Posted by Using social media for storytelling is not new. Most brands use all kinds of social media platforms to tell their story and build a follower base from scratch. Here are twenty-five ideas grouped by the platform on how to use social media for storytelling.
General Ideas
1. Trending Hashtags
When you see a trending hashtag that you can contribute to, make sure to publish some content that will be valuable your potential audience. This will make your post more discoverable for social media users and will give you more exposure.
2. Infographics
Infographics are very underappreciated for some reason. But don’t think they aren’t effective. Use infographics to explain abstract concepts or make step-by-step guides.
3. SlideShare Presentations
SlideShare presentations are ideal for presenting a new product or service to your audience when you don’t want to make a simple post.
“Presentations are a great way to tell a story in a concise yet efficient way. You can use them when you need to provide your followers with a bigger amount of information,” says Marie Fincher, Head of Content at Trust My Paper.
4. Influencer Marketing
Never forget about the power of influencer marketing. Find influencers who can promote your brand or product and get in touch with them to set up a collaboration.
5. Make It Real
This is more of general advice rather than a particular idea. Always try to make your content be as real as possible. Try to be sincere and show that you are human too. Remember that you are not just a money-making machine.
Two perfect examples of this are the Blair Witch Project and Skam. The first is a film which was marketed through social media when the Internet was still pretty unexplored. The movie was presented as real footage and many people believed it. Skam is a recent Norwegian TV series which published “screenshots” of its characters’ chats after every new episode. The creators of the series also had social media profiles of the characters as well as a YouTube channel “created” by some of its characters.
Instagram Ideas
6. Storytelling Through Instagram Captions
Instead of relying solely on images, try to make your captions complete them and tell a story of their own.
7. Instagram Profile
You can use storytelling on your Instagram profile by posting a big image with the help of several posts.
8. UGC On Instagram
Curating user-generated content or UGC is effective on any social media platform. You can follow TOMS’s example which hosts an annual One Day #WithoutShoes.
9. Instagram Boomerangs & Short Videos
Boomerangs and short videos are great for teasing some of your upcoming content, but they can also be used without something bigger in mind.
10. Multiple Instagram Stories
Instead of posting just one Story at a time, publish a sequence that will tell a story of their own.
Facebook Ideas
11. Facebook Photo Album
There is an option on Facebook that allows you to create a photo album. You can make albums that tell a story through photos. Likewise, you can simply group your photos in albums making it easier for your followers to navigate your brand’s profile.
12. Your Story In A Post
One great advantage of Facebook is that you can write considerably long posts compared to other social media platforms. This means that you can write a whole post dedicating it entirely to your story.
13. Long Facebook Video
YouTube is not the only place where videos are effective. In fact, publishing long videos on Facebook may be even more beneficial for you and more informative for your followers than usual text posts.
14. Facebook Live Stream
Did you know that Facebook ranks live streams higher in the news feed? Moreover, most social media users say they prefer live streams to any other kind of content from brands. Live streams can also improve engagement.
15. Sequencing Facebook Ads
Facebook Lead Ads exist for a reason. And while they can be very effective, sequencing them will make them yield even more great results. Create a chain of ads introducing your brand, linking to an article, and prompting the viewer to subscribe to your newsletter. Then, show them in the corresponding order.
Twitter Ideas
16. Twitter Moments
Twitter’s creative Moments feature is something you should definitely make use of for your storytelling. It is still a considerably new feature, so not everyone uses it yet.
17. Twitter Threads
Twitter provides you with a limited number of characters you can use for each tweet. This means that you can’t really write a lot at once. But instead of trying to fit everything you want to say in only one tweet, start a thread and post as many as you need.
18. Storytelling With Photos
Instead of tweeting with only text, add as many photos to your tweets as possible (Twitter allows a maximum of four).
19. Twitter GIFs
You can create your own GIFs to use on Twitter. These can be perfect to promote your brand, organization, or company without making it too obvious.
20. Your Twitter Hashtag
Twitter is perfect for making your content viral. By promoting your hashtag such as Nike’s #JustDoIt, you will be able to make your brand get more exposure and get noticed by more people. Moreover, there will be a lot of UGC that you can interact with.
YouTube Ideas
21. YouTube Channel
Perhaps the simplest thing you can use YouTube for is to create a channel on it and start uploading videos. Having a YouTube channel is perfect for growing your audience exponentially.
22. YouTube Playlists
Making playlists dedicated to a certain topic is perfect for curating videos. You can do it either with your own videos or finding relevant content on other channels and adding them to your playlists.
23. Video Series
Instead of making videos on separate topics, why not make a series of videos that focuses on one certain theme?
24. Channel Collaborations
Find similar (or maybe even completely different) channels to yours that you can collaborate with to create high-quality videos. By promoting someone’s channel in your video, you will introduce that channel to your viewers. Likewise, the other YouTuber will introduce your channel to their audience.
25. Show, Don’t Tell
Last but not least, the most important thing to remember is to show and not tell. If there is something you can convey without saying it out loud, then do just so.
Final Thoughts
All in all, being creative with your posts on social media is not that difficult when you have some useful ideas in mind. Review this article and choose the ones you like more to use in your social media marketing strategy.
This is a guest post by Kristin Savage. She works as a freelance writer at Studicus and GrabMyEssay. You can find her on Facebook.
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