WRITE YOUR BUSINESS: Tell the Story of your Business on Social Media
You may not consider yourself a writer. You may not think your business has a story. You may not even believe the story of your business matters! NOT SO!
We tell a story every time we open our mouths (or write words in a sentence). Did you realize your business has a story? Stories allow people to remember us. Think about some of the commercials on TV that play over and over and over — more than that, think about companies that use a “serial type” marketing — same cast of character with new scenarios each time. We want our clients to remember us and understand who we are. We want to engage them in ways that will make it easy to them to remember us.
PURPOSE
Each time I post or share information I back that up with my purpose. Everyone has a story. Each business has a story that we can incorporate into our story:
“I started this business because . . .” or, “I had the same problem . . . need . . . lack . . . and I figured out a way to solve it. Let me show you how I did it”!
Isn’t that more engaging and personable than, “buy my product” or “I have xx days to meet my goal”? It’s also more inviting than simply telling our audience what we do — to make them want what w e are offering they need to see the value — to them!
We want to always be sure our communication is about them — and their needs.
RELEVANCE
Our content needs to be relevant. It’s okay to be personal — sharing about family and friends and life events, especially if our audience is parents with young families! But we need to be sure our content is also “other focused.” We want to be relatable but we also don’t want to go too far down the “here’s my perfect (or awful) life” scenario!
It’s important to be timely — if we can take advantage of current trends, it’s a “no brainer” as long as we don’t overdo it! Relevance is subjective, so spend some time thinking about what is relevant to your audience. We need to keep in mind demographics like their age, socio-economic status, race, etc.
What’s relevant to me as a grandma, may not make sense or even matter to a twenty-something recent college grad just starting their professional career.
STRUCTURE
We need structure and a succinct message:
I can help you divinely design your words, whether you’re telling the story of your business or the story of your life.
I can help take your words from dull to divinely designed.
Structure also means that we have a framework for our messaging. That can include social media platform, print platform, in-person platform. Our messaging will be the same, but the format will vary. The in-person dynamic is much different, and in many ways easier than in print or on social media. We have the benefit of body language/facial expressions and eye contact when we’re face-to-face, and even on live video. We need to use our words strategically and intentionally to compensate for lack of visual cues.
SIMPLICITY
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received — from two different coaches, in two different ways — is to “keep it simple.”
One coach taught me that we should have ONE offer at a time! If we give people too many choices, they’ll get confused, or overwhelmed and decide to “come back later” (even though we know that once they leave, it’s over)!
Simplicity also includes making it easy for potential customers/clients to take the action we’re calling out. One button to click or link to follow assures they won’t get confused or sidetracked.
Overthinking and over planning until we think everything is perfect is not simple! It’s procrastination and can ultimately paralyze us. We need to keep our end of the plan simple too! If you’re whiz at Canva or another graphic site, go for it! But a fancy flier is not a requirement! My friend and coach, Stevii Mills, rocked my world when she declared, “All you need is a link and flier. And, really, you don’t even need a flier.”
We also typically use too many words — or not enough words! One of my former coaches, John-Erik Moseler, affirmed for me early on that words do, indeed, matter! His suggestion is to create your social media post, blog post, or other writing. After you’re finished, as you’re doing routine editing, see how many words you can remove! Yep, you read correctly!
People have really short attention spans! They will stop reading at about the 30 second mark unless what you have written is so riveting they can’t help themselves! (That is probably not the case!) So fewer words actually have more impact. Simple, succinct, relevant, structured.
Speaking of which, if we really hope to have our social media posts read, put the main point in the first line! Whether it’s a call to action or an announcement or simply information you want readers to know, give it to them right out of the gate! Then add the details. It seems counterintuitive but let’s be honest . . . most of us don’t like to wait for surprises!
I help you divinely design your words, whether you’re telling the story of your business or the story of your life! You can start the process by scheduling a 20 minute chat with me at marymoss.info/chat20
You can find me on line at linktr.ee/themarymoss
