If that weren’t impressive enough, there are 2 new LinkedIn members added each second.
As such, LinkedIn has quickly become one of the best platforms out there for content writing, and it’s a great place to gain leads and build recognition for your company, cause, or topic.
Like all things, though, learning to write content for LinkedIn is a skill, and you’ve got to develop it in order to excel at it.
With that in mind, here’s a simple, one-stop shop to help you get started crafting content for LinkedIn, in my next #howtowrite blog post in our series.
10 Tips for Writing Content on LinkedIn
To write great content on LinkedIn, follow these ten simple tips:
1. Tailor your voice to LinkedIn’s demographic.
The audience that uses LinkedIn is geared toward the world of professionalism and business, so it’s wise to treat them accordingly. Instead of writing your LinkedIn posts like you would for Facebook or a similar platform, be sure that you’re gearing them toward the unique community LinkedIn offers.
This means keeping your content on-topic, professional, and authoritative. It also means ensuring that you’re adjusting your voice wherever and whenever needed to continue meeting your reader’s requests and demands.
On LinkedIn, just like any other social media platform, it’s critical to learn to post often enough to get noticed, but not often enough that you bother your colleagues or drive leads away. Keep in mind that LinkedIn uses an algorithm that determines what shows up on network updates, and that posting too frequently can damage your impression numbers.
To determine how often you should post, consider LinkedIn’s top influencers. While they post several times a week, they’re not posting each day, and they have a deep understanding for their natural publishing maximums. To put this another way, you never want to post so often that you fatigue and bore your readers!
3. Add visuals to all of your LinkedIn content.
The more visuals you can add to your LinkedIn content, the better. While you don’t want to turn the material you publish on the platform into a storybook, it’s smart to accent each post with a relevant visual, since this will help ensure that your post is featuring nicely in LinkedIn’s publishing algorithm, and that it’s as attention-grabbing as possible with your audience.
4. Pay attention to your headlines.
Headlines, in the world of LinkedIn, are essential. To perform as well as possible, they should be attention-grabbing, short, and to-the-point, but they should also give the high-level professionals that populate the LinkedIn platform reason enough to click.
If you’re confused about what makes a great LinkedIn headline and what doesn’t, take some time to consider the headlines of top LinkedIn influencers for an example. Take, for instance, this HubSpot headline, which features numbers to grab attention, a valuable promise, and an image to complete the post:
5. Keep your posts to the right length.
Post length makes a big impact on LinkedIn. While it’s a platform that’s more geared toward longer content than Twitter or a similar social platform, it’s also smart to remember that the right length content makes all of the difference. With this in mind, keep your LinkedIn posts to the right length.
In addition to ensuring that people will read them, this will also go a long way toward keeping you on-topic and deeply involved with the material you write about.
6. Use quality links to improve your content.
Links make a massive difference in the success or failure of your LinkedIn posts. To make them as good as possible, use links to demonstrate your points, showcase key sources, and reach out to relevant sites.
Keep in mind that you don’t want to “link stuff” your content, just to showcase your ability to do it, but you DO want to be liberal about your use of links, and ensure that you’re doing what you need to do to show your readers and Google that you’re capable of linking well.
7. Complete your LinkedIn profile.
Your LinkedIn profile is one of the first places people will land when they’re looking for information about you and your company. With this in mind, be sure that you’ve completed and optimized your profile accordingly. This means that your profiles should feature a relevant profile picture, all your relevant contact information, and a complete list of recent accomplishments and skills. Don’t forget to update your profiles as needed to ensure that it stays current.
8. Publicize your posts.
LinkedIn posts can make a splash both inside and outside of LinkedIn. To get as much traction as possible from each post you write, be sure to publicize it both on LinkedIn and outside of the platform. This will help gain as much traction as possible for your post, while also ensuring that it gets the audience it deserves.
9. Embed relevant video information.
If you have a relevant video or SlideShare presentation that you can add to your LinkedIn profile, do it. In addition to helping you earn a broader audience, a step like this can go a long way toward building your authority on LinkedIn, and helping you stand out as a leader in any given field.
10. Adjust as needed.
The final tip for how to write content for LinkedIn is to adjust your strategy as needed. LinkedIn, like all social platforms, changes on a regular basis and your strategy will be best off if you can adjust it whenever it isn’t working, or isn’t working properly.
