Monday multimodality: storytelling for the digitalised
What I experienced through multimodality within storytelling and how I conducted this.
I recall only a few years ago when Instagram stories came about. The social world quickly became furious with the platform, claiming that it had ‘ripped off’ the idea from Snapchat. And yet, over the months to come, we would discover that this is the newest trend that hundreds would jump on. I have to admit I am guilty of using this feature almost every day. Posting stories to share my latest outfit or sharing other people’s post after being tagged in the latest ‘before COVID-19’ photos. But since starting my blog I wanted to create a new account which could present itself as not only more professional, but also completely dedicated to my blog site and what it is all about! Let me explain how I conducted this.
But first, let’s talk multimodality
Have you ever heard of this term? If you haven’t, not to worry! I’ve found an explanation from IGI Global of what multimodality within storytelling is below:
“It is a strategy that mixes storytelling and multimodality. It relies on different ways to present a story by integrating modes, such as: gestures, audio, videos, images, labels, words, textures, to create meaning, in this case, the story.”
Isabel Belmonte has also stated that:
“Digital stories cover a wide range of topics in different contexts (educational, social, historical and cultural), but all of them are written from a personal point of view and transmit emotional content.”
This technique can create many advantages to you. I experienced this personally by actioning this within my own work. But enough talking, why don’t I simply show you! Below are three examples of this:
The first image is of a story I structured regarding the latest news. In this I made sure to add stickers and GIFs to help my post stand out in the line of many. This received further recognition than other stories I had posted. with an increase in views and replies stating that they agree with statements. Reinforcing that the images drew people in. I’m not sure if many of you are aware, but recently I have discovered that if you type out information regarding COVID-19 then an NHS link will appear. I made sure that this was the same case for my story. This time, a link appeared regarding the vaccinations. Brilliant I thought! A specific link to show my audience where they can go to find further answers. However, if this had not appeared, I would have made sure to add the link in manually myself. Another useful technique Instagram supplies.
Moving onto the second image. As you can see, I conducted a Poll for my blog Words hurt every Body. In order to involve my followers. This made my blog easier to construct as I was able to use this interaction to appeal to my audience. I added a fact I had learnt from my previous research in hope this would help to educate. A skill I had seen from many other stories, such as BBC. My final post demonstrated is of my shared blog. With the use of Canva I created this simplistic yet distinct post. I don’t know about you, but before I had started on my blogging adventure I had not heard of medium. My worry was that many others would be the same. And so, I thought that by sharing the link on a well-known social platform it would help in raising the number of views, I was right! Many people have since messaged me explaining that they love the blog and the site! Since doing so I have also received more ‘claps’ for my posts.
Are others learning of the new trend?
I believe that by being consistent with my content and posting regular stories has helped increase my appearance. Now a days you cannot simply rely on posts to be your only source. Especially with the recent advertisement on Instagram, it is near impossible to find any post from any individual unless Instagram has chosen to allow you to see it. It’s all about marketing these days. Stories however, they appear at the top of everyone’s feed ready for the taking! Often followers have come across this and clicked on my profile and so proved as a great tool to engage with. However, Instagram is not alone. Both Twitter and Facebook are catching up. As you can see above, I used one of the sites to conduct further field research for my blog on The battle of blogging. This reinforces just how effective multimodality in storytelling can be. Other sites are picking up on this technique due to the positive impact it is having from its followers. It is a skill I am thankful to have learnt and believe that it is what has helped in engaging my followers further and directing them to my blog. Try it out! It’s worth the story.
Thank you for reading! Head over to my social media channels (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) and let me know of any experiences you have had with multimodality in storytelling.
