HOW DO THEY DO THAT?expert advice on implementing strategies

Leading with a story is apredictably successful pathfor speakers and businessesalike to engage and growan audience on any plat-form. This is one reason

big brands are moving from traditionaladvertising in favor of telling storiesthat progressively reinforce the mission,beliefs and values of their brands.

In fact, industry icons like McDon-alds and Coke even have archivists onstaff to preserve and manage the evolu-tion of their brand story. Let’s face it;few marketing tactics persuade, moti-vate and inspire like stories. Accordingto a recent USA Today article, the bestads of 2014 were not ads at all, but sto-ries that made emotional connections.

Storytelling has gone mainstream,with marketers commonly referring tothe practice as content marketing. Itonly stands to reason that speakers canalso use stories as a powerful marketingtool in today’s digital and social world.

The best way to get more speakingengagements is to be amazingonstage, with the second best nowusing online marketing to extend thatexperience to a digital audience.

In the early days of the Internet,speakers were apprehensive about shar-ing their stories online. After all, storiesare our bread and butter. However,even today, many speaker websites,blogs and social media profiles are cen-trally focused on the speaker, ratherthan personal stories that might movemeeting plan-ners to hirethem.

If youwant to earnmore speaking opportu-nities, you have to show meet-ing planners what you’ve got with asmuch variety and context as possible,and that means leveraging online mar-keting to deliver compelling stories thatring true.

the new online marKeting tool

B Y J E F F K O R H A N , M B A

36 | SPEAKER | March 2015

Storytelling Tips for a Digital World   To attract people to your stories online,you need to structure them for search.First, be mindful that meeting plannersare probably not searching for a videoof your 45-minute keynote, but some-thing more like a TED Talk—a humanexperience with a singular message thatengages an audience.

Then, just know that Google is get-ting very good at giving people whatthey want when searching the Web.Thus, optimizing for real people isalways the best approach. In order ofimportance, here are the most relevantcriteria for getting your story discov-ered, consumed, and acted upon,regardless of the media format.

TITlE OR HEADlINE. This must com-municate the theme of your story—whatit’s about. The headline must speak tothe most relevant needs of your audienceor the content will never be consumed.

I published an article titled How toUse Social Media to Grow Your EmailSubscribers on my site that has earnedthousands of shares because it addressesa key pain point: how to use socialmedia to achieve practical and prof-itable outcomes.

META DESCRIPTION. The metadescription is usually the first sentenceor two that provides a concise descrip-tion of the blog post, video, podcast,etc. It must deliver on the promise ofthe headline; otherwise, Google andhuman beings alike will move on.

My aforementioned social mediaarticle opens with a story about net-working at a conference with theworld’s leading social media experts,

which instantly establishes thevalidity of the content thatfollows. Note: Most contentmanagement platforms,such as WordPress, havecapabilities for submitting a specific meta description,

which is preferred over thedefault of Google choosing the

first sentence or two.

STRUCTURE. Online storytelling is not just about information;appearance matters. This is why modern websites stripaway distractions, such assidebars, to keep the focus on the useful content; that is, your story.

Online audiences are scan-ning for valuable nuggets. Para-

graphs should be no longer thanthree sentences. Subheads should be

crafted just as carefully as the headline.The first sentence in my social media

Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the

author of Built-in Social and

the host of This Old New

Business podcast. He helps

businesses adapt their tradi-

tional sales and marketing practices to a dig-

ital, social and global world. Find it all at

JeffKorhan.com.

article is intentionally dramatic: EmailSubscribers Are Your Business Lifeline.

Within the body copy, there shouldbe attention-grabbing photos, videos,bulleted and numbered lists, and tweetable information in bold text or a call-out box. Better yet, use a servicelike Click To Tweet to create a ready-made tweet.

ACTIVE VOICE. Don’t just tell yourstory; relive one active scene so thateveryone can experience it with you forthe first time. You want this story to betimeless content that never goes out ofstyle, happily residing on the Web to“market” your business. Therefore,whenever possible, avoid any referenceto time.

CAll TO ACTION. Your story shouldinspire people to action, which mayinclude subscribing to your newsletteror engaging them with your premiumcontent, which ideally includes hiringyou to speak.

A common mistake is asking youraudience to hire you. Instead, encour-age them to subscribe, so you can lever-age that permission to share morerelevant stories that earn their trust.

A well-told story is a gift that whenproperly shared can be the most effec-tive marketing any speaker can have forengaging and inspiring audiences toaction. Given the enormous influenceof the web on human behavior, it’s rea-sonable to assume these online prac-tices apply equally well to storytellingon any platform today.