Keep in mind that the LinkedIn audience is unique and discerning, and the more willing you are to optimize your content for them, the better.
How to Write Content for LinkedIn, The Easy Way!
While writing content for LinkedIn may seem hard, these simple tips make it easy and effortless. As one of the most valuable networking and connection platforms out there, it’s clear that LinkedIn is far too important to pass by, and marketers who learn to write effective content for the platform will fare well both now and in the future.
Do you need a skilled writer to help you craft quality content for your social media platforms? Check out our Content Shop to learn more today!
Social media has become a massively valuable platform in recent years.
With millions of active monthly users, an incredibly diverse base of users, and reach to virtually every corner of the earth, it’s clear why the various platforms in the social media family, ranging from Facebook to LinkedIn, have stood out as such valuable and relevant places to share content.
But how, exactly, do you craft content that performs well on these diverse and different platforms?
In one of my first #howtowrite series, I’m here to share with you!
Read on.
How to Write Content for Social Media: 10 Tips
Since social media is such a varied and unique environment, it’s critical to ensure that you’re writing the right content at the right time. Here’s how:
1. Optimize what you write according to the platform you write it for.
Twitter is different from Facebook, which is different from Google+, which is different from Twitter! To make the most of writing content for social media, it’s critical that you take the additional time and effort needed to also optimize the content you write for the various social platforms for which you write it.
For example, do you know which of your readers frequent which platform? Do you know how long content should be for said platform, or how to present your content so that it performs the best it can on a given platform? If not, now is the time to learn. Optimizing content for the platform you publish it on is critical, and it’s essential to master this skill accordingly.
Images are as critical for social media content as they are anywhere else. To make the most of your social content, fill it up with images once you’ve written it. Beautiful stock photos, in-depth screenshots, and even personal pictures can go a long way toward improving your content and making it feel more approachable and friendly for your readers.
To understand why this is so important to good social media content, think for a moment about how you regard posts with images vs. posts without images in your own social media news feeds. Which are more likely to get your clicks? If you answered “posts with images,” you’re not alone.
While people only remember 10% of what they read, they remember 65% of what they see, and pairing a relevant visual with your social media content can help it stick in your readers’ heads.
3. Keep your audience in mind.
Your audience is critical when it comes to social media content, and if you don’t know who they are there’s no way you’re going to be able to address them properly. With this in mind, do everything you can to build targeted personas, research your audience, and develop a solid understanding of who they are and what they care about.
In addition to allowing you to tailor your content more effectively, this step will also help to ensure that the posts you publish on social media will have a wide, broad reach with the potential to extend well beyond your audience.
4. Keep it about other people.
Social media can be an echo chamber for narcissism, so it’s important to keep your content focused on other people. If you’re one of the many social media users who finds it tough to contend with other users who publish self-centric posts on a regular basis, take heed.
Instead, keep your posts broad and externally-focused for the best result.
5. Become a master of headlines.
Social media headlines are critical to your click-through-rate, and they can make or break the success of your content. With this in mind, follow the best practices for stellar headlines. In addition to earning you more clicks, a simple tip like this can easily boost the success rate of all of your social media content and ensure that you’re as close as possible to going viral online.
6. Experiment with different content types.
Social media is a great place for all sorts of content types, ranging from articles and blog posts to videos and infographics. To build a well-rounded and unique content strategy, try your hand at all of them.
In addition to giving your fans something to look forward to, this approach will also help expand your content horizons and teach you what works best with your audience and what doesn’t!
7. Address your readers.
Social media works best when its personal, so don’t be afraid to address your readers directly. The personal “you” makes more of a splash in the news feed than anything else, so it’s smart to include it.
8. Cover trending topics.
Social media is an excellent place to tap into current events and web-wide trends. In addition to the fact that these things will generally perform well with readers, social media content has a relatively short lifespan, so using it to cover current events is a great move.
With this in mind, don’t hesitate to look to trending hashtags, news sources, and industry events to come up with topics for your next batch of social media content.
9. Keep it concrete.
Social media isn’t a place to get obscure and experimental with your headlines or your content. Since people skim through social media feeds so quickly, concrete, tangible, unique headlines and topics will perform the best. Don’t forget to give your readers something they can hold onto.
10. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
If readers click your title expecting one thing and they get another, they’re bound to be disappointed, and rightfully so! With this in mind, make sure your headline and the content beneath it deliver what’s promised, and don’t be surprised if your CTR drops when this stops happening.
