How To Tell A Story Through Social Media
Social media is more than just a way to share photos, it’s also a way to share your story, be it personal or of your business. With billions of online profiles, standing out on social media means creating depth to you or your company, which plays hand-in-hand with storytelling!
So, how, exactly, do you tell your story through social media?
Evoke People’s Emotions
A real story evokes people’s emotions, which makes them truly invested in what’s being said. The thing that separates your social media from a scrapbook to a storybook is how well each post conveys palpable emotions.
“In a world where there’s a an enormous amount of social content, if you don’t make someone stop what they are doing and create a response, you are going to lose. Whether that’s an action or an emotion, the true test of storytelling is how you feel or what you do after you consume it.” — Gary Vaynerchuk
Your post can’t just be visually appealing, but emotionally appealing. Each post needs to reveal a little bit more about who you are and what you value. This all slowly adds up to tell your story.
Authenticity and Storytelling
Like mentioned above, your social media needs to be emotionally appealing. Something can only be emotionally appealing if it’s authentic. Your audience isn’t going to feel connected to a story if it’s perfect and very obviously fake.
Stories have highs and lows, as does you or your business, so show that. People don’t feel connected to someone that’s perfect! Flaws are what create a believable character in every storybook, so show that on your social media, too.
“Your audience is smart. They can tell when your voice isn’t unique. It gives off the image that you don’t care or you’re inauthentic. If you don’t care about what you post then why should anyone care about what you have to say?” — Like A Voss
Show, Don’t Tell
That is one of the first rules in writing a story, so you should be following the same rule if you’re trying to tell a story through your social media. What does that mean, though?
In writing, showing over telling means, instead of writing “She didn’t like the dark,” say “When the lights went out, she clutched her blankets until her knuckles went white.” Obviously, writing is different from social media, but it’s all the same concept. If you’re going through a really great time in your life, don’t just talk about how great it is online, show how great it is. Post pictures of what you’re doing in the moment, don’t just say you did it after it’s over.
“Show, don’t tell is about storytelling. The beauty of teaching through storytelling is that a story provides lessons that can be translated and interpreted. Storytelling inspires people because someone is sharing what they have accomplished and the listener learns it is possible and can use her imagination to decide how to apply it.” — Social Media Explorer
Tell your story because people want to hear it! They wouldn’t be following you if they didn’t want to know who you are. So tell them the story of you, of your business! A social media profile with a story is far more compelling than one without.
