Make your story stand out in the expanding universe of social media

The world is hooked on social media.

Social networking has moved beyond the status of trend to become the norm. It has moved beyond Facebook and Twitter to an expanding universe of niche networks. In the process, the power to influence the market has shifted dramatically.

People love their new power to engage with your brand on social media. There is no letting go of it. It has permanently changed the nature of marketing. Now people – your customers – have an active role in telling your brand story. And now they want to be social with you on every channel.

It is a social world, no question about it. So, the question becomes how are you going to adapt to brand storytelling for social media?

I’ll talk more about that in a minute.

First, take a look at this infographic from Infographic Promotion. It tells a compelling story of the growing influence of social media through highlights from the past year.

The State of Social Media 2013 by Infographic Promotion

How to tell your brand story on social media

If you are like me, you probably recall many of those news stories. But seeing them summarized in totality underscores the universal impact social media is having on communications today. To stand out in the social media universe you have to adjust your content strategy to fit consumer expectations.

How?

One place to find great answers to that question is Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. It is chock full of insights on how to be an effective brand storyteller on social media. Success is built on knowing your audience and social platform:

“A great storyteller is keenly attuned to his audience. He knows when to slow down for maximum suspense and when to speed up for comic effect. He can sense when he’s losing people’s interest and can make adjustments to the tone or narrative to recapture their attention,” he says.

Here are three nuggets from Gary on how to do that:

1. Stop thinking of social as your back up media channel. Think of it, rather, as the unifying element that connects your story to every communication channel. Fold social elements into all your marketing content. You do this by …

2. Not thinking about your content as content. Instead, think micro-content. Create unique bits of information, humor, commentary or inspiration that you reimagine every day. Micro-content allows you to respond to conversations and current events in real time in a platform’s native language. Which leads to nugget number three …

3. Communicate in the native language of each platform. Native content mimics everything that makes a platform attractive to an audience: aesthetics, design, tone, timing. Marketers who become fluent in the native language will get the most attention on the social network.

Be master of your social universe

Right now the social media universe is expanding at an overwhelming rate. Not only are new networks sprouting regularly, but the technology that ties them together continues to advance. It is a climate of great uncertainty.

And great opportunity.

The timid will be tempted to avoid it altogether. The aggressive will dive in headfirst and crack their heads. Somewhere in between are the savvy souls who figure out how to master the social networks their customers are on. Be one of those.

Need help with a content strategy for connecting with customers on social media? Let’s talk! Contact me to schedule a free 30-minute consultation.