Micro-storytelling: We’re all storytellers!

Storytelling is the art of telling stories. Andrew Stanton, director of films such as “Toy Story” or “WALL-E” said in a TED Talk
“The clues to a great story“:

Storytelling is knowing your punchline, your ending, knowing that everything you’re saying, from the first sentence to the last, is leading to a singular goal, and ideally confirming some truth that deepens our understandings of who we are as human beings.

We all love stories. We’re born for them. Stories affirm who we are. We all want affirmations that our lives have meaning. And nothing does a greater affirmation than when we connect through stories. It can cross the barriers of time, past, present and future, and allow us to experience the similarities between ourselves and through others, real and imagined.

Micro-storytelling: We’re all storytellers!

Stories and experiences connect us to each other.

Through videos, in Snackson we recreate situations in which the user can identify himself while we tell a story, connecting the user through intertextuality with the content specifically created for their training. The construction of sense is determined by webs of significance that we spin through our lives and building on the experiences and problems that we solve. Intertextuality is the node where a meaning is grouped with other, it is the link with other texts and the richness, both of interpretation and creation (Carbonell, 2002). Bringing training close to the most immediate context in which our users live is vital.

Storytelling has always been part of the traditional marketing environment, but the information age leads to a constant evolution where the communication rules. It is for that reason that it has become a tool to connect with other people, for its easy adaption to the context, to online environments, proving that it can generate the same impact through a screen, producing and achieving the coveted trust brand-user.

In our case, we talk about micro-storytelling because the content that the team behind Snackson offers has to be short and concise, leaving aside what is superfluous and focusing on what is truly important, connecting and remaining in the user’s memory directly through stories.

After identifying the needs and desires as well as the way to satisfy them in the field of corporate training, Snackson creates educational microcontent which can be seen in a short time and are adapted to the day-to-day by applying storytelling (micro-storytelling) in the design of the training and, at the same time, creating a direct connection as I have explained over this post, through stories.

 

Learning depends largely on the relationship with the behavior of the inner unconsciousness of the individual, where we can highlight 3 different processes:

1. Selective attention

We select the stimulus we want to receive and we reject the information we don’t desire. It is a behavior before information.

2. Selective distortion

It consists on the tendency we have to give a personal interpretation to the information we receive. We distort reality because we want it to correspond to our ideas and we don’t want them to defy our perceptions.

3. Selective retention

Consumers tend to remind the information that is in accordance with their attitude and beliefs of what they have chosen. People forget more than they learn.

 

Taking into account the previous processes, in Snackson we keep in mind 3 key elements that our micro-storytelling must follow:

• Offer an emotional experience through narration.

• Not forget the classic structure of short stories. Everything has a beginning, climax and denouement, and it is for some reason.

• Use shared experiences. Reality and sincerity will always bring you a little bit closer to your target audience.

 

What do we know about the future of storytelling?

According to a report published by Latitude, specialized in online and technology tendencies, which includes 4 key points about modern narrative, when applying this technique we should bear in mind: The 4 “i”:

1. Immersion

Achieve to provoke the need to go deeper into the story and learn from it.

2. Interactivity

Give the opportunity to interact with characters or others Stop being an observer in order to become a contestant.

3. Integration

Incorporate the real world to the story, including the crossmedia integrations, allowing the interaction with the client within social networks and mobile applications.

4. Impact

Capacity to have a direct impact in the people’s way of acting through stories.

 

To conclude, the use of storytelling in the instructional creations, aimed to corporate training, is an efficient way to learn and consolidate new knowledge taking into account the personality and cultural-social-economic values. The stories which are closer to our daily life achieve stimulus in people, helping them to understand and remember new concepts.