Learn how to Write for Social Media & Gain Serious Brand Attention
Social media continues to grow, and learning how to write content for social media is more critical today than it’s ever been before.
When you ace your social media content, it’s easy to attract readers, develop your brand identity, and spread ideas worth sharing.
It’s also a great way to build an ongoing following that supports the goals and long-term objectives of your company.
While the purpose of content is to be helpful and useful for readers, it also needs to appear in search engines — otherwise, you’re losing out on the potential your content could have.
Like all types of online writing, however, learning how to write content for SEO is a skill that you must learn.
With this in mind, let’s dive into how to write content for SEO, and what proactive steps you can take to make your online content visible, relevant, and interesting.
How to Write Content for SEO: 7 Steps
Here’s a sneak peek at the 7 steps we’re going to cover in today’s blog.
1. Outline and ideate the content in your head before you write it.
2. Structure your content for easy readability & long-tail keywords.
3. Format all of your content into short chunks.
4. Make your headings descriptive.
5. Nail the transition.
6. Have other people proofread your posts.
7. Have other people proofread your posts.
8. Make sure your articles are long enough to provide ample main content.
[bctt tweet=” 70.6% of ALL web traffic comes from Google — a reason why SEO is critical for every business’s content marketing. No idea what SEO is? Don’t worry. @JuliaEMcCoy guides you through the basics on how you can write for SEO! ” username=”ExpWriters”]
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. By making online content easy for the crawlers of search engines like Google to understand, good SEO principals help written material rank more efficiently. They can even make it easier for readers to find your written material online!
There are two different segments of SEO: technical SEO and on-page SEO. While technical SEO refers to the links, structure, and code of a website, on-page SEO is the keyword inclusion, length, outbound links, images, and style of a post – all of which help Google “read” it and rank it accordingly.
Both technical and on-page SEO are methods of optimizing content and getting it to rank in a favorable manner. Common SEO tactics involve keyword research and inclusion, image optimization, link building, and content formatting.
How to Create Content That Supports Good SEO: 7 Formatting & Structure Tips
Today, good SEO and good content go hand-in-hand. If your content is poorly formatted, improperly structured, or carelessly thrown together, it’s going to be difficult to shape it into something that supports effective SEO. With that in mind, here are some tips to help you correctly develop all of your blog posts, starting now:
1. Outline and ideate the content in your head before you write it.
While nobody is saying you need to sit down and create a “brain map” of your various ideas, content that supports good SEO is the opposite of an impressionist painting. Instead of being random and sudden, it is methodical and categorical. Because of this, brainstorming content is a powerful way to ensure that you’re including all of your main points and topics, and that you can use the content to input links, keywords, and other important SEO elements.
To this end, think about all of your content, with these questions, before you write it:
Who are you trying to reach?
Which keywords will you include?
What’s the overall point of your material?
What do you want the content to communicate?
By thinking through the course and structure of your content clearly, it’s easier to publish great content that lends itself nicely to SEO.
2. Structure your content for easy readability & long-tail keywords.
Great blog posts rely on great structure, and good SEO does, too. With this in mind, consider mapping or outlining your blog posts before you write them. In addition to giving you a structure to abide by, this simple task will also help you lay out your introduction, body, and conclusion, and ensure that your content is easy to read, which, in turn, makes it more reader- and search engine-friendly.
A large brick of text is intimidating to readers, and it will push people away. With this in mind, be sure to divide all of your content into readable chunks of text, with a beginning, middle, and end.
As a general rule, paragraphs should be only 3-4 sentences in length, and you should do your best to insert subheaders at intervals of every 300 or so words. This makes your content easier for readers to approach and helps keep it from feeling intimidating on the page. It also has the potential to improve your click-through rate, which can boost your overall SEO scores.
Look through some posts here to see examples of readable content:
Beyond just using headings, you need to know how to make them descriptive and useful. Headlines are meant to guide readers through your blog post, and headlines that are highly descriptive and include target keywords will do the best job of this. They’ll also work as a sort of advertisement on Google’s search engine results page and, if they’re written well enough, will draw more people to your content.
5. Nail the transition.
Transition words are important to your writing, and they can go a long way toward making it smoother and easier to understand for readers. While this sounds simple, it’s important to remember that good content is the foundation of good SEO, and content your customers can’t read doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance of ranking well.
