Creating Trusted Relationships using Social Media...

Why do people want to read what you write? Why do people focus in on some and not others? Why do people share something with others through word-of-mouth? Why are some people like magnets for their content while others are passed over? The answer……their “STORIES” are stronger.

The internet today is full of content – more than we could ever need in our lifetimes. There are facts and figures and charts and graphs and descriptions and “how-to’s” and just about everything we ever need to answer a question or solve a problem. And thanks to search engines like Google, Bing , Yahoo, and others, we can now find it more easily than ever. This is not “social media content” and is not the content the audience is drooling over today. We know the facts (or where to get them), but what about the “story” behind the facts.

The “content” the audience wants more of today is “stories.” Stories about experiences – yours and others that cause the rest of us to “emotionally connect” with the characters and situations in the story. People want to know what experience someone had while using this product or service, or what was an unusual story that would demonstrate whether I should engage or purchase or participate, etc. This is the content the world wants to see today and in the future – not more facts!

I’ll give you a secret about word-of-mouth. People don’t talk to others about all the facts and figures as a normal course of conversation, unless they are used to back up their story about whatever it is they are talking about. A simple example – If you went to a party and stood in the middle of the room, what do you think would draw a crowd faster? Standing there reciting all the facts and details about a product, service or event OR starting to tell a story about how this product, service or event helped change your life or your business?

This is how social media should be used and is how it will get spread through word-of-mouth and cause someone to check you out again and again and again – building a trusted relationship. So think “stories” not “facts” and social media will start to make a whole lot more sense to you as you build loyalty and advocacy with your audience.