The Power of Story Part II: “Social Media and the Storyteller” from ParkHowell.com on Vimeo.
Do you feel cornered by social media? “Like” this. Tweet that. Friend me. Poke you. Give me some link love-in’. It seems the virtual online world is more frightening than the real one.
These were just some of the social media fears and myths we explored during the Power of Story training at Forever Living Product’s International Super Rally in Washington DC. The first part of the training focused on how to craft and tell a compelling story to increase the success of sales and marketing. You can view the video and Keynote presentation on how to structure your 9 beats of story here.
Once we outlined the structure of every great tale, we did a social media training on how to share your story with the world. We had to be very visual in our presentation, because I was in front of over 3,500 distributors from more than 140 countries. Even though it was translated in 10 languages simultaneously, much of the meaning in one’s words can get lost in, well, translation.
Your social media command centter
Instead of a PowerPoint filled with typical social media icons and website captures, we commissioned illustrations from the remarkable French artist (He lives in Phoenix), Christophe Jeunot. He captured the character of each social media channel we covered in a single frame using the same hero character we featured in Part I of our Power of Story training.
We began by describing a social media command center that includes your website/blog. All other social media channels feed into and broadcast out of this command center. We then separated each channel by one of two functions: Utility or Promotion?
Utility Channels
Feature your story on YouTube.
Channels like YouTube, Flickr, and SlideShare are used to capture, archive, embed and share video, photos and PowerPoint presentations. They have online communities, but I really use them more for the utility of organizing and embedding different kinds of audio/visual content into my blog, as well as increasing the search engine optimization (SEO) of my site.
Promtional Channels
I view the likes of Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn as social media channels that publish and promote your blog and website and build conversation around your business, while helping others grow their businesses.
Twitter is the Pied Piper of social media to help you attract followers.
Twitter is the Pied Piper of these social media channels. Used properly, its 140-character “Tweets” can present an intriguing headline to beckon followers into your post. You can provide quick updates on promotions, events, new product launches and other quick hits of interest to your online community.
Twitter is also great for listening in on conversations to gain insight on what topics are of most interest and will resonate with your readers.
We talked about Facebook as your personal international media center, while LinkedIn is it’s professional cousin functioning as your online business portfolio and contacts list.
Facebook is your international media center
All of these social media channels can instantly share your blog content with a single click of a button, helping you become an international online publishing and broadcasting magnate for your personal content.
This was a fun training that made the most of storytelling. The cartoons resonated well with the international audience and were powerful visual aids to amplify the narrative of my training.
You can watch the entire training on the video at the top of this post.
How would you illustrate your favorite social media channel?