With this in mind, don’t hesitate to use transition words and phrases like “However,” “Secondly,” etc. These help your readers keep pace and will work wonders to streamline your writing.
6. Have other people proofread your posts.
While you may be an effective writer and editor, having other people read your posts will cut down on errors and improve your writing. With this in mind, hire an editor or another writer to help you look over your post before you publish them. Don’t ever make a habit out of publishing something you’ve not adequately proofread since this is a recipe for mistakes and sloppiness, both of which can damage your rankings.
7. Make sure your articles are long enough to provide ample main content.
According to Yoast, every article you post should have at least 300 words. The reason for that is that content shorter than that doesn’t provide enough of what Google, in its updated Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, calls “main content.”
While it’s true that longer articles tend to perform better in the world of SEO, the main priority you have as a writer is simply to ensure that your articles provide enough main content to be useful to search engines and people.
[bctt tweet=”ℹ️ 7 SEO structure tips: outline your ideas, use long-tail keywords, make your content readable, make headings descriptive, ▶️ use transition words, and ☑️ get your content proofread by someone else. ℹ️ ” username=”ExpWriters”]
How to Write Content for SEO: 6 Critical Tips for all of Your Content
Once you’ve learned what it takes to develop content with a favorable SEO structure, let’s talk about what it takes to actually write content for SEO.
While some bloggers overlook SEO, you simply cannot afford to take this approach, especially in light of the fact that many of the things mentioned in this article, like page load time and ample amounts of quality main page content, are things that Google has been prioritizing with recent algorithm updates.
Designed to help you rank well in search engines and enjoy a wider audience, writing content for SEO is a critical part of becoming a well-known blogger in your given field.
1. Optimize your content to load quickly.
While it’s not an element of on-page SEO necessarily, page load time is a huge factor in the world of SEO, and there are certain steps you can take during the writing process to streamline load times. According to Neil Patel, 40% of people abandon web page when they take more than 3 seconds to load, so it’s essential to keep load time in mind as you craft your pages.
To determine how your site does in terms of load time, use a tool like the Pingdom website speed tool. It’s super easy to use. Just plug in your URL and location.
If the results aren’t quite what you had hoped for, there are a few things you can do to alter your on-page SEO and speed load times accordingly:
Optimize your images. Images are an important part of a good blog, and they’re critical for SEO, as well. When they’re too long, though, they can easily harm a page’s load times. With this in mind, optimize your images to load more rapidly. This involves adjusting your image sizes so that they’re not excessively large, uploading speed-friendly image formats (JPEGS are the best options), and inputting image src codes to prevent the browser from surveying the page directory in an attempt to “read” the image.
Keep redirects at bay.Redirects can destroy your page load time, so it’s important to keep them to the bare minimum. As much as you can, avoid citing URLs in your content that redirect to other URLs. This will help enhance your load time and create a better user experience.
2. Make your headlines powerful and attention-grabbing.
The headline is a huge asset when writing content for SEO. In addition to the fact that the headline is the first thing people see, it’s also one of the primary things that Google evaluates when ranking your sites. To ensure that your headlines are performing well and drawing readers, be sure to do the following:
Include relevant keywords. For best results, input your keyword phrase at the beginning of your headline to make it as prominent as possible.
Use action words. Action words make readers want to act. When your headline asks someone to click, share, or download, they’re more likely to do just that.
Address the reader directly.Addressing the reader directly makes your headlines more personal, and can grab a reader’s attention from the depths of the SERPs.
3. Write a fresh meta description and title.
Meta descriptions are the small snippets of descriptive text that show up in Google’s SERPs. If you want SEO juice, you CANNOT ignore this part.
For example, check out the meta description that appears for Express Writers in the SERPS.
While they’re easy to overlook, they’re critical for the health and wellbeing of your content’s SEO. To get the most from each meta description you write, include relevant keywords, direct your content to the reader personally, and keep it the right length (fewer than 160 characters) so that it doesn’t get truncated by Google.
While these may seem like simple steps, they’re essential to keep your meta descriptions on point and helpful to your readers.
4. Include keywords (in the right places).
Keywords used to be all the rage in the world of SEO. Today, the buzz has quieted a bit, but they’re still an important piece of on-page SEO. With this in mind, you’ll want to include relevant keywords in all of the writing you do, but take pains to not go too far with them and “stuff” your content like a Thanksgiving turkey.
