Storytelling tools – how digital storytelling works

Storytelling tools are a valuable aid for online marketers since stories are memorable and can conjure up emotions. Stories have been told for thousands of years. Whether in myths, novels, or in everyday life: stories are om­ni­present and generate feelings, and the reader can sometimes identify with them. Good stories are therefore also in demand in marketing: the most effective way to sell products is through emotional bonding. It is therefore not sur­pris­ing that digital storytelling has long since become the focus of new online marketing strategies. The problem is that not every marketer is a born storyteller, but for­tu­nately there are storytelling tools to help.

What is important for good storytelling and how can online tools help? We will firstly clarify what forms of storytelling there are before in­tro­du­cing you to a series of storytelling tools.

First of all, storytelling is about effective topics and a suc­cess­ful structure. There are a number of helpful rules to achieve the correct dramatic com­pos­i­tion of a story. If you pay attention to only a few elements of classic storytelling, it is easier to com­mu­nic­ate your message more ef­fect­ively – without any obvious ad­vert­ising language.

The three-act structure according to Aristotle, which consists of ex­pos­i­tion, conflict, and res­ol­u­tion, is still the basic structure of many suc­cess­ful movies – and can also be applied to storytelling online. Another widely used scheme is the hero’s journey according to Joseph Campbell. In 12 stations, the hero or heroine is lead by a status quo through a series of chal­lenges and en­coun­ters in order to overcome a central conflict. If you read the founding stories of large companies, you will find as­ton­ish­ing parallels – and possibly tell your own story in a different way.

When comparing storytelling tools, it can be noted that most of them work according to very similar prin­ciples.

Storytelling tools can integrate these types of media content:

• Text
• Images and slideshows
• Audio
• Video
• Social media embedding
• YouTube or Vimeo embedding
• In­fograph­ics

A storytelling tool includes these com­pon­ents:

• Drag and drop: Most storytelling tools work according to the drag-and-drop principle: content is simply dragged to its desired location using the mouse.

• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and custom CSS: Many storytelling tools work with templates that a storyteller can use for their layout. Some tools give users more creative freedom, allowing them to edit layouts or create their own. However, this sometimes requires more technical knowledge.

• Preview: Most storytelling tools have a preview function so that you can check how the story looks during the process and how it will appear to users.

• Team work: Many tools are not only suitable for in­di­vidu­al use, but can also be used by several people at the same time: several people work on the same project from different accounts.

These are the different software formats of storytelling tools:

• Desktop version: A storytelling tool for desktop is down­loaded to the computer as usual and used like a con­ven­tion­al computer program. Stories can be created offline.

• Cloud version: The cloud version of a storytelling tool requires you to log into the online tool with your account in order to create the story. On the one hand, this allows you to access the project from any computer; on the other hand, you can only work with the tool if there is a working internet con­nec­tion.

Storytelling tools have a wide range of ap­plic­a­tions: journ­al­ists fill their reports with 360° images or in­ter­act­ive in­fograph­ics; bloggers embed content from social media. In online marketing, companies can tell their founding stories more easily, edit their websites in mul­ti­me­dia format, or animate their social media presence by regularly posting short mul­ti­me­dia stories.

What are the different storytelling tools and what are they used for? We compare the most important storytelling tools and look at their re­spect­ive char­ac­ter­ist­ics. Depending on what kind of projects you want to prepare using digital storytelling, you can choose the tool ac­cord­ingly.

Storify is one of the most popular storytelling tools. It comes into its own regarding social media stories: Storify enables you to integrate content from various social media into your digital story. It searches social platforms such as Twitter, Google+, Flickr, and Sound­Cloud for the topics you want to search for – and then in­teg­rates the ap­pro­pri­ate content con­veni­ently into your digital story. Storify’s success began with doc­u­ment­ing events live – now it’s a popular blogging platform for all kinds of real-time stories.

The storytelling tool impresses with its simple and intuitive use. Mul­ti­me­dia content can be moved and re-arranged using the drag-and-drop feature. The finished story will then be published on a website, blog, or directly on Storify.com.

Storify also helps the user build a dra­mat­ic­ally suc­cess­ful digital story: The tool offers a structure of headlines, text, and media content, which organises the story in an effective way. The text between media files is limited to 300 char­ac­ters. It may sound like a lim­it­a­tion, but it’s the point of a digital story. After all, mul­ti­me­dia stories attract readers because of their brevity and con­cise­ness. The text itself can be formatted so the story can still have an in­di­vidu­al look.

Ad­vant­ages:

• In­teg­rates different social media and features: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, App.net, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, Chute, Sound­Cloud, Disqus, Stock­T­wits, Tumblr, and RSS
• Modules for live blogging are es­pe­cially good
• Free basic version

Dis­ad­vant­ages:

• For fee-based ap­plic­a­tions: price available on request

Es­pe­cially suitable for:

• Ac­com­pa­ny­ing events in real-time
• Bloggers and journ­al­ists

Shorthand is one of the most used platforms for so-called scrolly­telling. This tool gives the content a special visual drama. It is used, for example, in high-quality reports such as those from the BBC or in emotional campaigns by NGOs. One of this storytelling tool’s trade­marks are the im­press­ive landing pages on which the stories are told. The reader then scrolls through the chapters, which are presented on in­di­vidu­ally-designed pages. In order to arrange the mul­ti­me­dia content, the classic drag-and-drop feature is used. Different media – photos, slideshows, videos, maps, in­fograph­ics – can be arranged dy­nam­ic­ally. There is a menu at the top of the page, which can be used to access the in­di­vidu­al chapters, meaning that the reader can still control the user ex­per­i­ence. Shorthand allows you to register for free and create projects – you will then be billed for each published story or as an annual sub­scrip­tion. Shorthand has an in­di­vidu­al cost model, just like many other storytelling tools: offers are made to potential customers on request. Flexible cost models like these can sometimes be ad­vant­age­ous, but they also create a lack of trans­par­ency in a storytelling tool. Ad­vant­ages:

