My grandfather grew up in Oak Park, Ill., in the early 1900s in the same neighborhood as Ernest Hemingway – in fact, he was a family friend. I always loved Hemingway's concise yet illustrative style of writing and thought it was cool to have that (distant) connection. Some would say he was the greatest storyteller of modern time. Lore says he once made a $10 bet he could write a novel in just six words. On a napkin, he scribbled, "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn," passed it around and promptly collected his earnings.
Hemingway was a genius at not just having a story to tell – we all have stories to tell – but at telling his stories well.
Credit unions – being the cooperative, people-before-profit, socially responsible organizations they are – have meaningful stories to tell that will resonate with today's consumers. But a great story with no one to hear it is like a tree falling in the forest.
Here are five tips for telling your stories more effectively on social media:
Know and grow your social media audience
Any author just starting out must find the right audience. Think about who your organization speaks to and scan your followers to see if they match up. Follow individuals in your credit union's geographic area. Look at Facebook Insights to see when your followers are most active. Take a look at a few of your followers' accounts each day to learn about them, listen and empathize with needs through the products you offer and how you communicate.
Audit behaviors and target better ones
When writing a novel, you should know what's expected for that genre. Audit your social media postings to gauge whether your frequency and timing is right. Too much, too little and inconsistent posting can be undesirable. Ideally, brands post three to five times per week on Facebook and Instagram, five to eight times per day on Twitter and two to four times per week on LinkedIn.
Review and develop a plan for original content
An author's fans crave more original work because they dig that voice. Dive into your analytics to see your highest and lowest performing posts. Replicate what's most popular. Eliminate what tanks. Strike a balance between third party content, original content, blogs, videos and even podcasts. Be your brand in all you do – is your style formal, quirky, friendly? Find your niche.
Map to organizational objectives
An author's goal may be to get on a best sellers list or simply play the bills. In social media, defining what success looks like before executing helps you determine how important the work is. Know what organizational objectives it maps to and don't obsess on "vanity metrics" over engagement. Awareness, participation and engagement on and off platform are good measures.
Monitor organic reach and invest in social boosts
It's not free to have a publisher or go on tour – but it sure is important for book sales. After maximizing organic reach with the above, it's time to up your game with social media advertising. Start small with a $5 to $20 ad. On Facebook you can boost your post, attract more page likes or drive traffic to your website. The key is targeting the right audience with a clear call to action.
Effective and powerful storytelling has always been important, but with social media, it has never been so clear that the way we tell our stories is as important as the stories themselves.
When visiting my grandfather as a little girl, he would say to me each morning with a smile and twinkle in his eye: "Never buy green bananas…" That was his personal brand story and as silly as it was, those words have always stuck with me. Perhaps it was the artistry of how he told it, each morning as he cracked open the skin of a perfectly unblemished bright yellow banana.
Holly Fearing is social media advisor for Filene Research Institute. She can be reached at 608-213-5194 or [email protected].
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