Written by: Christi Bouchard-Howden
IT Company Marketing Specialist
Publish Date: May 19th, 2021.
What your audience wants.
Stories are one of the oldest, yet most loved, forms of entertainment in the world. It’s a bold statement, but think about it. Hearing the enthusiasm in a persons voice when telling a tale filled with drama, love, horror or cold hard facts; it can be such a rollercoaster of emotions. What’s not to love? The pitch, the tone, the intensity and the flow are all part of the experience. But it’s not just the listening part that’s exciting. Watching someone’s body language and facial expressions is just as entertaining, if not more so, than the actual words. The best part, in my opinion, is watching a story teller be completely aware of their audience. Next time you see someone telling a story, pay attention to how they read their audience, and you’ll notice they shift and change ever so slightly to adjust to the crowd and deliver a performance they think will knock their socks off.
Social media is my preferred method of marketing, and you can probably guess why. Because it’s filled with stories! A social platform is like a virtual library, filled with the chapters of peoples personal and professional lives. Before you go out and start writing your virtual novel using Facebook or Instagram, there are some rules and guidelines you should keep in mind. Just like telling stories in person, you need to be aware of your audience and monitor them to ensure you are holding their full attention. You want to keep them engaged by providing quality content that interests them. Staying on top of the types of stories they want to hear is just as critical. In the world of social media it’s difficult to gauge these parameters, but there are several tools out there to help you along the way. I’m going to share with you my favourite online tools and sources I use everyday to assist in my virtual storytelling.
Shhh…I’m trying to listen.
The good news is, the first step is done. Congratulations, you want to be a storyteller on social media platforms. Now the tricky part is determining what stories are you going to tell. Ideas for social media posts can be gathered from a variety of sources like your life experiences, emails, blogs, podcasts, websites, other posts on social platforms, the news…the list can go on forever. The issue isn’t having a lack of inspiration or content information, it’s gathering all the sources in a way that won’t cost you hours of your time. More good news, there is a solution.
Social media listening tools are readily available for you to help streamline your flow of content sources. Some of them are even free to use! There are literally hundreds if not thousands of social media listening tools out there, so how do you choose which one will work best for you? You can go through a list of the top trending tools ,get a synopsis of what each one does and try them on for size. While this is helpful and opens your eyes to the variety of options that are available, some of them are still relatively new to the market and don’t cover all the bases. I tend to rely on a selected few of tried, tested and trusted tools.
Good ol’ Google Alerts is my first course of action at work every single morning. It’s just so simple set up and I almost feel guilty for how little effort is required to collect my information. Because the IT company I work for offers such a variety of services and products, my strategy is entering in relevant keywords and phrases. Every morning at 8 am sharp, my alerts start rolling in. So for example, say we offer cybersecurity technology solutions. By setting my alerts to keywords or phrases to include things like Multi-Factor Authentication or security software solutions, my results will list a multitude of sources that include those keywords. I can then peruse the list of articles and sources and choose what to use for my content. It takes some time to adjust your keywords to get exactly what you need, but the system is effective and it works.
Another tool I use regularly is Feeder. This RSS integrated tool will connect you to the most relevant sources you need to collect. This includes blogs, news, newsletters and so much more. This tool connects me with not only news sources, but with the Naked Security, Paul Ducklin, podcasts I love listening to, and the newsletters by the tech savvy female boss girl, Amber Mac. No matter what I’m looking for, Feeder delivers notifications in real time to make sure I stay on top of the latest and greatest information.
Careful…watch where you’re going.
Gauging the reaction of your audience when you tell a story in person is easy. Body language and facial expressions are usually a give away into the thoughts and feelings of your crowd. Monitoring the reactions of your target audience online is far more difficult, unless you are equipped with the right monitoring tools.
Once again you can search through a list of monitoring tools and compare them against each other, but I can save you some leg work. While many on the list are excellent, they seem to lack in one way or another. I have tried a number of tools, some of them quite expensive, but there are a few that fit into my “favourites” category. The monitoring tools I prefer include a variety of functions, so I can minimize the number of I need to use. The top and most utilized one on my list is Semrush. This tool is nothing short of amazing. With an entire category dedicated to Social Media analytics, this tool will measure your audience and their engagement on your platforms. You will stay on top on key information for platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The only downfall is the cost, a $100.00 per month for the lowest package, but believe me when I say it is worth every penny.
Second on my list is actually the analytics tools provided on the social platform itself. Most social media platforms have an insights option on business accounts. For example, Facebook insights will provide me with a breakdown of the types of engagement on my posts, the demographics of my audience and even where they are located. So when I tell a story about a ransomware attack on a popular company in the United States, I can have full look at the reactions to the post, whether there was more engagement from woman than men, what my audience is interested in, what their hobbies are, and where in the world they reside. If the measurements indicate that my audience is not interested in this type of information, I can tweak and adjust my strategy to fit the needs of my crowd. This is similar to the way an in person storyteller will shift their performance to ensure their audience is entertained.
Data drives the details.
Storytelling is an art, regardless of the method you use. It takes creativity, and talent to be able to engage and entertain your audience. However, unlike telling a story in person, it’s difficult to measure your audience reaction unless you are equipped with the right tools. You need to ensure you are delivering quality content from reliable sources, to the appropriate audience. Data plays a large part in determining whether or not you are hitting your targets. Starting with a listening tool to collect the information you need to relay to your online message and then using a tool to monitor the engagement and other insights that let you know if your story is well received. Don’t sweat it if your audience doesn’t connect with your story the first time around. You can always source more information and retell your story and monitor if your changes worked.
Do you have a preferred tool for sourcing information online or providing data analytics on your posts? If so drop your suggestion in the comments below and tell me what insights you watch for most and how they help your social media strategy.
Till next time, stay safe and take care of yourself and others.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 