Written by Dominick Sirianni
All the buzz around the newest Star Wars release made us take a hard look at what movie production companies do right. Namely, telling terrific stories.
But you don’t have to have a 100 million dollar budget and a bunch of characters from outer space in your story to help your business grow.
The Internet Marketing Association’s Internet Marketer of the Year and author of Get Real: Telling Authentic Stories for Long-term Success Christoph Trappe (@ctrappe) proclaims sagely:
“This is the participation age.”
People want to feel connected and entertained. They want to engage with you. They want to feel heard and understood. And the best way to do this is by sharing real stories and true facts about yourself and your company.
Communicate stories about the real ‘you’ and invite a dialogue.
Look at TV shows like the Real Housewives of Orange County with “characters” – but also real people – like Heather Dubrow. Heather has gained widespread notoriety from authentically sharing her life. A life of family, success, wealth, and drama. Sure, it may be exaggerated and edited so as to enhance the elements of excitement and conflict, but the heart of the show’s success lies in that people watch, are entertained by, and feel connected to the story and the characters.
Like General Electric (GE), Heather is now also using podcasting to engage with her audience.
Heather Dubrow’s World saw immediate success in part due to her taking some advice she received from Dr. Drew Pinsky: “Don’t worry about how many guests you have on, people just want to hang out with you for an hour.”
With 140,000 downloads within the first 3 days to prove it, Heather’s success reveals that your audience wants to feel like insiders. Give them the opportunity by sharing authentic stories.
More on actionable steps to take this to the next level in Part 4. Stay tuned, IMA!