Mastering the Art of Social Media Storytelling: Tips and Tricks for Boosting Engagement and Building Your Brand

Social media is a vast repository of content, much of which is a repetition of what others are sharing. However, there is a way to make your content stand out and rise above the rest: by using the storytelling approach. This technique is guaranteed to leave a lasting impression on your audience and etch your brand into their minds.

Storytelling is one of the most captivating methods of conveying messages and information. To be a true storyteller, one must create engaging stories that capture the listener's attention. When used on social media, this can turn online audiences into ardent followers of your brand.

In this blog, we shall delve into the topic of social media storytelling in particular and explore ways in which it can be utilised effectively.

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What is business storytelling?

Historically, storytelling has been a social and cultural activity that involves sharing information with others to pass down tradition. However, in a modern context, storytelling is about more than just transferring knowledge. A great story can also entertain, educate, and instill morals within our society.

Nowadays, there are numerous social media platforms on which brands can share content, connect with an active audience, and promote products. The most successful brands on these platforms consistently utilise storytelling to grow and engage their audience.

Storytelling is the act of using facts and narratives to communicate and convey specific messages to the audience. These stories are revealed through words and actions, with improvisation, theatrics, or embellishment. It encourages the listener's active imagination and involves a two-way interaction between a storyteller and one or more listeners.

Social media business storytelling is about providing an authentic representation of your brand whilst telling a story that is uniquely yours. It is about more than simply showcasing your brand's products. Instead, the goal of storytelling on social media is to share a story about your brand or products, and start a conversation with other individuals and companies.

Why is storytelling important in business?

Connecting with others is one of the most important forms of communication, and good storytelling is the key to achieving this. When you tell a story and another person is engaged by it, the two of you are in sync with each other.

Business storytelling is no longer an optional extra. It is a necessity that will amplify your company's influence, engagement, and profits. When you treat it as the foundation of your social media marketing strategy, the results will be a business that is captivating and financially successful.

Storytelling has psychological powers that make it a powerful marketing tool:

• Forming an Emotional Connection: Storytelling that focuses on authentic and honest experiences often creates emotional connections that make your audience want to engage with your content more often.
• Boosting Brand Recognition: Storytelling holds your audience's attention for longer periods of time compared to other types of content. When storytelling is executed properly, it can resonate with your audience and help them with future recall of your brand.
• Converting Visitors to Loyal Customers: Storytelling not only increases your audience's brand recognition but can also convert them into loyal customers over time. When your narrative resonates with your audience and they can personally connect with it, you can be sure that they will not only become faithful and returning customers, but they will also sing your brand's praises, helping with social proof.
• Captivating Stories Go Viral: Storytelling that's correctly applied in marketing assets such as video can make your content go viral, particularly on social media. In an era where everyone carries a smartphone and social media is widespread, these platforms are great tools to leverage for content distribution, engagement, and recognition.

How Does Social Media Storytelling Contribute to Increased Sales?

Social media storytelling is an effective strategy for generating brand sales for several reasons:

• Businesses spend billions of dollars every year on advertising. By sharing your brand's story and connecting with an audience on social media, your content will be unforgettable in a world where consumers have a lot to ignore.
• Social media storytelling can turn buyers into customers and customers into raving fans. By creating brand stories that your audience relates to, you'll build a loyal audience with a deep emotional connection to your content.
• Social media helps you connect with buyers who want more from the businesses they support. Specifically, customers are searching for brands that make an impact or support a cause. Storytelling is one way to tell your audience which causes your brand supports.

Now that you understand why you should use social media storytelling to enhance your brand on social media, are you ready to discover the process for creating unique content? The following section will explain various techniques that brand owners use to build an audience and generate sales.

Storytelling Techniques for Business

Allow these tactics and expert examples to guide the storytelling of your brand on social media.

Understand your brand

Before you can successfully engage in social media storytelling, it's crucial to have a clear understanding of your brand, its offerings, how it differs from competitors, and the perceptions of it among your audience.

