A lot of people talk about telling your story online, but they talk in generalities to the point that I don’t think anyone knows what that means. And that always leads to a lot of confusing content.

So what is it like to write a real story with your content? And how should it fit into your content plan?

Meet the characters

All great stories include relatable characters. People see themselves in those characters and understand the place they find themselves in.

So who are the characters of your story?

The main characters should always be members of your community. They are the ones on a journey and trying to overcome something, so they should always be the heart of your story.

Wondering who exactly should be featured? It’s easy to go for the loudest voices and you should definitely take advantage of those willing to share. But you should also go deeper. Create a persona or two to represent your audience. Go deep into who these people are. Find out what they read, what they love to do, what exactly they’re going through, etc. Once you have given them all the details you possibly can, go out and look for the real life versions of these people. If no one is coming to mind immediately, share with the rest of your organization who you are looking for and even talk to those louder voices online. If you’ve done a good job creating a persona, that person should be out there.

And every main character needs some supporting characters to help them along on their journey. That obviously is the staff from your organization. But there are likely others as well. For example, if you are an organization supporting those living with a disease, those medical professionals who are helping them are those supporting characters as well. If you can’t think of anyone who fits the bill, put a pin in it and think about it as we chart this story.

One more note on the secondary characters: Make sure that as you tell their stories, it’s always in a way that highlights the main characters or shows how the supporting character is moving the main characters along their journey. If you ever highlight a supporting character in terms of it being about them, then you’ve lost the thread of your story.

The plot

And now we need a plot. Your best bet is to follow the persona you created along their hero’s journey. We’re not going to go through all the steps here, simply because it’s well trodden territory. But let’s go through a few of them.

Call for adventure

Something called them toward this journey. What was that? In the case of those living with a disease, this is their diagnosis. How did that happen? What were the steps that got them there? For those looking for a tourism destination, maybe their call for adventure was a need to relax and unwind. And that came about by working forty+ hours a week and just needing to get out of that daily routine. What is sending your hero on their way?

Challenges

What is getting in the way as they go through their journey? For those living with a disease, maybe it’s inadequate healthcare or bad mental health support. Or even misunderstandings with friends and family about their condition. For those looking to travel, maybe it’s budget or no one to go on the trip with them. Look for those spots where something is getting in the way and how those challenges can be overcome.

Reward

There is always a reward somewhere if you look hard enough. And it’s no different in your brand’s story. What successes have happened in your community? Those living with a disease might have had some kind of breakthrough that will provide faster diagnosis. When talking about it, you put it in terms of the community coming together to do it and any mention of funding from the organization should be secondary. Although we might want to let people know about your organization’s involvement, it should not be the primary since social media is more about your community than you.

And more

There are of course those special twists and turns that are unique to your organization and community. Never stick to the hero’s journey or any other framework strictly. This is just meant to get you thinking and make content creation easier more than anything. Sticking strictly to it when it’s not necessarily working will only hurt your social media presence more than anything. Just rely on it when needed to move your story along.

Telling the story

So now that you have the characters and the basic plot, it’s time to get to telling the story.

One of the biggest mistakes can be telling the whole story at once. Think of Humans of NY. This page regularly puts out little nuggets of a story. But then, every once in awhile, they have a story that needs more. So they put out those little nuggets for just one story over multiple days. And people keep coming back for each nugget because it’s so compelling. I’ve used this for clients to tell a story over a week, and fans are committed enough to keep coming back over the week. Know when the story just needs a nugget to support the story you are telling about your community, and know when there is much more there and spread that story out.

And how many of your posts should be about your story? In a dream world, it would be about seventy-five percent. If you guffawed at that because you have events and programs to promote, then you need to think about promoting those in a less straightforward way. Real friendships have formed at your events that have created lasting change for everyone involved. Tell that story. Or tell the story of the presenter. Why are they here? Why is this particular topic important to them? Or if it’s a program or resource, talk about why it was created in a way that’s relatable. You don’t always have to go straight for the overt promotion. Get a little more creative than that.

Make your posts move the story forward and keep it interesting to your fans. You’ll find they’ll be glued to each update.

Storytelling is not easy and it will likely be a fight to get everyone on board with it. But if you do it consistently, you will see improvement in your reach, engagement and fan loyalty. And that should be enough to get everyone on your organization closer to your side (but yes, it will always be a bit of a fight with those who want a traditional program).

Are you telling a story on your social media accounts? How is it working for you?