Marketers, bloggers, and influencers often tell stories – it is the best way to engage their audience and evoke genuine emotions. Using images, videos, or maps can further enhance this strategy; thus, we decided to discuss it in more detail. What is visual storytelling, what are its examples, and how to do it? Find out below!

What Is Visual Storytelling?

We will begin by defining what visual storytelling is. This is a technique of telling stories with maps, images, videos, infographics, and animations. An example could be a timeline of historical events with photos attached to every one of them or an animation used to describe a mathematical problem (for instance, the wizard duel riddle on TED).

Why is visual storytelling important? Because it is better at capturing the attention of your audience. The human brain processes images much faster than texts and remembers more from them, so representing your concepts or stories visually means that they will be forged into your audience’s memory more effectively.

Visual storytelling

How to Be a Great Visual Storyteller? Our 5 Tips

So, if you wish to become a visual storyteller and create truly gripping content, you need to know what to focus on. But don’t worry – we have a few tips to help you do it effectively, thus letting you strengthen your personal branding, attract more traffic to your blog or business, and promote your products.

  • Create a strategy – Firstly, you need to consider what your story is all about. It’s easy to get lost in the process and thus change your initial message. Therefore, you need to create a plan to get started with your visual storytelling. Consider the most critical aspects of your story: its objective, target audience, and elements you want to represent visually. Write them down and refer to them while building the story.
  • Show, don’t tell – In visual storytelling, imagery isn’t added purely for aesthetics but rather to enrich the story and convey a message on its own. Thus, do not use videos or images that repeat what you have already written; let them be an addition, a part that makes your story a whole.
  • Make it real – The best visual storytelling is relatable. It incorporates real people and problems that your audience faces. If you don’t add this aspect, your story will seem artificial, irrelevant, and meaningless.
  • Make it dynamic – Imagine a TV series with terrible pacing – you’d get discouraged before getting to the moment when the action becomes engrossing. The same is true for your stories. They need to be dynamic but easy to follow to keep your audience highly engaged and to avoid them being lost in over-complicated scenarios.
  • Use the available tools – In the era of the internet, you have a lot of programs, apps, and systems that you can use to your advantage, and you should do that. For example, you can utilize YouMap, our social mapping app, in your visual storytelling to combine images, videos, and text with maps – place your stories in real space, making them much more believable and increasing their relevance to the target audience.

The Takeaway

Knowing what visual storytelling is and how to conduct it effectively, you’re ready to use this strategy on your blog or in your business. Make sure to try out YouMap for this purpose, and get ready to grip your audience’s attention with wonderful, multi-dimensional stories.

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