Everyone wants to hear a good story

It's not totally useless to spend time on social media. Even though much of it can be a waste of time. Everyone should have a social media strategy. Especially for a business, building a social media presence is important.

We don't have a choice whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it. -Erik Qualman

Social media is perfect for telling stories. I'm interested in the process of finding the own writing style. How is it possible to tell a story, that will reach the right people? Some companies and organizations have succeeded as story tellers.

A story is nothing without the right images. Somehow it's easy to think about how to tell a good story about a holiday destination. There is sun, a beach, good food. Perfect pictures to take, nice stories to tell. Actually it's not harder than that. You just have to find the right stories about everything.

It's good to think about what people would like to know about your company. I few weeks ago I was looking for a hairdresser with a carchair. It wasn't so easy to find. Apparently they don't have it in so many places. I found one place close enough to home, and they had a picture of it. Search completed. The story is, that my son loved the carchair.

To get started:

1. Identify your audience
2. Pick the right platforms
3. Know your goals
4. Get visual
5. Be consistent

When it comes to telling a story about yourself, or creating something out of nothing, it's much harder. Having a clear idea makes it all much easier.

The questions are still the same:
What do you want to tell about yourself?

I think everyone wants to hear a good story.

Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell. -Charles de Lint

Everyone has a story

While studying scriptwriting, one teacher gave feedback about my texts. She said: "You are trying to teach people (what to do), they should find out theirselves." There was a good point in that. So, there are no ready answers. Let me tell you a story.

One day I was walking home from work. There was lying a man on the pavement, unconcious. I saw him from a distance. A lot of people were just walking past him, no one did stop or even pay any attention to him. Maybe he had just passed out because of drinking too much. Or used drugs. Who knows. But there he was. Someone's son, father, husband, boyfriend or ex.

I was walking closer. A man on a bike had stopped. He had his phone in his hand, still hesitating. Another man turned around with his bike and stopped too. They started to discuss with each other, who of them shoud call 911. The other said " I have to go to the lecture, can you handle this?" Silence. Luckily (for the man lying on the ground) some passenger stopped to feel his pulse. And a women stopped with her car and asked: "Has somebody called?". This all happened while I was approaching the place. If someone else hadn't called, I would have done it.

How much time did pass before someone stopped, or someone called? To act in situations like this is not easy, unless you have the training for it. Of course, anyone knows how to call 911. Just the thought, that you would be lying there on the ground and not getting help fast enough is scary.

And the thought, that everyone has a story, a past and a future.