Social Media Brand Storytelling: Why is it Important?

Social media brand storytelling is becoming essential in this high-tech information world for entrepreneurs to create visibility and expand their influence. This idea can provide positive customer experience, clarify your brand identity on a mass scale, linger in consumers’ minds, and allow businesses to rise above the competition.

Those who cast aside the idea, in principle, can face stiff competition. Some may even wonder, what is the intention of the storytelling on social media.

This article shares insights to help you understand the importance of social media brand storytelling and discover how to construct a convincing one for your business.

“A great story is true. Not necessarily because it’s factual, but because it’s consistent and authentic.” – Seth Godin

Understanding Brand Storytelling on Social Media

Social media brand storytelling is a practice of communicating the brand story through various social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etcetera. Entrepreneurs who align their brands with relating through storytelling may create strong customer relationships. Yet problems are inevitable. The Manifest shows that “26 percent marketers lack adequate human and financial capital for social media marketing, 24 percent lack a structured plan, 24 percent find it challenging to create a community of followers, and 17 percent find it challenging to track results.

Brand storytelling on social media is a powerful tool for brands who want to deepen relationships — connect and engage with target markets that might not have been possible reaching; transactional experience — attract leads, increase sales, and grow your business; and bridge different views of the world.

Let us look at TOMS Shoes storytelling. According to Locowise

“In April 2011, the founder of the company asked everyone to go barefoot for a day. This mushroomed into the One Day Without Shoes campaign that is now an annual event and has made TOMS shoes a bit of an icon. But the whole thing is done through the kind of storytelling that simply means something to everyone.”

Now, let us look at some elements you should consider incorporating into your storytelling.

How to Create Your Brand Storytelling for Social Media

1. Concept your story — For your audience to absorb it, consider making your storyline and message into manageable parts. It would also be best if you thought about who you want to attract and their needs so that an emotional reaction can be evoked.
2. Pilot your story — Build a prototype for checking what is working and what is not working. This step is vital to creating a story because it will help you recognize what resonates with your audience. Also, you do not want to waste your time and resources on what does not matter.
3. Review timing for sustainability. Allow enough time to provide updates to your content, as this is paramount. It will help you to decide whether the knowledge you are sharing reaches your audience and resonates with their needs.
4. Analyze the initiative. There are different metrics to quantify the storytelling efforts on social media, such as the number of views, conversion rates, tweets, shares, and clicks. This knowledge will help you gage your message better so you can communicate with your audience. It is relevant to listen to your audience and integrate their voice to create a powerful brand narrative.
5.  Make your storytelling personal. Think about incorporating character and culture into your message. This certainly will help you connect and retain the right customers.
6. Identify the channel of distribution and promotional strategies. Research the platforms to discover where your perfect customers are hanging out. Resist intuition, as this can lead to failure. Note that audience behavior differs from platform to platform. Therefore, to suit each channel’s audience, you will need factual data to craft successful promotional strategies.  
   
   

The result can be astronomical if done correctly. For instance,  “Research shows that social media shares are boosted by 585% by using a brand character. Compare enjoyed an 80% jump in Internet traffic following meerkat Aleksandr Orlov’s first TV ad appearance. And Churchill’s famous nodding dog boosted pre-tax profits for the Direct Line Group by almost 50%.”

Conclusion

Brand storytelling on social media will help you create exposure, relate to your target audience at a deeper level that evokes emotional reactions, attract more ideal customers, and scale your business. As such, it is highly important. Nevertheless, this must be carefully planned. It will take time and effort. But a well-crafted story that is positioned to positively capture the hearts of customers can go viral in a matter of minutes.

Now, what is next!

Constructing a compelling story, implementing your idea, designing the prototype, and then promoting it— is brilliant.  But you must analyze your efforts to determine if your concept is working.

So, are you excited to create your brand story and measure your effort for success?

Let us explore a few social media metrics that you can start tracking for your brand storyline.

Please share your thoughts and ideas!