Buzzword has, in essence, become a buzzword itself. Which makes me wonder if the buzzwords we hear so frequently today actually mean what they are being used for.
The one that irks me the most is Story. Story is NOT a buzzword!
When I say this, I am going to take a wild guess that a lot of you may not know what I am talking about. Let me clarify the ways in which the word story is being used.
A client or creative director is asking what the story is in the picture of a shoe.
Marketers are telling you that you need to make your clients or customers be part of your brand story.
Make your brand story relatable.
Story is the most important.
It starts to repeat itself with ways the word story is used. Let me point out that all of these scenarios could actually include a story of some kind, but more likely this would be considered more concepts or moments in time than being an actual story.
I think it really comes down to what makes up a story. A shoe in a spinning shot isn’t likely telling a story. Instead, it is just sharing an image, a concept, possibly a mood, but most definitely not telling a story.
Your brand story goes far deeper than calling something a story because you posted a #hashtag on your latest Instagram post that promotes your brand — or an image of a hamburger.
Story is not a concept but is a way in which people have communicated for centuries. There are actually tools and you can learn what will help you tell better stories but the problem is they are hard to master.
I suppose it is easier to just make a sequence of something and call it a story to appease clientele, but I’d wager that won’t last you in the long run.
The big question is what are the tools to help you tell a better story, or actually even tell a story in the first place.
In my next post, I share with you what story means to me and some specific steps that I use to achieve the type of stories we tell.
