One of your primary goals with social media is to get people talking about your business. While this is an admirable goal, it’s one that is not easily accomplished.
Get People Talking About Your Business
There are a number of ways to get people talking, and if mainstream media is any indication, what is controversial or polarizing tends to generate the most discussion.
Is that what you want for your brand?
The question is how can you accomplish this objective in such a way to positively promote the good works of your business?
Stories!
Stories get people talking because they are readily shared. The details will change as the story travels, but for the most part the core message will be delivered and received.
The raw material of this thing we call life is captured in stories. Every day of your life is full of stories, though for specific reasons not all of them are worthy of sharing.
The stories that people share include nearly all of the details, because that is what makes them honest, real, and of course, worth sharing.
This is where many digital marketers fail. Their stories lack the very thing that makes them work – substance and detail.
What’s really missing is honesty.
Real Business is Raw and Unpolished
Real businesses make real mistakes and people know that. Like it or not, people love to talk about successful failures (underdogs) and failed successes (heros that falter).
Small to medium sized businesses by definition are underdogs, and people love to see the underdog win. The fact that you are still in business today is worthy of a story, but you have to be willing to share nearly every detail.
Can you do that? You could also choose to tell us how awesome it is to work with your business – but we won’t believe it. The marketers that choose the latter wonder why nobody is talking about them or their brand.
Modern marketing has largely been about polishing the brand, but those days are over.
Successful digital marketing is raw, honest, and unpolished – and that’s engaging. It triggers human emotions. That’s what makes it social.
And that’s worth sharing.
I know you have these stories.
Ready to share?
What’s your story?
Leave a comment below – and please feel free to use these ideas as you wish.
Until next time, Jeff
Photo Credit: Raw
I think we’re often afraid to tell a raw story because we want to appear polished to our potential customers. After all, our customers are paying us good money for results, and if we show the human side which makes mistakes, then we think that we won’t sell. If I’m buying, after all, I don’t want wrong answers.
What we forget, though, is that storytelling, as you so rightly mention, is what builds empathy. It’s what shows that we’ve been there, stepped in the holes, made the mistakes, and come out on the other side better for the experience. As a result, we can help our clients and customers learn the lessons without making the mistakes.
Come to think of it, I believe that’s what my parents were trying to do, but I never listened!
Jason – I just returned from a conference and there were lots of speakers who are making a lot of money. The one I just got off a call with mentioned her company almost went out of business 3 years ago because they got sloppy.
That’s exactly why I chose to call her. That little humanizing comment indicated I would get the honest truth and not a bunch of fluff about how grand life and business have been.
And as a parent of two grown children I can attest to the fact that they indeed often need to hear it from someone else too!