Familiarise yourself with your audience

Prior to crafting a story, consider who your listeners are and who is most likely to engage with it. To create a compelling story, you need to have a good understanding of your audience. In addition to what you already know about your target customers, you can also use analytics from individual platforms such as Instagram and LinkedIn to gain further insights into the people engaging with your content. Once you know your audience, you'll be better equipped to capture their attention through social media storytelling.

Utilise a range of storytelling formats

Different social media platforms lend themselves to different types of storytelling. For instance, Instagram and TikTok are highly visual platforms, while LinkedIn and Facebook are better suited to longer text-based posts. As your brand likely has a presence on multiple social channels, experiment with different ways of telling your story through text, video, GIFs and more. Remember to consistently communicate your brand message but avoid posting the exact same content on every social media outlet. Different storytelling mediums work better on different platforms and giving your audience a reason to follow you across multiple channels is important.

Make your story meaningful

Whilst an interesting story may be sufficient to elicit a ‘like’ from your audience, what really encourages engagement and action is a story that is meaningful to them. By telling a story that resonates deeply with your audience, you can evoke their emotions and build a strong connection with your brand. Therefore, before developing your story, think about what is meaningful to your audience.

Share memorable moments

Research shows that memories connected to emotions are stronger, so take advantage of this. Identify memorable moments for your brand and share these stories on social media. Look at the evolution of your brand and find moments that will evoke emotions in people. This is because people don’t make decisions based on data alone, emotions play a crucial role and storytelling should be an integral part of communicating your brand.

Understand the psychology of sharing

Have you ever wondered why you chose to share a particular post on your Instagram Stories or why you felt compelled to retweet someone? Chances are it’s because the content resonated with one of the five reasons we share according to a study by The New York Times Customer Insight Group:

• to bring value and entertainment to others
• to define ourselves to others
• to grow and nurture our relationships
• to fulfil ourselves
• to raise awareness about causes or brands

When crafting a social media post, consider whether the content aligns with one or more of these reasons, if not, rethink your strategy.

Feature customers and employees

It's crucial to give employees and customers the opportunity to advocate for your brand as they are part of your story. User-generated content and employee-generated content are vital to social media storytelling. 92% of consumers trust online content from friends, colleagues, and family over other forms of brand messaging and 79% of people say this type of content highly influences their purchasing decisions.

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11 Structures for Social Media Storytelling

Here is a guide featuring 11 straightforward storytelling techniques that you can implement immediately.

Three-Act Structure

Setup - Establish the scene and introduce the characters

Confrontation or "Rising Action" - Present a problem and increase tension

Resolution - Resolve the problem

The three-act structure is a timeless and fundamental storytelling technique that you may have encountered in many narratives. The first act establishes the setting and characters, the second act presents a conflict for the characters and creates suspense, and in the final act, the story reaches its climax by resolving the conflict and tying it to the promotion of your product or service.

Freytag's Pyramid: Five-Act Structure

Exposition - Introduce important background information

Rising Action - Tell a series of events leading up to the climax

Climax - Change the story's direction (usually the most exciting part of the story)

Falling Action - Continue the action from the climax

Dénouement - Conclude the story with a resolution

Gustav Freytag's Pyramid is an expanded version of the three-act structure, developed by Freytag when he studied the works of Shakespeare and ancient Greek storytellers. This structure places a greater emphasis on the climax and the falling action of the story, providing a more detailed roadmap for storytelling.

Before-After-Bridge

Before - Describe a world with Problem A.

After - Imagine a world without Problem A.

Bridge - Provide a solution or explain how to get there.

The formula that is being discussed is a popular method of storytelling and copywriting that can be effectively used in social media updates, email campaigns, and other marketing messages. It begins by highlighting a problem that your target audience is likely to encounter, and then emphasizes the ideal solution that your company can offer, followed by a description of a world where that problem no longer exists. Lastly, it provides a solution or a clear path to get there, (i.e., your product or service).

Problem-Agitate-Solve

Problem - Present a problem

Agitate - Intensify the problem with emotional language

Solve - Offer a solution

The copywriting formula being discussed is not only widely used but also excels in storytelling. It is similar to the Before-After-Bridge formula which starts by identifying a problem, next it amplifies the impact of the problem by using emotional language, and finally, it resolves the problem by proposing a solution, your product or service.

