Everyone is a buzz about digital story telling these days and its gain in popularity makes sense. Stories are the fabric of our history. They can be verbal, written, a song, a painting, a photograph, but more importantly they are the most relatable form of communication (which is why they have been used throughout centuries). Enter digital.

Smart brands will insert story telling into their content marketing strategies using the digital tools of today to offer creative and visually compelling content in order to emotionally connect with consumers. However, these stories are not about products or services. Michael Brenner of SAP reinforces this and says that brands will compete when they establish “relationships that build trust.” Today’s buyer is “looking for brands that know how to connect in a human and emotional way.”

Microsoft Stories is a great example. Products take a back seat and employees are front and center. This program is meant to humanize the brand. These stories are about great things being done inside one of the world’s most innovative companies.

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The hub is graphically appealing with lots of interactivity and they use photography with data visuals. And, the stories are fascinating. Check out their new CSI lab where they work to fight cybercrime or Microsoft’s City of the Future. Even some of Microsoft’s toughest blogger critics gave them props. Why? They show Microsoft in a totally different way. A human way.

It is not easy though. First, you have to understand what will resonate with people. What they care about, what they want to know and how to relate to them in a meaningful way. Next, you have to break through the deluge of information and keep their attention. Michael Brenner includes a factoid from Statistic Brain that basically says we humans have less of an attention span than a goldfish!

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What are your thoughts on digital storytelling and how to do you plan to mix this in with your content strategy?

Jennifer Voisard

Jennifer Voisard

Senior Consultant

Jenny is a digital content strategist, who leads customer-centric engagements that focus on understanding B2B buying behaviors and developing custom roadmaps.

Her expertise is creating buyer personas and mapping digital content journeys to assess the multi-channel user experience. She helps clients operationalize plans across workstreams and identifies processes to create efficiencies in marketing operations. Jenny also has extensive time under her belt developing and managing customer advocacy programs and community building.

She has helped a diverse group of organizations including Cisco, VMware, Verizon, Microsoft, Dell, BMO Harris, Capital One and many others become more customer-centric.