling action and a dénouement

The Hero’s Journey

Departure: A hero receives a call to go on an adventure, receives advice from a mentor, and heads out on her journey

• Initiation: The hero meets a series of challenges but eventually completes the mission
• Return
• The hero returns and helps others with her new found power or treasure

Nancy Duarte’s secret structure of great talks

Describe the current situation and then contrast that with a future that’s way better

• Make the present unappealing and the future attractive
• Go back to the present and then point to the future again
• End with the new state where your product or service is adopted

Dave Lieber’s V Formula

Introduce the character

• Bring the story to its lowest point
• Turn it around and finish with a happy ending
• Lieber is a keynote speaker and the Dallas Morning News Watchdog columnist, who has been telling stories for almost 40 years.

Golden Circle

Always start with your Why

• Why are you in this business? What motivates you?
• Explain how your company will achieve your Why.
• Finally, describe in tangible terms what your company does to bring your Why to life (i.e. your products and services).

Don’t complicate things

Lindsay Smith, producer at National Geographic Travel, discusses how to effectively use social media responsibly

The 3 things to ask

Is this story going to be interesting? (Gut Check)?

What’s your favorite way of telling stories?

Whenever I write, I often find it easier when I have a structure in mind already

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