Every website, blog, online newspaper, brand, company, and basically anyone involved in web publication of any kind is tapping into the trend through feature-pages and art directed articles. However there’s a growing concern that this trend is one being exploited by brands.
What Storytelling On The web Is Now
There’s nothing wrong with the current affair of web storytelling. Actually it’s a great way for the web and communities to develop through interaction. Infact, through the likes of websites like Medium, the web is actually becoming a more democratic environment. Voices that would previously go unnoticed, are now being broadcasted to thousands across the globe.However, to understand how this web trend is being exploited, we first need to look a little deeper into its anatomy and workings.
In general, the classic storytelling article (or post) at the moment carries two basic formats, with contrasting writer-reader relationships. Let’s take a look at each of them.
The Industry Insider
The first is the industry insider post. This is usually written by someone you don’t know and will probably never hear of again. It’s a largely text based piece, with a highly opinionated point of view on a controversial matter that relates to your profession. It’s usually written on a small personal website or a blogging platform.So you see the title on twitter or something. In less than a split second, in deciding whether to click on the link or not, your brain goes through a super-fast evaluation. Usually there’s two things that will influence your decision – the title and the sharing source. If you click on it, it’s due to two reasons: The title having some form of a baiting statement or question that catches you’re eye, and whether the social media referral is a trusted friend or reliable source. Advertising agencies have been using this technique in social media for years – the friend referral in advertising is worth its weight in gold. It’s like the best thing since sliced bread for them.
So somehow you find yourself at the top of the article about to start reading. However there’s a phycological trade-off between the reader and writer. Because the article has already convinced you to click on it, the author is now indebted to you. It’s kind of like “You made me click on this so it better be damn good”. This puts the author at a disadvantage, they already owe you.
In terms of the actual storytelling process, there’s a secondary trade-off. Although you’ve never heard of the author, you’re willing to sacrifice the time it takes to read the article, in exchange for an enjoyable story with perhaps a little insight into something. It’s like “I’ve never heard of you, but I’ll consider listening to what you have to say, as long as it’s good.”
The Promotional Piece
The second is the promotional piece, which follows a slightly different format. Firstly, while it’s still a content driven article, there’s usually more images, maybe some parallax scrolling thingies or even some fancy illustrations. Content wise, it’s less opinionated, and because the author/website is semi-established, their opinions will be considered more factual. Although the article is written with the intent to promote the website it’s published on (gain/retain readers), it will generally be a meticulously crafted piece of writing, with well researched points.In landing on the article you follow pretty much the same process as the former, except that this is written by a medium-to-well established brand or company. Something like this piece.
Before you start reading, there’s a different notion however. Because the article has been published by a company or brand you know (and probably trust), there’s a much smaller trade off between the author-reader. Sure, they have a reputation to maintain, but if the story isn’t that great you’re more forgiving because you probably like their brand values.
Finally, because the article is in essence promoting their brand (and you’re aware of this), a debt needs to be payed. Kind of like “I know you’re promoting yourself, but I’m willing to ignore that because the content you’re providing me is great”
Why Storytelling Works
So we understand what I’m talking about here. These types of articles are a great asset to the design and development communities in general. They’re a great way for Individuals and small businesses alike to reach much larger audiences than usual and voice their opinions in an otherwise corporate dominated industry.Also it’s worth noting that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a small business doing this kind of thing. It’s a great form of promotion, particularly when the content is beneficial to the community.
Blatant Advertising
This trend, is one quickly being exploited by bigger brands and companies in an attempt to gain community credibility and reinforce brand values. I’ve seen a bunch of these articles lately and frankly, It’s shameful.The main difference between this form promotion and the former, is that these posts come from big household name brands, who already have significant marketshare and brand awareness. This is what sets apart ‘promotion’ and actual advertising.
When I read one of these articles, I feel instantly irritated, almost to point of nausea. It’s like someone force feeding you soup when you’re not hungry. “No thanks, I’ll eat when I’m hungry thank you.”
Firstly, the brand already has a voice, everyone can hear it – they’ve got like 3M twitter followers. There’s no need to tap into a niche market, purely in an attempt to reinforce brand advocation.
So what exactly am I talking about here? A perfect example of this is this page here by Microsoft which is published on their newly created “stories” (advertising) section on their website. The language is appallingly over-descriptive, almost slimey. Reading it feels like some Microsoft exec trying to chat you up at bar, only to reveal their true intention that you should go buy Windows 8. I looked up the author, she’s a professional writer at Microsoft who runs their “blog”. So she’s not even a designer, developer, software architect, or anyone with any actual expertise on what she’s writing about.
It’s just blatant promotion masked in the form of a dismal attempt at trying to make the company look more “Googleey”. No one cares about the internal creative workings of Microsoft. No one wants to know what their employees are woking on for “fun” outside of working hours. Infact, if the company had any real ethos, they would do this kinda stuff inside working hours. You don’t see Google posting promotional storytelling about how their employees are creative and have “fun”. The whole thing is just a giant virtual billboard that reads “Hey! Microsoft is cool! We’re Creative”. No Microsoft, you’re not. You’re a corporate-targeting software company producing less than mediocre products.
Apple has done some similar things on their website lately with some feature-pages for the iPad and other products. However they’re done in good taste and aren’t just blatant forms of advertising delivering a seemingly obvious message.
However this isn’t just a one off, practically every big brand these days is investing in professional writers with a newly created “stories” section on their website.
The Future
Advertising will always be present on the web, no matter the format. Infact it’s the money from advertising that keeps the internet afloat. However there’s a line in the sand to be drawn. That line is what differentiates promotion, and strategic ploys of incognito brand propaganda.The biggest issue with this form of advertising is that it’s forced unwittingly on the reader. The entire notion of discovering content on the web and our generation’s distaste for television is due to the fact we hate being force fed information. We like to pick and choose when and what we want to read.
I suspect this form of advertising will seep its way into Medium eventually, with internal employee written shills like “Design workflow at [insert brand here]”. Whether this is actually already happening or not is another matter for another day.
0 comments:
Post a Comment