Must Market

We are entering a time when STORY is paramount. Anyone and everyone can share content. Few can tell great stories. Fewer websites will tell great stories. 

Andrew Stanton shares great tips every Internet marketer and web designer should take to heart as we enter "the time of online stories". Loved this explanation of why stories are so important for humans:

"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."

and ...

"In 1998, I had finished writing "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life" and I was completely hooked on screenwriting. So I wanted to become much better at it and learn anything I could. So I researched everything I possibly could. And I finally came across this fantastic quote by a British playwright, William Archer: "Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty." It's an incredibly insightful definition. "|

I love the idea of Story as affirmation. Reviews are affirming stories. Comments and other forms of User Generated Content (social shares) also feel like "affirming signals".

Affirmation goes in two directions as my friends at Bazaar Voice taught me years ago. I asked, "Why would someone write the 251st review of a product?" "To join the tribe," was their simple and beautiful explanation.

One VERY important role for User Generated Content (UGC) is to confirm the contributor as a member of the tribe. The other is to confirm the content being reviewed or commented on. More than affirmation UGC can help reset a company's branding and positioning.

As marketers we have our own language and the "curse of knowledge". We know too much about the stories we tell. UGC helps confirm our story is consistent with the experience our products create.  

Is Your Internet Marketing Telling A Great Story?
Wow, this is GREAT. I love this sentence,

"I think it is because change requires loss. And the prospect of loss is far more powerful than potential gain. It’s difficult to imagine what a change will do to us. This is why we need stories so desperately."

The implication, stories are the key to change, rings true and so the right question is how can we tell better stories, stories that promote the change we want :).

Buying anything anytime is a form of "change". We want the security of knowing our money will be well spent and the excitement of new experience. When in doubt, as this great post points out, we stand pat. We hesitate because we can't imagine the new story.

Here is another implication. Our jobs as Internet marketers is really to help our visitors imagine the new story :). M