PurposeThis study explores how digital storytelling (DST) approaches can be used for social media campaigns to create more engaging digital content. The ability to better engage with networked publics offers benefits to entities of different scale and scope, since in doing so they establish stronger relationships with their consumers and publics.Design/methodology/approachA digital discourse analysis combined with a five-layer coded film analysis is applied to a DST video, viewed on Facebook.FindingsFour overarching and overlapping approaches are identified. These are emotional appeal based on clear human ideals, equality and simplicity of characters, simplicity and universal representations.Research limitations/implicationsSimilar studies are required across varying targeted digital stories of different length and subject matter to distinguish effectiveness.Practical implicationsDespite advanced technological capacity for audience segmentation, social media campaigns often include unengaging content. DST offers universal characteristics that can be used by entities to engage with their consumers and publics.Social implicationsDST has been used to create learning and pedagogical environments and more participative democracies. Yet its use to strategically engage with networked publics is empirically lacking. The findings of the study can facilitate more effective digital content strategies for entities of all purposes to pursue.Originality/valueFew studies have sought to deconstruct effective short form DST for strategic purposes. This study applies a methodological approach best suited for analysing digital content. The findings provide insights into how strategists and social media managers can create more engaging digital content.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.