If you’ve ever watched a Harry Potter movie, read Dante’s Inferno, or listened to an Eminem song then you understand the power of having a great story.
A great story captivates your audience, sucking them deeper into your world and giving them a sweet taste of powerful emotions that makes them want to take the next action, read the next article or share your story with the next person.
Simply put, great people create great stories.
Storytelling isn’t about creating stories for the sake of having something to talk about, it’s about creating something your audience can relate to, be entertained by, and want to tell their friends, family and colleagues.
It’s the spreading of idea’s, tools, and resources to a like-minded crowd.
It goes much deeper than giving hard facts or relevent information.
You’re connecting with them on an emotional level and allowing them to imagine themselves in a place where they want to be, or have been.
I’m sure you can remember a time in your life when someone told you a story that had you on the edge of your seat.
Your heart was racing, your eyes wide open, and your brain on overdrive trying to take in all the details.
You can probably remember what was going on in that event, Who was involved, and what attracted you to the story in the first place.
Every great business, artist, and human has a story.
Being able to tell it in a way that makes everyone’s hairs stand up is what makes it a success and spread like a highly contagious virus.
connect with your audience
Everyone wants to feel connected, loved, and respected.
We all want to succeed in life and have our basic necessities fulfilled.
Be as helpful as you can to your audience, listen to their wants and needs, and create the solutions they are asking for.
People connect with you because they like, trust, and know you.
You have something of value to contribute and that’s why they connect with you.
You’re there for them while others just want to make the sale and offer them no personal connection beyond that point.
tell them a great story
What makes you unique is the history you have, the up’s and down’s you’ve gone through, and the stories that have come out of it.
There is no other you and no matter who you are, there are people who you can connect with.
Not everyone will connect with your story, and that’s ok.
You will gain a much larger, more dedicated audience from those who can feel and understand you.
If you try to appeal to everyone, you will appeal to no-one.
People don’t want to listen to dry, robotic information. They want to feel that they are relating to a real human being, and that’s where giving them great stories comes in.
For a business it may be how your product or service came to be and how much better having it will make your audience feel, or why you started your business in the first place.
To help others, to clean up the environment, and to make the world a better place.
Spread a great idea
Great stories come from great ideas, and great idea’s create huge followings.
Look at how apple marketed their Iphone and Ipad.
They communicated how great it feels to connect with your family and friends, how simple it is to get the music, movies and entertainment you enjoy, and how you can share it throughout your home, and how applications have made the medical field, gaming industry, and business field much more efficient, effective and productive.
It all started with one great idea and soon after many more ideas followed. They succeeded, they failed, and they succeeded again.
If all they did was talk about the phones hardware and gave you a bullet list of features you wouldn’t have been able to paint a picture of video chatting with your loved one, livening up a party with your iTunes library, or sharing your babies first steps with everyone you know.
A story that would have made you feel special to have such a wonderful and magical device. A device that revolutionizes the world.
But you did feel special and you did have a story, because they created one they knew you would relate to.
A large part of Apples success came from having ideas worth spreading, and being able to take those ideas and tell great stories.
Have any stories worth sharing? Don’t be shy show your experiences in the comments.
This post is part of the content marketing series.