How to Find the Story of Your Business

What makes YOU special? This is the most important thing to know when communicating to attract customers because YOUR STORY is what distinguishes your business from others. Knowing your story will allow you to authentically communicate with your clients. How? When you know and embrace your story, you speak the truth in everything you say. 

Don’t believe me? Try this out:

A. I’m a professional organizer

B. I’m a professional organizer who loves to cook and has tons of gadgets and has spent years coming up with ways to wrangle my gadgets so I specialize in organizing kitchens and I’m REALLY good at getting your kitchen organized and anyone who doesn’t have their kitchen organized by me is really missing out. 

See?

Clarifying your story allows you to understand and embrace:

1. the value of what you have to offer
2. the fact that no one else can offer it (because no one else is YOU)
3. that customers need what you’re providing

Finding their story is the first step I take when small business owners want my help with social media and marketing. When I was a newspaper reporter, I had to practice the skills of uncovering someone’s story quickly and then re-telling that story in a compact, compelling way. How do I discover their story? I ask questions.

My Social Media Plan Questionnaire breaks down the difficult “What is your story?” question into four manageable pieces that explore the business owner, her business, her customers and her goals. Instead of asking for a person’s autobiography, I ask a person — metaphorically — where he grew up and who he played with. In this way, we uncover the good stuff that makes a business interesting and indispensable.

First in my Social Media Plan Questionnaire, we explore a person’s business, the reason they’ve called me in the first place. They need to market their business. I ask a lot of questions but listed below are the most powerful in each category. 

Next, I ask about a business' customers. We have our own goals and dreams, but we don't build our business in a vacuum. The need we fulfill for someone else is a HUGE part of our story. Who are the people you’re selling to? They define your story as much as your parents and siblings define your autobiography.

Then we investigate you. You're the person who woke up one morning and decided it would be a great idea to open a store or start a solopreneur business or write a book (if you'd only decided to sleep in that morning, amiright?). Why? Explore what dreams, gifts and problem-solving efforts you bring to your enterprise, and you'll be one step closer to finding your story.

Finally, we look at your goals. Our goals tell our stories like nothing else. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" was one of the first questions we were asked as kids. What do you want your business to be when it grows up?

Now take a step back and look at your answers. In repeated themes, in items you got excited about as you answered a question, and in realizations you only had in the process of the exercise, is your story. Embrace your story, include it in your messaging, and your customers-turned-fans will come flocking.

Want to find your story? Discover it on your own -- or contact me for more help -- by filling out this social media plan questionnaire.

Feeling Overwhelmed by Social Media? This One Simple Statement Will Help...

Overwhelmed. It's the number one reason small business clients call me for social media help, the first descriptor out of their mouths. “I feel overwhelmed by social media.”

Of course they do. For small business owners just trying to do their due diligence and connect responsibly with their customers, dipping a toe into social media can quickly feel like they’ve been thrown into a lake. Naked. They’ve set up their Facebook page. But when should they post? What should they say? Why can’t anyone see them? And then there’s Twitter? What’s a hashtag? Do they have to be snarky? And what about Snapchat? Vine? Do they have to blog?

Add such charming words as “SEO” and “analytics” to the mix, and you can understand why so many small businesses have dust bunnies gathering on the social media pages they began with such enthusiasm.

I have a magic statement to calm hyperventilating clients:

Social media is a billboard.

It is. At its essence, social media is a tool you use to catch the attention of new customers and jar the memories of old. Yes, it has infinitely more potential than an oversized poster on Highway 169. But its usefulness to you – at its heart – is the ability to draw customers.

When you compress all of those digital options into a two-dimensional billboard, doesn't that make your decisions seem easier? You can probably figure out your billboard plan with no problem -- where it should go, what it should say, what it should look like, how long it should be up there. Now apply that same thinking to your social media billboard plan:

Where should your social media billboard be located?

Does your company want to attract the photo, food and travel hipsters living in the downtown lofts of Instagram? Or is your company aiming for the families living in the comfy middle-class 'burbs of Facebook? How about those cute ladies living in the shabby-chic Pinterest homes over on the eastside? Plunk your social media billboard down where the audience you want to attract most will drive past it. And don't be distracted by the newly sprung communities that pop up everyday claiming to be the new Facebook. As a small business owner with other responsibilities to focus on -- like running your business -- let others test whether those new social media channels will prosper or languish. You don't have the time or energy to stick a billboard in a ghost town.

What should your social media billboard say?

When you have potential customers whizzing by at 55 mph, you've got to get your point across fast. People scroll through their social media feeds at about the same speed. Let those same messages you would place in huge letters on a billboard -- your tagline, what you're proud of, a new offering -- lead what you say in your social media content. I have a parenting coach client who uses an approach we've named "organized parenting" to bring calm and happiness to families. So postings about parenting, organization, being happy and content, and upcoming speaking events fill her feed. I have another client who is very proud to be growing Pinot Noir grapes in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley, a prime wine grape growing region. Most days, their social media feed sings the praises of this acclaimed wine area.

What should your social media billboard look like?

You can get pretty fancy with a billboard -- LED technology, electronic displays, those spangles that shimmer in the wind-- and the same is true with your social media images. But save collaged photos overlaid with quotes and embedded with links until you're further along in your social media journey. What's the one image on your social media billboard you can guarantee no one else will have? You. You, your business, your employees, your satisfied clients and the results of your hard efforts. Get comfy with your smart phone and post those pics that shout most clearly what a good job you do and how much you enjoy doing it.

How long should your social media billboard be up?

Keeping your billboard up for only a couple of weeks would make it ineffective; think of all those potential customers who are distracted by the radio or trying a new route those days. The same goes for your social media billboard. You have to commit to your social media channels and post, consistently and for a duration of time, for them to have an effect on your business. 

YOU have to show up. 

Because relationship building is where social media FAR exceeds the benefits of a billboard. For the first time in history, you have the opportunity to shake the (virtual) hand of each and every person that depends on you. You can build an authentic relationship with them based on trust and common interests and your good work. But if you get frustrated with your social media and walk away, if you post haphazardly and aren't present for the people who want to hear from you, if you ONLY talk about what you have to sell and don't try to connect with your customers' likes and interests, you might as well have spent that time and effort and money installing your billboard on an abandoned road.

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If you're a small business owner, what is the number one thing you find overwhelming about social media? Please let me know in the comments below.