Across the void

Telling a story across different platforms

Navigating the complex world of cross-platform storytelling is an art in itself. I’ll go step by step how I shared a simple story – a story of adventure in Jasper National Park across different social media platforms and what storytelling principles, tips and tricks I used along the way.

What’s the big idea? A weekend getaway Jasper National Park

First off, the idea. What is it? I wanted to tell a simple story of weekend in the National Park. So is my story suited to cross platform storytelling? What elements am I including; well I want a balance of images, text, and video with and without sound? I used a mix of media, why – check out Fell’s (2017) video highlights why storytelling is powerful in the digital era.

Basics of storytelling

Check out my previous blog post on Pondering Good Storytelling which included a helpful infographic to help you get to grips with some of the basics.

The Power of Short Form

So how do we tell the story people want to hear? We can learn a lot from brand storytelling! Attention spans are getting shorter, so multiplatform storytelling can grab and hold attention. We know videos are successful, Twitter notes Tweets with videos attract 10x more engagement. So as part of my 2 piece weekend story I included a Twitter thread with a video. I made the video using Adobe Video Maker, take a look and let me know what you think on Twitter!

Weekend Getaway Part 1: Twitter

I then linked the thread to the next video (also made with Adobe Video Maker) which I put on Instagram. For this video I went shorter, and included more still photographs. I highlighted that part 1 was on Twitter, adding my handle and to go to my bio for the link to this behind the scenes blog!

Weekend Getaway Part 2: Instagram

We’ve then got this blog, which in a way is a story about a story, so you could think of this blog as Part 3.

Bonus content: Don’t forget to tell people!

Letting people know about your story is also so important! Whilst yes things can go viral with no effort, there are plenty of options available to spread the word and entice people to your story. In the brilliant brand storytelling examples highlighted by the Vyond Team there would have been a comprehensive marketing strategy pushing the videos that used various platforms, Twitter, Facebook, even direct emails and outdoor video boards that shared either the full video or snippets of them.

See my attempts below:

I opted for a snipped video on Twitter offering a sneak peak of my story https://twitter.com/theRLPD/status/1561942217454862337

Then a promotional Tweet to the blog post https://twitter.com/theRLPD/status/1561942987264823298

Instagram photo with post and which mirrored a Instagram storyhttps://www.instagram.com/p/ChlvwirO_9-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Facebook post with image https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid031kMfL9QM4jFK5HncRrwoiXykTDTQMLP1GLWmSSyHJ4Lp49VMuyiEJnLEJr5CFfZLl&id=100085117531619