Creative Content Use: Storytelling
So, you’re ready to start sharing more about your business, but you’re not completely sure where to start. I’ll list three ways to get you started on sharing more than just what you do in no time!
1. Make a List
This is the quickest way to start brainstorming what to share about you and your business. Grab a paper and pen, and get ready to write!
I like to sit down with them and listen. Very similar to this exercise I share below, I begin by asking my clients a simple question and giving them the space to answer freely without interruption. As you respond to these questions, remember it’s a brainstorming session. Nothing you write is set in stone. You can expand on what you note or nix them altogether. Use this exercise as a way to let your mind wander and reflect. The editing comes later!
Here are a few of my favorite questions to ask clients:
— What gets you out of bed in the morning?
— What misconceptions does the general public have about your business or industry?
— What are the questions you get asked all the time and have to continually answer?
— Why should your audience choose you over your competition?
— What brought you to this exact moment in your business?
You can think as broadly or as narrowly as you’d like— obviously the more you let your mind wander and take the question as a starting point, the most ideas each question will produce.
For example— What gets you out of bed in the morning?
A few obvious answers could be….
“My Alarm.”
“Kids”
“Coffee”
Honest answers, but these are the answers that will give you in-depth topics to share with your audience. Let’s take a second look at these answers to see how we can expand on them.
“My Alarm” can be expanded on using these prompts:
- What is your alarm set for that day?
- What’s the first task on your to-do list?
- Are you bounding out of bed or hitting the snooze? Why?
“My Kids” can be expanded on using these prompts:
- How is your business giving your children a different life?
- How do you find a work/life balance with children?
- Did you always have an entrepreneur spirit? Were your parents entrepreneurs? Who gave you your first look at what entrepreneur life could be for you?
“Coffee” can be expanded on using these prompts:
- What are your morning or evening routines that set you up for success?
- What elements of your day do you do for you? How do you care for yourself while running your business?
- What are the essential everyday things you swear by? A certain organization app? A specific playlist? What keeps you going that you can’t imagine your life without?
2. Behind-the-Scenes
What’s a picture of a dog doing here? I’ll explain shortly…
Now that you have a solid list of topics to expand on in any number of ways, look at those topics and see what type of imagery you could add.
Always consider showing your audience what few people get to see. Sure, you can show beautiful pictures of your products, but what about while you’re creating your products?!
A few things to think about you create a list of images to pair with your topics:
Before & Afters
What did it look like before you took charge?
Less Glamorous Moments/Mistakes/Fails
Carefully choose your words for sharing these types of images because you don’t want your audience to think you aren’t an expert in your industry. These types of images are shared as a way of saying, “Hey! I’m human too!!”
For example, even an award-winning pastry chef makes mistakes from time to time. This would be a great space to show what a 3-layer cake looks like when you forget to add baking powder because you were trying to multi-task and do too many things at once!
Share some personal moments that overlap into your professional life
Try not to think of as a place to share thousands of pictures of your dog. Yes, he’s super cute! But is your audience following you for your dog or your business? Unless your business is your dog, share a picture of your dog and share how it overlaps into your business.
For me, my editing days are spent at my desk at home. My dog sleeps in her bed next to my desk the entire day and I consider her my cube mate. She also knows that if I’m sitting on the couch editing, that must mean it’s playtime. She forces me to sit at the desk and pound out my work because I can’t get anything done without her asking me to play if I sit on the couch. She completely holds me accountable! I would flush out more details of that story… including details that would allow readers to picture me working at my desk VS working on the couch… describe the sounds my dog makes to get me to play… what types of toys she brings… and including a picture of her just makes sense! Plus she’s just so stinkin’ cute!
Do you see the difference?
I included a fairly in-depth story in a very short time that explains WHY there would be a dog in social media feed when my business has nothing to do with dogs.
3. Share Vulnerably
Your photos aren’t the only place to share your story. As I mentioned above, the caption is a place to dive deeper into your story. Draw your audience in with a beautiful picture, but use the caption to EXPLAIN why the picture is important!
Talk about your path— what about your business has come naturally and what has been a struggle. What are you channeling the struggle into a way for you to grow? How do your beliefs play a role in your business?
When sharing vulnerably, always consider your audience. Will this alienate people? Will this exclude others? If you’re sharing to a specific group, think about how it could make a difference to your overall following. Not every part of your following will find value in every post, but I suggest that you try to never alienate a sub-group by only sharing to one part.
For example, if a big part of your story has been your transition into parenthood, that’s wonderful! Share it— but consider other sub-groups of your following that doesn’t understand that. Don’t forget to share other stories that the rest of your following can relate to.
“Now I know what I want to share, but where do I share it?”
The easiest answer to that question is social media. Use the captions of your posts to write honestly about the topics you discovered using the exercise above! Use Instagram Live or Facebook Live to show your face to your audience and share with intent. Find the beginning, middle and end of a story before you begin to ensure you won’t ramble on endlessly with a real point to your story. Make sure you know what you hope your audience will get out of it first!
You can also use these topics and stories to share on your blog! Don’t have a blog? It’s worth considering starting one! Blogs are regularly updated (every week… sometimes every other week…) and will show search engines that you are creating new content that will be of value to your visitors. A regularly updated site (read… new blog post) will cue search engines that your site isn’t a dead site with little traffic, but it’s actually read and of service to your audience!
On top of that, it gives you a platform to share what you think is important for your audience to know.
Have you done similar brainstorming exercises in the past?
I’d love to hear about the writing prompts you used!