Facebook Story

The words “Facebook story” on the one hand, stand for the history and origin of the largest social network in the world, and on the other, can in general denote the fact that personal stories and life moments often reach a lot of people through the social network Facebook. Every user is a potential supplier of a “Facebook story,” which may be of general journalistic interest depending on the severity or sensation.

Functions and background

Depending on the privacy settings on Facebook, postings in text, image or video form can either be viewed only by one’s own friends, one’s own friends and their friends or by everyone. If someone uses only a few restrictions on their Facebook account, there is a good chance that their posts will quickly reach a large number of people, if the message contained therein is relevant to them. Relevance in this sense may cover different levels, ranging from pure curiosity, sensationalism through to sympathy or in the extreme case, gloating or resentment.

Examples of Facebook Stories

• A very spectacular Facebook story was involuntarily told by a convicted American who posted his own manhunt picture on his Facebook page and boasted about not being caught. But his freedom lasted only a short time.

• Stories about babies and births are well suited for Facebook stories, as they usually reach many people. One US citizen caused a stir in the network when she posted about her homebirth on Twitter and Facebook.

• Two young people from Morocco wrote a Facebook story when they published a picture of them kissing on Facebook in 2013. The moral guardians in Morocco immediately considered it to be a scandal. The result was that the teenagers were initially arrested. Many more young couples made know their solidarity with the detainees and followed the example by posting similar kissing pictures.

• Even the US President Barack Obama wrote his own Facebook story when he procured numerous voices in 2008 with his activities on Facebook.

• The so-called “Arab spring” could be considered its own Facebook story. Because only by communicating through social networking sites, primarily Facebook, were the protesters in Tunisia and Egypt able to network and to coordinate.

How a Facebook story can be used for marketing

In many cases, actual stories are indistinguishable from advertising nowadays. Advertising agencies often work in social networks with “real” stories that will find many fans quickly. Or companies use real stories, in order to ensure empathy. A good example is the story of the man with the pink tutu, ‘the Tutu Project,” which quickly spread around the world, including through Facebook and which Telekom used for advertising purposes in order draw attention to the special quality of the network according to company statements.

Whether Facebook stories are successful or not depends on many factors. First of all, the story has to be accepted and voluntarily shared by the users. And secondly, the attention must then be drawn to the actual product or brand. For marketing departments, there is often a fine line between success and failure.