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 organizes 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 vi­su­al­iza­tion: 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 fa­mil­iar­ize 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 vi­su­al­iza­tion

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