The Power of First-Person Narrative

How many internal sales and marketing presentations leave you thinking “well I can’t fault the logic but it leaves me cold… Where is the story, where is the inspiration, the emotion; how can I visualise that really happening?”

Even the most left-brain analytical thinkers amongst us, love a story - a bit of colour and movement…

One of the often surprising discoveries with online communities is exactly this - the power of first person narrative (now there’s a clinical description!). Not the language of a corporate marketing brochure but the pure unadulterated voice of a customer.

The intensity of a story told in first person can be striking- especially when it is about your brand.

David Bean characterises first-person feedback as:

• Focused on the personal
• Comprises the majority of input
• Contains rich descriptions
• Explores unexpected topics
• Details the “why” of an event or opinion
• Reveals opportunities
• Expects responses
• Provides early warnings
• Affects, most likely, other people; and
• Impacts revenue

Anyone scanning social networking sites or popular blogs for an hour will likely find a slew of first-person narratives that meet all the criteria listed above.

And the volume of this free-form correspondence is enormous: with approximately 75 to 100 million blogs and 10 to 20 million internet discussion boards and forums in the English language.

This is a huge challenge (and opportunity!) that companies face today. Structured data - via data warehouses and business intelligence systems only go so far. This foundation of customer data - who, what, how, when - lacks critical customer information about “why” - floating above the fact plane in unstructured data.

Brings me back to that next corporate sales presentation of yours - why don’t you try a few colourful quotes from your online community - that speak to a few stakeholders in the audience! You may detect a pulse in the room afterall!