Finding Stories to Tell
Sharing company news on a regular basis is critical to the growth of any organization, be it a tiny mom-and-pop grocery, or multi-million dollar soda company. Though the scale may be different, the concept is very much the same. To stay at the front of your customer or client’s mind, you have to give them something to talk about.
But What If We Don’t Have Anything To Say?
This is a question we hear often, and our response is always the same: You have plenty to say – you just don’t realize it because you’re steeped in the day-to-day operations. To help you gain a little perspective on the situation, try these tricks:
Bring in an outsider. Hire a professional marketer to sit in on general meetings. We often do this with clients who are surprised when, at the end of the meeting, we have a list of story ideas: a new product about to be launched, a new team member, a new partnership. All stories.
Check in with your accountant. While you would never want to share your financial data, this is a great place to remind yourself of a new client, someone new on the payroll, or that ticket you bought to an upcoming conference. That investment in new software for the company? Story.
Share what your friends are doing. Perhaps one of your suppliers is having a promotion, or maybe the venue where you host the company Christmas party is doing a fundraiser. The news doesn’t have to be about you – as long as you’re doing the sharing, your name goes out there with it (and you garner some goodwill while you’re at it).
Industry news. When there’s really nothing to talk about, consider casting your net wider and sharing your thoughts on industry trends. Particularly in the world of social media, sharing what someone else has written, with a quick comment or two, is certainly enough.
Okay. Now that I have a story, what do I do with it?
Stories go out to the world via the company blog, newsletter, social media, or, ideally, all three. The blog is home base. A weekly or twice-monthly article of 300 – 500 words keeps your site fresh. It shows visitors that you update your website regularly and is great for search engine rankings.
Then, once you have content up on your website, post about it on social media. When it comes time for your monthly (or quarterly) newsletter, you can use the first paragraph of each story in the newsletter, and then link back to your website to draw in visitors who want to read more.
Simply putting stories out into the world on a regular basis keeps your organization in the front of people’s minds. You become part of a dialogue, and eventually the talk shifts from “have you heard?” to “I knew them when…”