As a general rule, your keyword or keyword phrase should be included in your title, subheaders, and throughout the body copy. While keyword density is only one of Google’s more than 200 ranking factors, it’s still an important thing to pay attention to and optimize for when you set out to write content for SEO.
Links are a powerful tool to help improve your SEO. While internal links (links that point back to your own content) can help direct users to your other material, external links (to high DA sources with a score of 50 or above) will help communicate to Google and other search engines that your website is authoritative and relevant, and that you value quality connections to other online content.
To use links correctly, attach them to relevant, non-stuffy anchor text and ensure that you’re using only the most relevant sites for your particular information.
6. Use the right tools and resources.
While it’s true that writing content for SEO can be tough, there are dozens of great tools and resources at your disposal. Consider using apps like the following to improve your content’s SEO and help it rank more effectively.
Yoast SEO. A simple WordPress plugin that helps optimize WordPress posts for SEO.
Hemingway. A simple app that helps writers simplify and clarify their content for enhanced readability.
The AMI Headline Analyzer. A tool that analyzes headlines and determines how emotive and impactful they are.
BuzzSumo. A powerful tool designed to help bloggers mine topics, track keywords, and located trending topics.
[bctt tweet=”ℹ️ 6 tips on how to write content for SEO: optimize your copy and images, ️ use catchy headlines, ✍️ make sure to write meta data, ️ use keywords, use high-quality links, and ⚒️ use the right tools. ℹ️” username=”ExpWriters”]
Conclusion: How to Write Content for SEO, Made Simple
While it’s true that writing content for SEO can be tough, these simple tips can give you the roadmap you need to make the process easier and more streamlined than ever before.
With good SEO content comes good rankings, more readers, and increased online visibility – which is great for your content and your company.
Today’s an awesome day!
We’re super excited because our Private Label system, where you have to put down a deposit to activate a pricing level, is no more as of today!
We’ve rolled out many other changes, all for the better of our quality and deliverables, listed below. What’s more, we made all this happen before Thanksgiving (Josh, my CTO, Josh’s development team and I worked on it for 24 hours straight yesterday, till about 5:30 am today). Coffee will be sorely needed today, to say the least.
Without further ado, here’s a lowdown on what you can expect going forward with our services and pricing structure.
Massive Changes for the Better this Thanksgiving at Express Writers
Our Content Shop underwent all these changes last night, and was down for about 12 hours during the upgrade. Here’s a checklist of what went live as of today:
It’s a consensus: many of our clients agree that Private Label + the two pricing tiers, with one dependent on a deposit, is confusing! We’re officially removing Private Label, doing away with two pricing tiers, and consolidating to one that makes sense and is equalized across the board.
Former PL users, your Private Label deposit is going nowhere. And, you can still put down a deposit at any time! Your discount just doesn’t depend on it. You will still have all your funds in your account, within policy.
Better cover rates will be in the Shop, as will better word counts and product presentation. It’ll be easier than ever just to buy what you need, at any time. I’m super proud of this one. I’ve gone through our rates with a fine-toothed comb and set better, cheaper cover rates than what we formerly had – that makes sense across the board. In some cases, we narrowed down our insanely long word range choices from 13 ranges to 8. Also, the layout of our Packages is so much cleaner!
Pre-built carts (an easy way to quote out your custom content services) is happening! Have our team send you a pre-built cart at any time now. (Woohoo!)With a few clicks, you can check out with exactly what you need, with no rate levels to worry about – just one. For grandfathered rates, you’ll simply use a custom coupon our support team will hand you.
Up to 100 $10, 100-250 $20, 250-350 $25, 350-500 $35, 500-750 $55, 750-1000 $70, 1000-1500 $105, 1500-2000 $140, 2000-3000 $210
Level 1 Blogger
$325/month: 8 blogs/month (2 weekly), 450-500W, SEO optimized + basic imagery + meta descriptions, published.
Level 2 Blogger
$500/month: 12 blogs/month (3 weekly), 500-750W SEO optimized content with custom branded imagery + meta descriptions, published.
Level 3 Blogger
$980/month: 16 blogs/month (4 weekly), 750-1000W SEO optimized content with custom branded imagery + meta descriptions, published.