• High-quality and con­tem­por­ary look of the story
• Many modules and design options to choose from

Dis­ad­vant­ages:

• You can’t do much with the tool if you don’t have image rights
• Com­par­at­ively high, non-trans­par­ent prices

Es­pe­cially suitable for:

• Stories with im­press­ive visual material  
• Pro­fes­sion­al projects with a higher budget

With TimelineJS, content is displayed in digital timelines. The timeline is located in the lower half of the screen, and further details (texts, images, and video material) about in­di­vidu­al events are presented in large in­form­a­tion windows. You can click through the windows on each of the in­di­vidu­al events – just like a slideshow. This storytelling tool therefore has a very special approach to data visu­al­isa­tion: preparing data in timelines. However, the timelines offer more variety than you might think: In addition to images, videos, and text; audio files, locations, social media content, and links can also be in­teg­rated into the stories. This turns the chro­no­lo­gic­al layout of events into a more varied ex­per­i­ence – your company’s story, for example, has a high re­cog­ni­tion value with TimelineJS. Timelines can also be con­tinu­ally expanded, giving website visitors the chance to par­ti­cip­ate in the de­vel­op­ment of current projects. There is re­l­at­ively very little effort involved in this because the clear options of the tool make it easy to use. With this tool, you can begin storytelling without needing to fa­mil­i­ar­ise yourself with it for a long time be­fore­hand. Ad­vant­ages:

• Story has a higher re­cog­ni­tion value
• Tool is simple to use
• Open source

Dis­ad­vant­ages:

• Limited possible uses: only one form of data visu­al­isa­tion

Es­pe­cially suitable for:

• Chro­no­lo­gic­al pre­par­a­tion of events
• For journ­al­ist­ic content (reports, his­tor­ic­al present­a­tions), but also for companies (company story, de­vel­op­ment of projects)

Thinglink offers a slightly different take on digital storytelling: With this storytelling tool, you create a single visual interface where the user can click through in­di­vidu­al image elements and then obtain specific in­form­a­tion about them. The in­form­a­tion pops up in a small window and contains ad­di­tion­al data such as text, images, videos, audio, or links. The features are similar to those of an advent calendar where doors are opened in­di­vidu­ally and make the visitors more curious.

A big advantage of this storytelling tool is in its intuitive operation. You insert image elements by placing them in the desired position and then uploading the ad­di­tion­al mul­ti­me­dia content in the window. You can then drag and drop the elements until they are exactly where you want them. Thinglink also in­cor­por­ates virtual reality: the tool is able to integrate 360° images into the digital story.

A click image provides detailed in­form­a­tion about specific images. An example is this photo of Arctic organisms. By clicking on the circles, you can find out more in­form­a­tion about the organisms. This makes Thinglink par­tic­u­larly suitable for de­scrib­ing places and objects. Through in­ter­act­ive, non-linear storytelling, the tool provides an in­ter­est­ing al­tern­at­ive to the classic con­tinu­ous text to linear scrolly­telling like that of Shorthand.

Ad­vant­ages:

• Intuitive operation
• In­ter­act­ive, non-linear present­a­tion of in­form­a­tion 
• 360° images possible
• Arouses curiosity

Dis­ad­vant­ages:

• Free basic version only available for a short period of time, af­ter­wards it’s fee-based
• Click image can be in­flex­ible and one-sided

Es­pe­cially suitable for:

• De­scrib­ing places and objects (click images)

Many stories unfold on the basic of geo­graph­ic locations – this is the starting point of the next storytelling tool: StoryMapJS relies on the geo­graph­ic narrative of stories using the visual diversity of maps, city maps, and his­tor­ic­al maps. In­di­vidu­al locations are linked with path markings and detailed in­form­a­tion about in­di­vidu­al stations is provided. The reader clicks through the pixels on the map and then receives the mul­ti­me­dia in­form­a­tion. For example, a fictional map from the TV series Game of Thrones can become an en­ter­tain­ing digital story. Just like TimelineJS, StoryMapJS is a tool from the Knight Lab Found­a­tion from North­west­ern Uni­ver­sity and is also available as open source. There is a wide variety of map templates for creating stories. In addition, you can upload your own pictures or create your own maps. This works with the Gigapixel feature from StoryMapJS, which sig­ni­fic­antly expands the tool’s options. It’s not only maps that can be edited with Gigapixels, but also pho­to­graphs and paintings. Similar to Thinglink, a kind of click image is created whose in­di­vidu­al pixels contain further in­form­a­tion. Ad­vant­ages:

• Versatile templates
• Different types of digital stories are possible: geo­graph­ic­al storytelling as well as click images of pho­to­graphs or paintings
• Open source

Dis­ad­vant­ages:

• Com­plic­ated operation
• Can only be used with a Google account

Es­pe­cially suitable for:

• Digital stories that take place in many different places
• Digital stories that can take a lot of time and should have a high-quality ap­pear­ance
• Click images