Using storytelling in social media content is one of the most useful, not to mention captivating, techniques to convey messages and information. If used effectively, you can create engaging stories about your products and services that make people pay attention and have them clamoring for more. 

If you want to know more, read on!

What is Storytelling?

Storytelling doesn’t mean that you have to write the next great novel. Instead, stories are a part of our everyday lives as they are how we understand the world and our relationships with others. 

It helps us make products and services resonate with our target audience by using our prospective customer’s language and tapping into their emotions. This can lead to more engagement on your posts to convert leads as you build a relationship with your audience.  

But what does this mean or look like for social media content?

How you tell your personal, company, product, or service story will vary slightly depending on the social media platform and the type of content that fits into your marketing strategy. It can be in short or long form, ranging from video, text, and images. 

However, the one thing it’ll (almost) always follow is the traditional plot trajectory. So it looks something like this: 

That being said, there has been a rising trend of online creators starting their stories en medias res, which means you start in the middle of your story. This can be a very effective way to quickly grab attention and immerse your audience into a story. 

And just like in any good story - no matter how you start it - you’ll need to create a protagonist, throw some challenges their way, and have them solve those problems in some epic way. Here’s how I do it in my social media content: 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Alissa | Social Media Marketing | IG Growth (@cristantadigitalmarketing)

Things to Keep in Mind When Using Storytelling in Social Media Content

There are a few things that you need to know about storytelling on social media before you dive into it. Here are those things: 

Know Your Audience

You must know who your audience is, and the better you know them, the more effective your stories will be. Knowing what types of problems your audience faces, and what they like and dislike will help you craft a tale that will resonate with your audience. 

If you don’t do the leg work to find out who your audience is, your stories will fall flat. So get to know who is following you on your social media pages. 

Use Your Customers’ Tone of Voice

This point follows the previous point. When getting to know your existing and potential customers, use the same words they do when describing their problems or opinions on your product or service. This will make them feel more in tune with your brand, product, or service. 

Also, drop the corporate buzzwords and shop talk from your copy. It screams that you are marketing your product or service and just want the sale. Using a more relaxed and informal tone of voice puts you on the same level as your customer base, which can improve their relationship with your company or brand, making it easier to market your products and services to them. 

Make Your Customers the Hero

You have developed your products and services to help solve challenges from your target audience. Speak to that in your copy by using your customer’s tone of voice and highlighting their pain points and benefits.

Get Familiar with Different Literary Devices

There’s a fantastic website called https://literarydevices.net/. It lists all the literary devices we intentionally (and unintentionally) use daily. I highly recommend looking through that list and applying different techniques to your copy to see how it affects your overall story and how it resonates with your audience. 

For example, your brand may be silly, so trying different rhymes or limericks may work better than writing prose. Or your brand is more serious but likes to play with satire or poke fun at itself. Specific literary devices can help you spin your copy to make it more exciting and engaging.

Don’t Be Afraid to Try Something New

I see many businesses hop on a trend or way of sharing their story that mimics other companies because it has proven successful. While there is nothing wrong with this, it also creates a situation where you are still in a position where you’re fighting for recognition within your industry. 

The best way to fix this is to branch out and try something new. This could be in the form of original content, switching perspectives, or trusting your contractors (if you have them) to have free reign to experiment. That said, do your due diligence by A/B testing where applicable and knowing that some ideas will fall flat. 

As an example of trying something different, I’d like to call attention to the United States National Park Service Instagram account (@nationalparkservice). Instead of giving you the standard don’t feed the bears or go near the wildlife, they’ve made it entertaining and silly with their storytelling techniques while still imparting the necessary information. 

 

 

 

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A post shared by National Park Service (@nationalparkservice)

In Summary

Storytelling is critical to leaving a lasting impression on your audience, and a good story can captivate a listener in ways that no facts or data ever could. When you use storytelling in your marketing, you connect to the people that matter the most to your company - your customers. So don’t forget to include them in your journey and treat them to all of your creativity by creating narratives they enjoy. 

If there’s one thing you can do for your business this year to help step up your social media marketing strategy while saving time, check out my pre-made Instagram templates. All you need to do is insert your product or service’s information into the templates and post it.