Simon Sinek's Golden Circle

Why - The company's purpose or motivation

How - How the company achieves its Why

What - The company's products or services

Simon Sinek's TED talk, "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" is one of the most popular TED talks ever, with over 30 million views. In it, he argues that companies like Apple inspire and succeed by using the Golden Circle formula. The formula starts by explaining the "why" - the company's purpose or motivation. Then, it explains how the company will achieve this "why", and finally, it describes the products and services that bring the "why" to life.

Dale Carnegie's Magic Formula

Incident - Share a relevant, personal experience

Action - Describe the specific actions taken to solve or prevent a problem

Benefit - State the benefits of the actions

The author, Dale Carnegie, after studying many great leaders, developed a straightforward three-step storytelling formula that can assist in persuading the audience. The formula starts by opening the story with a personal experience relevant to the main point, to grab the audience's attention. The next step is to describe the actions taken chronologically, highlighting the need for change. The final step is to conclude the story by linking the change to its benefits, it can be a customer testimonial as well.

Dave Lieber's V Formula

Introduce the character

Bring the story to its lowest point

Turn it around and finish with a happy ending

Dave Lieber, a keynote speaker, and Dallas Morning News Watchdog columnist who has been telling stories for nearly 40 years, shared his story formula in his TED talk, "The Power of Storytelling to Change the World". The formula starts by introducing the character of the story, then it goes on to describe how things went wrong for them, using emotions to engage the audience. The story reaches its lowest point, then it turns around, describing how things improved and ends on a high note.

Star-Chain-Hook

Star - An attention-getting, positive opening

Chain - A series of convincing facts, benefits, and reasons

Hook - A powerful call-to-action

This formula was developed by a Chicago consultant, Dr. Frank W. Dignan. The star grabs your audience's attention. The chain turns your audience's attention into a desire. The hook gives them something actionable to fulfill their desire.

Pixar's award-winning formula

Once upon a time, there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally___.

"The Story Spine" is a formula created by Kenn Adams, a professional playwright and improviser, that can be used to structure a story. It involves introducing a character or a group of characters, describing their regular routine, introducing a twist that disrupts their everyday lives, detailing how they overcome it, and ending with a celebratory conclusion. "And, ever since then" is the final line of the formula. You don't have to follow the wording exactly, the main idea is to follow the structure.

The Hero's Journey

Departure - A hero receives a call to go on an adventure, receives advice from a mentor, and sets out on their journey.

Initiation - The hero meets a series of challenges but eventually completes the mission.

Return - The hero returns and helps others with their new-found power or treasure.

The original hero's journey is a formula made up of 17 stages, divided into the three acts described above. Many renowned storytellers, such as George Lucas for his Star Wars films, use this formula. In this formula, your customers are often portrayed as the hero. They face challenges in their lives or work, but ultimately solve the problems with the help of your product or service, thereby improving their lives or bringing results to their company.

Nancy Duarte's secret structure of great talks

What is - The status quo

What could be - The future that could be possible

Go back and forth between the two and end off with a ...

New bliss - The wonderful future with your idea/product/service adopted

Nancy Duarte's TED talk, The Secret Structure of Great Talks, has been viewed more than a million times. In her talk, she revealed the secret formula that Steve Jobs and Martin Luther King might have used for their famous speeches.

Some more tips to keep in mind when creating content

• When crafting a message, always begin by evaluating its relevance to your target audience and identifying the most effective method of storytelling. 
• Consider the form that will resonate most with your audience, such as visuals, videos, bold text, or emojis. 
• Keep your language simple, structure your content with short sentences and lists, and avoid using complex vocabulary. 
• Utilize powerful imagery and videos to spark the audience's imagination. 
• Capture their attention from the start with a strong opening sentence, and avoid long or tedious introductions. 
• Make your stories relatable and personal to your audience

Conclusion

To wrap it up, social media storytelling is not just about a start, middle, and end. There are numerous imaginative ways to craft compelling stories on social media. Utilize the stories feature to showcase your day-to-day life, share customer stories and videos, and collaborate with other industry players to feature their life stories for inspiration. Some brands are even starting weekly podcasts to connect with their audience.

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