Social media has become the perfect platform for promoting your business. The fact that you are able to connect to such a broad audience and receive detailed analytics truly makes it the best platform to attract new followers. Upon its introduction, it was seen as merely a place to put up an ad and wait for the sales to come. However, the competition in this sphere has also taken a huge leap, making it important for businesses to craft their own image.
In the majority of cases, the audience for advertisements has shifted from the classic “go buy this now” mentality to a more personal one. Now, buyers prefer going for products and services that elicit feelings and emotions and represent a story that their brand follows. That way, customers don’t feel like they are just going and purchasing a product, but rather a complete brand to customer experience.
What is storytelling on social media?
Telling a story on social media is possible as interactive elements such as photos, videos, text, and other interactive features are perfect methods to do so in a non-promotional way. Instead of just posting specifications and design details about a product, it is better to tell a story about it that will connect with customers on a personal level. There have been studies which show that people are a lot more likely to purchase products if there is some sort of emotional connotation attached to it. The power of emotions not only has a big effect on our personal lives but also the things we buy. As humans are emotional creatures, there is no doubt that using emotions is an effective tool for brand promotion.
As social media is such a versatile platform, there are numerous ways you can tell your brand’s story and get your message across. These methods listed below are just what you need to tell your brand’s story successfully and in a way that is memorable to your target audience.
Social media posts
Normal text posts on social media platforms have immense potential when it comes to storytelling. To better understand the message we are trying to get across here, you can treat a post like it’s a short essay. Just like how traditional writing goes, you need to be able to create a vivid image of the story in as little words as possible to maintain reader interest without them clicking off. Your story would have to be detailed and precise and be targeted towards a specific emotion. In this case, you can use humor to inspire happiness or awareness to inspire resolve and commitment. As such, you need the help of a writer who knows the way to create an interesting and engaging experience for any casual scroller.
Create photo albums
A photo album is one of the best ways you can tell a story on social media. Photos are perfect to use in case you want to describe an event or situation but do not want to use any words. Ideally, you want to include photos that offer users insight into the products or services you are offering. Now, the power of emotions also applies here, but you have to be careful of its application. To start, you need to make sure that your photos offer just the right amount of emotions. You don’t want to create a saturated album which is filled with tear-jerkers, but rather something which stands for your agenda. You can also upload photos showing the experience working at your brand, letting your customers know what goes on behind the scenes.
Shoot short videos
Videos are an excellent method to promote your brand as they allow you to play with moving pictures accompanied by audio elements. Posting such videos on social media is a really good way to generate audience interaction, and tell your story. Since social media posts are mostly based around short attention spans you need to keep your video under a certain duration. A minute or two is absolutely fine, and you need to make content which is concise enough to be interesting.
Have some live sessions
Social media platforms have also allowed users to shoot live video and broadcast it across the world for your users to see. Live video is quite unlike recorded video in the way that it allows you to continuously monitor the stream and answer any comments your audience sends you. Your stream can be about the live coverage of an event from your sides, such as sports, concerts and much more.
Use photo captions
On many social media platforms, users are allowed to share a small caption along with an image they’re posting. In this sense, it is possible to create a narrative with each photo describing certain happenings in relation to a larger album. This is akin to a picture book with each text describing the image it’s attached to. These stories can be used to hook the audience into opening a link to continue them.
Make a YouTube channel
If you are looking to tell a story on a long term basis, there is really no better platform to do so other than YouTube. YouTube is the best platform for video-based storytelling content as it has a vibrant user base and has content creators representing virtually any field. This makes it perfect for collaborations and allows for better cross-promotion between channels.
Leverage Short Stories
Short videos uploaded as stories to numerous social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram are the perfect way to keep your audiences updated on a single platform. These videos are most often shot using smartphones and offer viewers a private, first-person view into a brands motive. Due to its short length, you need to keep it concise and take advantage of captions to elaborate the story. Also, shoot the stories in vertical orientation rather than horizontal, as that makes it easier to view on smartphones.
Design suitable infographics
Infographics allow you to tell a vibrant story without the lengthiness of text or the depth of video. In addition, infographics are also really easy to share and can be used to condense the information contained within a blog in a more readable format. An example of this is simplifying academics by providing law essay help in the form of easy to understand images. You can think of an infographic as a comic of sorts and can develop characters and situations to work for your narrative.
Create a GIF to share
Aside from their use for cats doing funny things, GIFs are a popular form of content on social media platforms. Due to their simple and entertaining nature, they are a great way to tell a story and can be shared easily between platforms too. GIFs are pretty much advanced images and can be used to paint a bigger picture than a static image. They can be used to add flavor to a post or can be used with blogs or other content too.
Make your own Hashtag
Hashtags are being used for quite some time to raise awareness and show support for certain trends. You can start by creating your own hashtag, and using it in in your posts, tweets or anything else. Slowly, you will start to notice people using your hashtags, particularly if they are satisfied with the product or service you are offering. Now, it might not be possible for you to make your hashtag go viral, but you can piggyback onto an existing one to promote your business.
