Investigating digital storytelling for the creation of positively engaging digital content

Purpose: This 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/approach: A digital discourse analysis combined with a five-layer coded film analysis is applied to a DST video, viewed on Facebook. Findings: Four 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/implications: Similar studies are required across varying targeted digital stories of different length and subject matter to distinguish effectiveness. Practical implications: Despite 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 implications: DST 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/value: Few 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.