Supercharging social media with storytelling techniques: #4 Characterization

Another storytelling technique you can use to build social media engagement is characterization.

Characterization builds empathy between the reader and your post or feed/series of posts. But how do you do that?

Characterization is built by revealing personal details. It's in the advice to "be personal", but we can expand on that idea to give real depth to a personal or business brand. You can give your brand a character. You can reveal its struggles, its growth pains, its strengths. The keys to fast characterization are markers. Where are you based, how old are you, who are your members, what do you do, how do you enjoy life, what do you value, what do you wear? These are just seven markers of a character. Think about how you can use yours to give your posts character. And supercharge engagement with your followers.

7 Alternative Rules of Innovation

1. Think coalitions, new working teams. Choose home workers, part time workers, others based on talent, drive and results.

2. Become resilient through local funding first, investment in people, support networks.

3. Your greatest innovators may not even work for you, they may be your customers, your suppliers or your support network.

4. If you are a dinosaur, learn to dance. Don't wait. Don't be afraid of looking stupid. Otherwise you'll end up on the sidelines while the rest are at a party.

5. Offer clear value. Make it obvious.

6. Invest in your education. Do courses. Do them online, offline or inline. But do them.

7. Listen to your talent. Top down decision making is stone age thinking. Experiment with ideas.

Supercharging social media with storytelling techniques: #3 Tension

Creating tension, the need to read on, to find out what happens next, is a technique that social media posters can use to build engagement with their followers.

I'm not suggesting that each post should have a cliff hanger, but I am encouraging awareness of how storytelling techniques can be used in a corporate or other general social media environment. When you see news posts about what the iPhone 5 or iPad 6 may have when it comes out you are being teased by foreshadowing, a long established technique for building tension in stories.

Most people will not only look out for further posts in the story of what is to come from Apple, they are also more likely to become engaged with the sites that deliver those teasing posts.

Foreshadowing is only one technique for building tension. Dropping opposite types in the same room does it too. So does anticipation of an award or a disaster. So does a looming major change, a surprise announcement, a rescue story or a mystery. There are others too. Think about what engages you when you watch a movie.

You may only use one of these techniques because of your situation, but it is important to be aware that you can build engagement in many ways.  

Supercharging social media with storytelling techniques: #2 Empathy

Another tool for creating engagement and a sense of involvement in your posts is empathy.

Empathy is compassion or rapport. In storytelling terms it is the ability to place your readers in the shoes of your characters. So how do you do that in a social media post? Here are some things to consider:

1. Speak from the heart. Talk about the personal and human impact of what you do.
2. Use personal stories, names if you can.
3. Talk about the emotional and physical impact of what you do on others.
4. Explain how it impacts, don't simply name the feelings.
5. Explain the impact of clean water, how it feels on your tongue. Don't just say it's clean.

Empathy will be engendered when people can see themselves in the position of a user of your product or service. If you have described this in personal terms, with descriptions of the real impact of what you do, then you are more likely to engender empathy in your posts.