The highly controversial Kenyan presidential election of 2007 resulted in an explosion of violence across the country. Kenyans rose up in protest, and the Kenyan government turned the full force of its military on its own people. While the civil conflict raged for weeks, initially it went largely unnoticed by the rest of the world.
The reason was that each episode of violence, while dramatic and appalling in its own right, was seen as an isolated incident — a rogue band of rebels being squashed by the government, not large or mainstream enough to warrant special notice. The entire conflict was treated initially by the media and the world as a series of isolated, contained situations. It was the government’s strategy to keep the incidents viewed as isolated — ensuring they did not raise enough attention so as to inspire other civil uprisings, as well as to keep the scale of the horror obscure to the rest of the world.
Storytelling as Community
What changed things was a group of bloggers and software developers who understood the scale of the conflict and put in place a mechanism to capture the true story of what was going on — as told by those being directly affected. They called it Ushahidi (Swahili for “Testimony”), and it became the online home for thousands of stories told by Kenyan citizens witnessing, and being subjected to, the acts of violence. Citizens contributed in whatever form they could — texts, written accounts, photos and live video shot with cell phones — all of which were mapped geographically according to the available location data.
What resulted was the emergence of a powerful voice — the voice of the Kenyan people telling their story of the gross injustice being suffered. A voice loud enough to inspire other citizens to contribute and to stand up for the rights of their brothers and sisters. A voice loud enough to get the attention of the rest of the world and ultimately effect the change necessary to bring peace.
Storytelling as a Force for Change
Any one person’s story can change the way we think — and in changing the way enough people think, it can change our world. But what of the stories that cannot be told by one person alone? What of the stories that touch many people, all of whom have different perspectives and points of view? Ushahidi was an example of a community coming together to tell a singular story with many voices. A story that could not be told with nearly the impact — if at all — by any one person, and it’s power was in the diversity and breadth of its contributions. The diversity offered intimacy to inspire those listening to take action. The breadth and volume provided amplification enough for it to be heard by the rest of the world. On the whole, the story spoke to many, while speaking very personally to each.
If storytelling could become, like everything else today, more interactive and social, it would open a new world of possibilities. How many communities could benefit from telling their stories as a community?
Storytelling as Engagement
The power of community storytelling lies not only in the stories created – but also in the process of their creation. Storytelling itself has a unique power to engage — that hasn’t changed since the dark ages. Is there anything more compelling than a great story? If we sniff one out, don’t we hunt it down tirelessly and even try to be the first to report it out to others? And if we have one of our own, most of us can hardly wait to offer it up to whomever will listen. It’s what we do, and what we have done since the beginning of time. Imagine if we could come together, within the physical and virtual communities we live in, to tell our stories as a community — to be a part of something bigger, part of something that matters to us. We may not be a leader in each community, but we know we have something special, something important, that only we can contribute. And we recognize and acknowledge those members who respond to, and are inspired by, our contributions.
As with Ushahidi, the power of community storytelling can be used on a grand scale to save lives and inspire a nation. But it can also be used powerfully on a less ambitious scale — for example, as brands struggle to build and engage their own communities. Brands today work hard and spend a great deal of money to build and engage a base of social fans and followers. But the value of a fan or follower is negligible unless they are actively engaging back with the brand. Advertising and traditional social media strategies don’t produce the kind of strong bonds and promotional effects that come with powerful personal engagement. User comments and reviews are useful — but for the most part are not innately compelling and engaging unto themselves. Stories are. Brands have been figuring out the power of storytelling for the past several years, and “content marketing” has become a staple marketing tactic. Some brands have even become publishers, in some cases creating internal newsrooms in hopes of publishing relevant and timely stories that attract the attention and focus of their social audiences. But that kind of engagement is expensive and time consuming. So how can it work… without creating work and exorbitant expense?
Storytelling in Collaboration
One answer is clearly to get the community involved. People love telling stories and love exploring their own creativity, especially when they can earn recognition and status among a community they identify with. Engaging someone in a creative process is not only compelling, but it gives them ownership that translates into promotion and amplification of the brand to new audiences outside its current reach. But can community-generated stories actually prove engaging? The answer is absolutely. If the community is invested and engaged in creating the story, then virtually by definition… the story is engaging — to the community that created it, since the audience and the creators are one. And that is what matters most. But that doesn’t mean that all contributions will be appreciated equally. Within the community not all members can or will share the same perspective — nor will they necessarily have the same skills or tastes in their delivery. They may share a common story, but with different perspectives, points of view, passions, skill levels, etc.
To be effective, community stories need to give each individual member of the community the ability to benefit from the contributions of many, while crafting a very personal experience of their own. Imagine a beer company challenging its social community to create the “Ultimate New York City Pub Crawl” (a simple example of “story”). Community members would submit their favorite Irish pubs in Manhattan, Yankees Bars in the Bronx and dive bars in Brooklyn, stringing them together into their personal proposed paths from one end of the city to the other. Not everyone will agree – on either the venues or the paths through them. But each participant is free to create his or her own experience – personalized for precisely his or her own tastes, while benefitting from the contributions and knowledge of the entire community.
A Platform For Collaborative Storytelling
Digital platforms that facilitate community storytelling offer us the ability to reach far beyond the artificial boundaries that have confined our stories, and our storytellers, for years. To date, so much of the focus on digital media technology has been placed on the distribution end of the value chain. But far more expansive are the opportunities on the front end — the opportunities to create entirely new types of stories, and new levels of engagement within communities that have stories to tell. A story lies at the heart of virtually all media. Providing the ability to tell and deliver new kinds of stories, born of collaboration and community, uniquely and personally engaging their highly focused audiences, has the potential to transform the media landscape as dramatically as anything we’ve seen to date. It also has the potential to bring together the worlds of marketing and media into a far more intimate dance, where brands and their target audiences are working together in a process of creation to achieve a common purpose.
AuthorBee is one such platform. At AuthorBee, we are firm believers in the power of a good story — and in the power of a community to tell a rich story while engaging its members fully and on a very personal level. “Stories” can be anything — from fan fiction to local news, a hip hop song or even a chocolate chip cookie recipe. We are working across a variety of applications, including education, entertainment, brand engagement — even exploring the potential therapeutic effects of shared storytelling (building community for military veterans to reconnect with their platoon or troop, for example).
We are tapping into people’s innate desire to create, and the inspiration that can come through collaboration. Try it out for yourself! Send any Tweet mentioning @AuthorBee, then include a reply or two — and find your story already taking shape here.
Stephen Bradley is CEO of AuthorBee.