The new cover rates are lowered up to 15% from previous cover rates, and up from Private Label rates by a minimum of 15%. (To compare: Private label was $25/500w blog, cover was $45/500w.)
On all our web-based content products (web pages, product descriptions, blogs): we’re now offering more variations on the lower word range, and a larger bracket to choose from on the other ends to allow our skilled writers to write with freedom and cut fluff more than ever.
Can I have my Private Label rates?
We are individually reviewing accounts and grandfathering those that fall into eligibility for discounts, for the next three months.
For those who are missing the rates they had on Private Label, we’ve made cover rates the new standard, but lowered and equalized them across the board.
If you need to inquire about keeping your Private Label rates, we are happy to review your account and approve if your current rates aren’t too cheap. Remember, our goal is quality, and we simply cannot staff quality at cheap rates. For review questions, get in touch at [email protected].
But we’d ask that you consider checking out with the new rates.
The new rates, which are still on the low side of the industry if you do a comparison, with no added fees for editing and management, set a standard for us to retain stronger editors and writers, overall. Remember that not only do we retain writers, but we mentor and edit them constantly. When writers drop, it can be a full-time job in a week to field for new ones, since we never compromise and skip our personalized candidate testing process, which rules out sometimes 80% of applicants.
We are the only writing team in the industry that offers exclusive mentoring content to our writers, created by our content marketing team – we stay on top of every standard and tell our writers when anything changes, down to the new meta length that Google announced. This is easily a full-time job, as well, and the new rates will ensure this mentoring continues to happen.
Our new rates will allow us to:
Pay editors a higher hourly wage
Retain an HR person, trained by Julia on how to pick and find the best talents in the freelance writing world
Provide us with the necessary bandwidth to make sure ongoing writer mentoring happens (extra management hours)
We’re always rolling out better features. Coming up, we have a Loyalty program in the works, and in 2017 a brand new way to buy content online with a beautiful, coded-from-scratch system on the works!
Get services sent directly to your inbox, it’s a few clicks to approve and checkout!
Confusing deposits and checkouts, NO MORE.
We now have the ability to send anyone a prebuilt cart, with a few clicks of the button, that includes a custom message from our team and all the services they need in one place. It’s a few more clicks for you to approve, review, and checkout with exactly what you need!
Here’s what your email notification will look like, when you get a pre-built cart:
And, services within the email cart:
This is perfect after a strategy call where our team members work building and suggesting a custom list of products for a website or marketer that they need. In just a few seconds, you can view all those services directly in your email!
And, here’s a list of other things that went out this month:
Launched 11/16: Categories layout in the Content Shop!
Now, when you land on the Content Shop, you’ll be greeted by a clean layout directing you where to go for which need (if you need technical copy, you’d head to Expert Copy; if you need a few blogs, you’d head to blog & web).
Here’s what it used to look like. You’d see all the products as soon as you hit “Content Shop.” (In the new look, our CTO and brand guy, Josh, redesigned everything into beautifully laid out categories.)
There’s even an “I’m Not Sure” section for those who just aren’t sure what to do when they visit the Shop: Plus, the new search bar is a real beast–the most powerful search plugin we’ve ever had! Give it a whirl the next time you stop by the Content Shop.
Launched 11/16: We’ve Added 7 New Industries to the Expert Niche!
These are the new industries we’ve added this month, by popular demand:
Medical Copy
Health & Wellness Copy
Sports & Fitness Copy
Spa & Beauty Copy
Pet Care Copy
Insurance
Real Estate
Expert copywriting has become a serious need, and at Express Writers, we offer two levels – general and expert – to ensure success across all content project types and writing levels. Our increase in the Expert Level is a reflection of the growing need for expert writers who craft engaging copy that speaks directly to a niche audience. Refer to the Google EAT and YMYL standards, broken down on our site here, for more on what type of writing Google suggests for various industries. …That’s about it (for now)!
We’re always revamping, improving, and maintaining over here to accomplish and deliver on the best writing services in the industry. You can trust us to uphold that standard, every time. To each and everyone of our clients, a happy Thanksgiving! We’re grateful for you!
Everyone loves a good story.
Just think about it this way…
It is extremely difficult for many of us to resist answering the question, “So, guess what I heard?”, when someone asks.
A good story is why we love social media, reality television, and People magazine.
