The impact of social technologies on the ability for individuals to tell and share their stories can’t be overstated. The proliferation of personal content in the form of blogs, videos, photos, and even status updates is at the core of the sweeping changes in communication and dialog we associate with social media. Businesses have adopted these technologies en mass but have tended to try and apply them to traditional brand communication practices, looking for new ways to “share messages with consumers” with a focus on changing the ways of sharing but not changing the content of the messages. The result is often a mismatch of message and medium, with brand communications delivered via social channels seeming forced and still very much broadcast in nature.

However, if brands can learn to rethink their communications to make them fit with the new social medium, putting behind them accepted and traditional communication practices, true breakthroughs in efficiency and effectiveness of communication can be achieved. A logical place for brands to begin this transformation is by tapping into the same source of content that propelled social media to prevalence: the personal stories of everyone in the social business, from employees to vendors and customers.

To be clear, I’m not talking about carefully crafted (and sadly, often quite boring) case studies that every brand dutifully posts on their website and tries to “activate via social media”, but the personal stories of individuals that make the business tick. Social thrives on stories that resonate and connect, and nothing resonates more with readers and connects them to the author than personal insights, experiences, and journeys.

I was reminded of the power of stories during interactions with two different brands at the recent Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival in Austin. And while both examples are specifically from the beverage industry, their lessons are applicable to almost any business regardless of size or vertical.

When a Whisky is More Than a Whisky

At a special local influencer dinner hosted by Maker’s Mark, Rob Samuels, the current COO and soon to be President of the distiller, stood up informally behind the bar to tell the story of his brand to the assembled guests. While Rob is obviously an experienced speaker with a clear message to communicate, he spoke informally and from the heart about how his family invested the entirety of the finances and their personal dreams on their belief that a refined, high-quality whisky would be well received by the spirits consumer, even at a time when inexpensive whiskeys abounded. He recounted how the family had to wait for years for their first whiskeys to age before they could be bottled and sold, creating a significant gap between the expenses required to distill the liquor and the revenue that would support their business. He shared the story of his grandmother’s crafting of the brand name logo, along with the significance of the three breaks in the circle around the mark (once for each of the three times liquor sales have been outlawed in the history of the United States). He explained the history of the tradition of hand-sealing of each bottle in red wax which continues to this day, and he could look at the bottle of his whisky behind the bar that night and tell you which of the six women who still seal the bottles by hand had dipped that particular bottle. When he was done, everyone there knew him, his product, and the people behind it. Maker’s Mark was no longer just a brand. Instead it transformed into the manifestation of the passion and craftsmanship of the entire organization.

Previous to that evening I’d received a press release and spent time on the company’s site, but none of those communications spoke to me as authentically as Rob’s personal story. While Maker’s Mark’s digital communications and destinations are made up of all the right messages and visuals, they are still just messages and visuals. They are missing the human element that only personal connections can make. Before Rob  spoke, I was neutral about the brand. After hearing his story, I have an absolute preference for the brand because I feel as if I know the people behind it, and I like them. I want to see them be successful and I have confidence in their product. If Maker’s Mark can find a way to replicate that evening through social media, which could easily be done with a blog and some informal video assets, they will have a powerful story indeed to share. They key of course is not the blog and video technologies, but the courage to allow Rob to tell his story unscripted and authentically, just as he did the evening of the dinner. The technologies make it easy but the brand must make it possible.

A Wine Region Rises from the Remains of Centuries of Struggle

Later in the festival I reconnected with Elizabeth Bray, the Cape Classics distributor responsible for sharing a large collection of South African Wines with our region. I first met Elizabeth several years ago in a wine tasting class where she shared her personal story of falling in love with South Africa and its wines after being transferred there to work for her former employer, P&G. She was so enamored with the wines, their makers, and the region she left P&G to tell their story and share their wines in the United States. The night I met Elizabeth and heard her storyI became a devotee of South African wines. I drink theme not just because I enjoy the flavor profiles and they are a great value – there are many wines that have those characteristics – but because seeing South African Wines through Elizabeth’s eyes made them much more than wines. They are the product of a region that has overcome many challenges crafted by wine makers with courage and tenacity. They mean more to me because I know their story.

Making the Move from Messaging to Stories

A social business can have the tools and processes at its disposal to efficiently indentify and harness the power of personal stories. A social business can transform the brand story from talking points, testimonials, and on-brand visual assets to a collection of authentic stories that build strong connections across all constituencies. Personal stories from suppliers can be shared with end consumers to make a product more than a product. Stories from consumers can be circulated back into the business to help everyone in the chain see how they are impacting lives for the better.

Of course personal stories are rarely 100% on brand and most likely won’t use language from approved in messaging frameworks. They won’t come in the form of photo shoots or high production value videos. They will appear as posts in collaborative systems, blog content, personal videos, camera phone photos, and other social content. If the brand can allow the stories to stand as is, with as little re-crafting as possible, they will retain their power to resonate and connect. Instead of being the creator of a well-honed message, the brand needs to focus on being the facilitator and curator of authentic, connective content, employing social technologies and processes that make it easy for everyone in the social business to tell and share stories.