If you’ve scrolled down your Facebook feed over the past 24 hours, you’ve probably been inundated by your friends participating in the latest Facebook trend – “10 Concerts I’ve Been To, One is a Lie.” Users share a list of 10 concerts they’ve been to with one of them being fake and the goal is to see if your Facebook friends can guess which concert you never attended.
With a core, strong group of Jersey women, you can bet that Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen make our list of concerts we’ve been to, but, taking a step back, we ask ourselves, why does a silly trend like this become viral?
The answer is simple – it’s another example of the power of storytelling.
When we reminisce our favorite concerts and share those memories with others, we evoke emotions in ourselves. Cognitively, we don’t just list the name of the entertainer or the band, we are transported back into time to various decades, relationships, friendships and emotions that embody more than just “a concert” but an entire experience. We tap into how the music made us feel.
Storytelling is a science. It alters brain chemistry – creates neural connections, engages emotions, mirrors experience and triggers empathy. As a company with a bandwidth of capabilities, we believe that effective storytelling is a foundational element that needs to be integrated into our clients’ tactics.
The takeaway: in order to be an effective communicator, you need to be a powerful storyteller.
Through our Story Masters Program, we teach our clients how to become strong and effective storytellers, which then allows them to engage further with their audiences. Stories cause increased activity in sensory and emotional centers in the brain and engage listeners. Facts alone do not.
Without a story behind them, facts and data are unmemorable. If our audiences aren’t remembering the data – if we don’t make them care, that data loses almost all of its value.
So, next time you want your message to resonate, connect with your inner Bob Dylan, or Eminem, or Justin Bieber – and find that emotional connection. Hey, you never know, it could go viral.
