Social Media has changed the entire online atmosphere! We can no longer publish anything without interacting with our audience. New age social media requires individuals, groups and companies to have a defined online footprint to be able to bring their product, service or even personality to life through the power of story telling. Becoming a social media storyteller is a very useful talent as you are able to enact change, bring people together and are able to influence your audience. Below we outline the key requirements needed to become a social media storyteller.
Each post has a purpose
Planning your social media posts is crucial to ensure you are not posting the same story multiple times and ensuring you utilise all of your platforms for the largest reach. Having a social media post plan with assist in relieving stressful situations of unplanned posts and help to pinpoint each post in directions that you need to reach your goals. Consistency is key for user engagement both posting and being able to respond to queries or comments in real time to retain and gain followers.
Detailed Captions
Gone are the days of one-line captions or simply adding an emoji. People want more! Captivate your audience with a story behind your post to humanise your company and be more relatable to your audience. For example, social media influencers gain a large following due to detailed insights into their life. Its only human nature to be nosey and want to know more, so use this to your advantage.
Things to Post About
Begin posting with a few of these ideas and as you gain confidence in your ability and engagement incorporate creative tactics to continue growing your following.
- What you are doing with upcoming launches or community events
- Behind the scenes of all the action
- Share your story of how the business began and this is a great chance to reinforce your business’ message and what you stand for
- Try to work a story into an update making it a mini blog post which can stimulate your audience to comment and like
- Post consecutively for a broader story which is a tool used to see how many people are engaging with your posts and builds anticipation with your following
- Share your thoughts for a raw and real way to engage with your audience
Social Media Post Formats
Make social media platforms work harder for you with these post formats.
Facebook:
- Write a detailed story as character limit on Facebook is 63,000 characters
- Create a photo album that shares a story through images
- A video helps to show a multifaceted story such as how a business began and showing your team
- Go live for raw engagement with your audience
Instagram:
- A narrative to accompany your image. This may be a review of somewhere you ate or a story behind how the image was taken.
- Try visual story telling by uploading multiple images that create one large image when you view you Instagram page. This tactic is particularly good for selling product or launches.
- Create user generated content through a hash tag or share stories from followers to foster community
- Post a boomerang, carrousel of image or video to showcase action by sharing a visual story rather than written
- Instagram stories are useful to show a day in the life content, competition, launches, facts and most importantly in can be easily customised and personalised with Instagram’s variety of gifs and fonts
Twitter:
- Consecutive tweets for story telling, as the character limit is only 140.
- Twitter moments help to bring together multiple tweets in to a slideshow style for a more interactive approach that drives engagement easier
- Add photos to your tweets. Studies show that tweets with images receives 313% more engagement from followers
- Post memes and gifs to gain more retweets and share a funny story with your audience
- Create a hash tag to create a community that shares tweets about the same topic
- A line content with trending has tags for growth
Beginning your journey as a social media storyteller will help to broaden your reach and grow your following in a creative way. There are no rules, no limitations just your imagination is required to build your following and become a social media storyteller.