Part of getting a business’s message across to its audience requires being able to hook them with a story. Storytelling is a tried-and-true method for increasing people’s interest in a particular company, and the advent of social media has made storytelling an even more critical part of brand building.
So what kinds of approaches work particularly well? To find out, members of Forbes Agency Council, below, discuss some of the ways that business owners can improve their storytelling to build their brand image through digital media.
Members discuss a few ways you can improve sharing your brand’s story.
Photos courtesy of the individual members
1. Be Clear On Brand Vision And Voice
Be so clear on your vision for the company and your brand voice that everything flows from your heart and soul. Authenticity is everything. People want to see everything—the good, the occasional bad and sometimes the ugly. It’s real. And people relate to that. – Sophie Bowman, Brand Branding PR LLC
2. Understand The Fundamentals Of Human Culture
Understanding the fundamentals of human culture is key when injecting your brand in any society. The mediums used in telling your story serves as the bedrock on which your brand grows. Don’t chase your competitors—simply allow your message to express itself naturally and nurture its growth. It’s also important to understand that the content created for those mediums needs to be tailored for them; you cannot recycle a piece of content and distribute it everywhere the same way. – Zohaib Hassan Patoli, SnapWebServices
3. Listen To Your Front Lines
Listen to input from the people that talk to your customers every day. This will give you valuable information to go back and adapt your story in order to better connect with your customers and in the process involve your employees. – Christopher Wallace, InnerView Group
4. Focus On Brand Authenticity
Business owners should focus less on chasing trends and more on brand authenticity. By staying authentic to the brand, business owners and CMOs can engage larger audiences and have their brand’s voice heard by more people. People trust and engage more with authentic content. The best part about authenticity is that it’s free and requires no learning curve. – Travis Peters, Ranksharks Inc.
5. Make It Personal
The best way for business owners to become better storytellers is to relate it to personal experience. Every journey is unique and that part is worth sharing. If there’s one of two experiences that I can share that will help other agencies learn and avoid possible pitfalls, that is well worth it. – Cristina Cruz, RC Digital Consultancy
Read more in You — Yes, You! — Can Be A Storyteller
6. Share Your Experiences To Bring Your Stories To Life
You have to have experiences. You can’t know everything or everyone unless you’ve “been there.” And so most of what I know or can guide people on come from having been through it already. I can coach a client on being on TV because I’ve done it several hundred times myself. I can pitch a magazine editor because I was one for 15 years. So if you are a business owner and you want to tell your story, you’ve got to think about everything you’ve been through and bring those stories to life through moments and experiences—good or bad. – Jared Shapiro, The Tag Experience
7. Define Your ‘Why’
Business owners can be better storytellers and brand stewards by asking themselves “why” they and their company exists in the first place, and what and how are they holding true to that promise of bringing their why to the forefront of the organization. That should be to root of their stories and how they can be the best stewards of their own brand. – Todd Juneau, Vuja De Digital
8. Steal From The Best
Learn from Socrates how to enchant and rile. From Jobs, how to keep a room captivated. Study startups that recently blew up and billion-dollar businesses that started in a garage. Put on your favorite stand-up comedian and watch how he uses a hook and delivers a punchline. Inspiration is everywhere. Know where to look. – Ashar Jamil, Digitally Up
9. Be Vulnerable And Transparent
Deep down, people (your customers) want to buy from someone they can relate to or trust, ideally both. By being vulnerable you become relatable. By being transparent you become trustworthy. Share your experience, not just stories you make up. The reasons that a business owner might think “I’m not special. I’m not different.” are often the exact characteristics that make you relatable. – Damon Burton, SEO National
10. Own Your Own Story
Know what the story is, what it means and how to communicate it. What do you want your brand to stand for? Be able to point to examples of how that is happening, and remember to link it to relevant issues. – Leeza Hoyt, The Hoyt Organization