Whether we are reading it on Facebook, on the Kindle, or from a website, a good story draws us in, paints a picture, and makes us want more. There is a reason so many books shoot to the top of the bestseller lists, stay there, and are followed by sequels and movies: they tell a compelling story.
A Brand Story of Self, Us, Now
Marshall Ganz is on staff at Harvard University and teaches what he calls “public narrative” at the Kennedy School of Government. During his teaching, he emphasizes the idea of “self, us now” as it relates to public narrative. He notes that we all have a compelling story to tell, shaped by our choices and our challenges.
Our “story of self” reveals something about us and our values, the “key shaping moments” in our lives.
The “story of us” tells others about specific people and moments of choice that helped to shape a community.
A “story of now” encourages others to take action and join us in carrying out a specific purpose.
So what does this have to do with storytelling as it relates to a brand? So glad you asked! Let’s delve in further.
Activating purpose is impossible without storytelling. – John Coleman
Revenue as a Byproduct
No matter what the business, blog, or product, at the end of the day, we are ultimately dealing with people. On the other end of the phone and the computer is a person who has his or her own story, who has questions and needs answers that hopefully you can give.
Neil Patel and Ritika Puri note that “human-to-human connections are the heart and soul of business.” Revenue, in whatever form that may take, is simply a byproduct of good business practices and quality customer experiences. In the midst of transactions and numbers, storytelling connects us.
Are you writing a great story? Can people in your sphere readily see what your brand is all about? Is your online presence captivating and connecting?
How to Use Storytelling in Your Online Presence
Marshal Ganz gives us some things to think about, especially as it relates to our brand’s online presence and storytelling.
While you are contemplating how it all fits together, ask yourself these questions:
1. What is my story?
With the exception of the Kardashians, most of us don’t like to talk about ourselves. Probably the people we like the most and surround ourselves with are those who aren’t self-centered and don’t ramble on about their own lives. Ganz isn’t sending a message that we need to be entirely self-focused, but rather that we highlight those moments of growth, courage, and poor choices that ultimately make us who we are.
Do you run a small business? How did you get to that point? What mistakes did you make that ended up costing you? The good, the bad, and the ugly-those are the moments to which we can all relate.
2. What is my community?
Who is your audience? Whether you are a motivational speaker, a small business owner, or a student leader, you have a community. It’s made up of your audience, your customers, your classmates, and even your family.
In telling the “story of us,” we are relaying the message of the “why”- why we are writing, why we are creating a product, why we are studying. What shapes this community? Somewhere in there is a common need or search for answers, and maybe even a common goal that needs to be met.
3. What is our purpose?
When Suzy started the Poo-Pourri brand, she knew her purpose. In her words, “Poop happens, and it stinks!” Although her marketing may sound a bit stinky (as in, we’ve “got more important crap to worry about!”), her purpose was clear, and it sold. 4 million products later, these spritz sprays made for the most intimate room in the house are a hit.
And why?
Suzy knew her purpose and she mastered the art of genius storytelling, from uncouth videos to vibrant and colorful photos, she went forward with her purpose of providing a practical product for a need we all have.
It’s All About the Audience
As Patel and Puri point out, brand storytelling is not an essay about how your company came to be, a PR stunt, or tool for manipulation; it is, however, direct, transparent, and all about your customers or audience.
It’s not boring. The story has to draw people in, or they won’t want to stay.
It isn’t a single blog post. Although creative and well-written blogs are enjoyable to read, writing one isn’t necessarily conveying the story.
It is real and human and authentic. What is true about your brand or industry? That’s what people want to hear.
Take a Cue from Television
When the television show This is Us premiered in the fall of 2016, no one could have predicted how high the ratings would go. With almost 10 million viewers, the dramedy beat the rating odds, and continued to bring in the same numbers as the date of its premiere.
Why such a powerful draw? The show tells a story of 3 siblings, chronicling their lives from childhood into adulthood and back again. Viewers have been pulled into their story, and the message is clear: family is hard, but it matters. We fall, but we get back up. Everyone has issues, but at the end of the day, we come back to family.
Are You Writing a Good Story?
Storytelling involves creating a connection through writing. In order to write a good story, your audience of readers, customers, and followers must connect through real, intentional words. They are looking to find out who you are, what type of community they are a part of, and the purpose of the brand.
Plus, the new search bar is a real beast–the most powerful search plugin we’ve ever had! Give it a whirl the next time you stop by the Content Shop.
