Using storytelling in marketing and communication is powerful, touching, engaging – and timeless. In today’s fast-changing world it is vital we learn to master the medium that has successfully adapted to, and driven, every technological media advance from the printing press to LinkedIn: The story. Analysing your users’ motivations and planning stories raises high-impact questions: Who are we – to ourselves and our community and users? Who do we want to be? How are we changing? Exactly how are we part of our community’s life?

What IS a story? We all use the word – but what actually is a story? Four common misconceptions.

Digital storytelling: Stories on community channels, scenarios, series, reader-rated content, fan fiction. Anchoring community, campaigns and interaction around stories.

Story utility: How do we process stories differently, why do they have such deep impact?

Story archetypes and arcs: “There are only a handful of stories and we keep on telling them again and again…” (Willa Cather). Identifying our story, planning it, crafting stories.

Brand stories: Founder stories, stories in brand journalism.

Driving stories though: Managing internal content, developing stories, packaging series, the approval process.

Cases, practise, hands-on: All the above will be practised using a range of digital cases, brands, products and services.