How to Master the Art of Storytelling to Increase Social Sharing

Marketing is about telling good stories. Social media marketing is about getting your customers to tell them for you. The value and freshness of your content and how well you tap the connections that tie users and businesses together via social networks directly impacts the effectiveness of your social marketing campaigns. Connections are the key to making social business, well, social. But it’s good stories that fuel conversations, allow businesses to be a trusted source, and underpin the success of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. How content is crafted and presented is a huge determinant of its social success. 1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) 5.) 6.) How do you incorporate storytelling into your content creation? Image credit: contemplicity

Google Plus as a Storytelling Platform One great value of Google+ is that it makes a great platform for cultivating visibility. If your organization is hoping to “save a seat at the table” in between sales calls, one way to do this is to create compelling content that nurtures your business relationships by educating your community and by making them the hero in their own story. Said differently: If you want to nurture leads while they’re still at the wide end of the sales funnel, using Google+ is an effective addition to your content marketing strategies. Using Google+ for Content Marketing First, realize that Google+ indexes any post you submit to the “Public” sharing option, meaning that the information in such a post is searchable in Google (the search engine, not the social network) within a few hours. It’s not enough to write a post that just says “AJ Bombers is the best restaurant for kids in Milwaukee.” If you can’t see the video click here. Why? Mix It Up A Bit Build an Editorial Calendar Editorial Calendar – Sample

The New Rules of Customer Engagement The rise of the social Web has led to a fundamental shift in the way businesses of all sizes engage with their customers. Rather than focusing on "touch points" during the marketing and sales process, they're using social technologies to form meaningful, ongoing relationships that involve frequent online interactions, oftentimes through social channels. It is paying off: Companies that engage with their customers via social media have more loyal customers. Better yet, customers who engage with a brands online report spending 20% to 40% more on that brand, or on that company's products. How can your business see this sort of boost? 1. Customer engagement is no longer a series of one-off experiences—it's an ongoing dialogue. Another aspect of this spectrum is the relationships that your customers form with each other. 2. Although communication with your customers is an ongoing dialogue, you need not be chatting just for the sake of it. 3. 4. The relationship you build is a two-way street.