Storytelling: The Best Way to Build a Lasting Social Media Strategy

Gone are the days when people blindly purchase a product with little information on the specific brand or company. In today’s culture, we often purchase an item, service, or experience because of the storytelling reflected on various channels. This includes social media marketing, which is a vital aspect of a company’s digital efforts.

It is widely known that when you tap into social relationships to promote a brand, your brand comes to life. This is the fuel of a new age of digital marketing and personalization. Companies must curate a specific ‘personality’ that reflects their values and mission. This allows potential customers to truly know what and “who” they are buying into.

What is the Purpose of Social Media?

We know the value of diversifying your strategy across different channels. Social media is one of the best places for your brand to exist, especially when it comes to storytelling. In order to capitalize on the power of social media, you must understand its purpose.

Social media’s purpose is to be social! Social media allows people to connect, communicate, and share in a more convenient and accessible way. It is also a platform for businesses and organizations to connect with their target audience to promote their products or services. However, in order for companies to properly succeed and grow on a social media platform, the company must tell a story that allows the followers to socialize and emotionally connect with them.

Take a moment to think of some of your most recent purchases. Most likely one of these experiences occurred because you felt an emotional connection to the brand or the value that the brand holds. This is true for many when making a buying decision, which is why it is so important to emotionally connect with your customers.

The Value of Emotional Connection

There have been numerous studies on the effectiveness of an emotional marketing campaign and the overall consensus is that there is a higher return on emotional marketing campaigns over traditional campaigns. Specifically, it was discovered that these campaigns have a 31% higher ROI than rational campaigns (Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience).

One well-known example of a wildly successful emotional marketing campaign was in 2020 when Nike launched the “You Can’t Stop Us” campaign, inspired by the challenges that people faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This video montage highlighted athletes and everyday people overcoming obstacles and pushing through adversity. The campaign was able to tap into the human desire for resilience and perseverance. Nike created a sense of inspiration and motivation around its brand, and it was a hugely successful campaign, generating millions of views and shares on social media.

Nike has done many campaigns over the years to establish its voice, and has time and time again been successful. Having a voice for your brand is crucial for your success, however, it is even more important that this voice reflects everything your brand represents. You want it to reflect your values, mission statement, and position! Nike did just that within the campaign. They were able to reinforce their reputation as a brand that is synonymous with athleticism, determination, and overcoming obstacles.

As a brand on social media, you begin to tell a narrative, and through this narrative, you are allowing your brand to connect with others on a human level. Customers will then begin to follow your story and oftentimes, become customers for life.

So, How Do You Humanize Your Social Media Strategy?

Once your company has established its values and goals, the next step to revolutionize your social media strategy is curating content that reflects your brand’s personality and brand voice. Throughout the curation of your brand’s voice, it is also important to keep in mind your buyer personas. These ensure you are producing content that is not only true to your brand, but that will also resonate with your existing customers.

To develop this personality and integrate the human element into your digital marketing strategy, you must begin by adding the following items to your content.

Showcase your people.

Oftentimes, showcasing your people on social media will reflect the culture and personalities of your company. Allowing this inner look into your company causes your followers to feel as though they truly know your company. Featuring your employees and team members on social media can help build authenticity and transparency by showing the real people behind your brand. Instead of a digital feed, your customers can get to know the real people that they will be working with or purchasing from.

Additionally, social media is a powerful tool for recruiting new talent. By showcasing your team and company culture, you can attract like-minded individuals who are excited about the opportunity to work with you.

Make your customers the hero.

When a business positions its customers as the hero, it effectively places the customer at the forefront of the narrative, highlighting their triumphs, obstacles, and journey. This customer-centric approach fosters a sense of empowerment and appreciation among customers, ultimately leading to a more positive relationship between the customer and the brand.

When potential customers observe satisfied clients expressing their favorable experiences, this can significantly enhance the credibility of the brand and influence their purchase decision. It also creates a favorable emotional connection with the audience, ultimately resulting in positive word-of-mouth promotion and business growth.

To guarantee the most exceptional customer experience, it is essential to prioritize customer satisfaction. Consistently producing content that resonates with and relates to clients fosters a relationship that promotes long-term customer loyalty.

Tell your history.

Revealing your company’s history on social media is important for many different reasons. There are two major reasons to celebrate your company’s history. It demonstrates expertise and provides a sense of community. Highlighting the journey your brand has taken to get where it is today is a great way to celebrate milestones and achievements that your company has experienced, but also the growth as well. This gives your followers a sense of ownership in your brand’s journey and fosters brand loyalty.

We all start somewhere and showcasing the growth over the years allows your followers to connect even more with your brand. Whether you’re playful and irreverent, serious and professional, or somewhere in between, your history can help to establish the voice and personality of your brand in the minds of your followers. Your brand’s history tells a story and your followers will connect with it!

Share your values.

Each company has a set of values whether they know it or not, and there is great significance in showcasing these attributes. When these are incorporated into your social media strategy, your posts will begin to attract the right customers while also guiding them in their decision-making as well. Sharing your values can attract an audience that aligns closely with your company’s mission and vision.

When you showcase what your business truly cares for, it makes your followers feel informed and aligned when choosing to partner with your organization. You can establish a deeper connection with your audience, foster a sense of community, and ultimately, drive business success.

Need Social Inspiration? Follow the Team at PHOS!

At PHOS, we are celebrating our 10-year anniversary, a momentous occasion that calls for a lot of party emojis. We are excited about commemorating this significant milestone while acknowledging the vital role of showcasing this on our social channels. We have worked collaboratively over the past few months to strategize the most effective methods sharing the occasion with our followers.

Some recent examples of this include highlighting our brand new podcast, The PHOS Life & Leadership Podcast, that directly correlates with lessons learned in our 10 years of business. We also have a healthy dose of party and celebratory-centric content to fuel our feed for the rest of this year.

Shameless plug: Don’t miss out on all of the celebrations and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

Let Us Help You Tell Your Story

Whether you are a brand new business looking to establish your presence on social media or have been cultivating a following for years, social media is a key aspect of your digital strategy. Spending the time and energy to build out your brand’s voice and personality within your social media strategy is crucial to succeeding on these platforms.

If you are looking for assistance and are wanting to grow your brand in a way that today’s world will respond to, let us collaborate and plan for your future success together!