Storytelling is a powerful tool that can be used to connect with your audience. If you share some of your struggles, insights, and challenges experienced when starting your business, your customers will relate more to you. It's always a good starting point in any relationship you have with your audience/customers to try to be as relatable and approachable as possible. There needs to be a personal connection with the work you're doing and what you are sharing with others.
When you are sharing a story, you are doing more than just listing facts. This is important because what will make others connect and communicate with you are those things that make your experience unique and relatable.
Storytelling in business specifically focuses on
"The human side of work. Basically, it means telling stories instead of just listing facts. Because good stories engage better. They also stick longer in your audience's mind."
It is more likely for someone to remember what you are talking about if you are being transparent and open about your past experiences. This is because your audience is more likely to remember how your story made them feel than just reading a list of things they might already have heard somewhere else.
That is why today I am sharing some tips on how to create an engaging story when sharing content and when approaching your audience.
1. Start with a clear direction for your story
You can start by brainstorming some of your strongest points that might create an emotional connection with your audience. Even though establishing an emotional connection is important, you should still focus on the specific business lesson or message you want to share. Brainstorming allows you to connect your strongest emotional arguments with your intended message.
Some questions you can ask yourself are:
What is the purpose of the story?
Who is the main character/characters
Identify challenges
What are some of the strongest emotions felt throughout the narration?
What is something you learned from it?
2. Follow a pattern
There might be many ups and downs in your story, but it is important that you don't confuse your audience. The story needs to follow a coherent path, it needs to be as clear as possible. If your story is long and confusing, no matter how many emotions you talk about, it will only make your audience uninterested and frustrated while reading your story.
3. Be unique
If you are feeling a little bit lost it's always good to read some examples of other companies or entrepreneurs that have previously engaged with storytelling. However, most of the time it is so easy to try to follow the same structure and style of writing just because that was successful for them. You need to remember that the more authentic you are with your work, the better the outcome you will receive. People value unique storytelling because that tells them that you are being transparent and at times vulnerable when trying to share an experience and a lesson you learned.
4. Decide what type of story you are sharing
Storytelling has many purposes, it is a way to get you closer to your audience, but the outcome you are expecting out of it can vary. You need to think about what you want to lead your audience into doing. Here are some types of storytelling that you can create for different purposes:
You can tell a story to share your knowledge from past experiences. This can be extremely helpful for others that are experiencing the same or those who are thinking of doing the same thing as you.
You can also share a story to get your audience to take action. You can start with a personal story, a reflection and then you can ask a question or challenge your audience to do something.
You can also share a story to be more engaging with your community, and at times this can help you establish an active communication between your audience and you.
You can also use storytelling to introduce yourself to your target audience and proceed to tell them more about your business. This helps because it is easier for people to remember a brand new business if they know the person behind it.
5. Finally, choose your storytelling medium
Nowadays, there are so many ways in which you can tell a story. These are three examples:
Written story: This is perfect for your website's "About" tab or a brand new blog post. You can write down a compelling story that people can see whenever they access your website or post. This is also useful for an Instagram caption with a picture that is related to what you are talking about.
Digital story: For this option, you can do a video or some sort of interactive storytelling. A video can be extremely powerful because in a way it seems like a one-on-one type of communication since your audience can watch you throughout the entire story. You could post a video on your Instagram or add one to your website.
Audio: You could also create a series of audios that you could compile into a storytelling series, such as the one we share on our podcast “Have You Met Her Yet?”, Where we share inspiring stories about powerful entrepreneur women facing challenges and opportunities when trying to start their own business in such a competitive world. You can take a look at the episodes here.
That's all for today! Let me know in the comments what are some ways in which you have integrated storytelling
Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments!
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