Supercharging social media with storytelling techniques: #9 The Cliff Hanger

Everyone who reads popular fiction and watches TV knows what a cliff hanger is. It's literally cutting away from the story as the hero hangs from a cliff. The reader is hooked into reading on, fast, to find out what happens. Every genre uses the cliff hanger, so don't think it's just a pulp fiction technique either. Some are just more subtle about it than others.

But can the cliff hanger be used for social media posts? I suggest yes. In fact I recommend it as a way to keep people involved and coming back.

So how can you use it? Well, it will take a little thought, but with a dash of openness I am sure you can come up with some real cliff hangers about what you do. For instance try talking about:

1. The uncertainty about how many chocolate cakes will sell every day, when you need to sell 10 a day to do well.

2. The uncertainty about the features of a new product.

3. The uncertainty about your annual results.

4. The uncertainty about how many people will come to your exhibition.

5. The uncertainty about how a performer will perform at your club next Saturday.

6. Are you going to sell five million or ten million copies of your new book?

7. Are you going to become number 1 in your industry, at last?

With a little ingenuity I am sure you can come up with some real uncertainties, which aren't about any lack of confidence, but are playful, and which are honest too. Good luck and let me know if you have managed to create any.

You may not want to literally hang from a cliff, but a little uncertainty is good in life. For instance, what will this blog cover next? I hope you come back to find out.

Supercharging social media with storytelling techniques: #8 Using your senses

Sight, taste, sound, smell and touch are the 5 senses that connect us to the world. When you read about them the written world comes alive, and engagement increases.

But can you use senses in social media?

Here are five short post examples to whet your appetite:

1. The electric blue of our new logo was chosen to illustrate our speedy delivery.

2. You can taste success, champagne and lobster, if you choose our early bird special.

3. The silence in our service office is not just because of the few calls we get, it's also because our dedicated staff are focusing on helping clients.

4. The smell of coffee in our new staff canteen is wonderful!

5. When you touch our new shoes you will understand the pleasure our high quality leather brings.

I know you won't be able to use each of your senses every day, or anything like that, but thinking about incorporating sensory information in your posts, either small or as a jump off point for a larger post, will expand the range of things you talk about and increase engagement with readers by connecting you with their senses.

Think senses when you are looking around for something else to post about.

7 interesting social media stats for 2012

1. The number of blogs globally in April 2010 was 135 million. The number of blogs globally in April 2012 was estimated at 198 million (BlogPulse.com).

2. 80% of 18-29 year olds are using social media in the United States in 2012.

3. 50%+ of the UK population have a Facebook presence in 2012. 25-34 year olds are the largest group.

4. 58% of Fortune 500 companies have Facebook pages in 2012.

5. The number of Twitter users more than doubled in the UK from 2011 (12 million) to 2012 (26 million).

6. 62% of Fortune 500 companies have active Twitter accounts in 2012.

7. 81% of B2B marketeers found online marketing moderately or extremely challenging in early 2012.

Social media is not going away, if anything it is embedding deeper into our social and economic lives.

And it's challenging too.

Supercharging social media with storytelling techniques: #7 Point of View

Point of view is about whose eyes are observing what happens in your posts, whether long or short.

And don't assume that all this is if no importance to social media. It is. Here are some point of view options to think about. At the very least they should give you ideas for new posts. For the purpose of this post let's assume the Tweeting party is a small town bakery:

1. Omniscient, "Everyone loves chocolate cake. This bakery has the best in a hundred miles." An omniscient narrator claims knowledge over every corner of our world. Considered out of date these days in fiction, you can still use it, with some tongue-in-cheek attitude.

2. First person. "I love chocolate cake. We make the best chocolate cake for a hundred miles." You will typically create a character for this point of view, through whom the posts will be made. The character could be you or a fictional character who will sometimes voice some often unspoken thoughts to liven things up.

3. Second person point of view. "You will love our chocolate cake." Rarely used in fiction, but often used in songwriting, second person has a place in social media. You can use this point of view to ask people to follow you - "you can follow our chocolate baking video feed here," or get people to ask questions using this point of view - "you are welcome to ask any question you like about how we make our cakes". You can also alternate with first person in which you alternate between "you" and "I" posts, highlighting possible comparisons in views.

4. Third person point of view, which uses he, she, it and they. "He will love our chocolate cake." The commonest point of view in fiction, third person can range from close-third, such as the post above, where you assume you know the thoughts of the person you are speaking about and distant third, "She sure might like our chocolate cake," where you don't claim to know the inner thoughts of whoever you're speaking about. The narrator here, the person who is making these claims about chocolate cake, can be visible or invisible. If they become visible they start to interject with their own views

Social media generally requires a reliable voice or narrator, but comedy posts "Ours is the best chocolate cake in the whole world!" can take a less reliable turn.

Video games are generally 1st person these days, but social media can accommodate multiple point of view in posts. I hope you enjoyed this one!

Supercharging social media with storytelling techniques: #6 Spilling your guts!

It takes guts to be a writer. Readers can smell, straight from the page or the screen, when someone is being honest as a writer. Putting in the corny details, the wrenching feelings. the human foibles, makes a novel or any piece of writing readable and engaging.

But can you use this technique in social media? I believe you can. Sure, you don't have much room in a Tweet, but it is amazing what you can get across in a few sentences. For instance:

"Everyone in marketing is excited this morning. The new intern made coffee twice! The new SXC is being launched at 5pm."

as against the bland:

"The new SXC is being launched at 5pm."

You can dig deep too, reveal something about the drama of business as you blog and Tweet and post. Keeping it bland is a recipe for loosing your readers. I understand there's a difficult line to tread between being open and being too open, but I encourage you to push that line as far as possible towards openness.

If you take a few gambles and the boss is happy with it you can develop an engaging style that will see people come back for more, just to find out what's happening in your corner of the world.

Why is a thriller writer creating a blog about social media?

I live in Dublin, Ireland. My 1st thriller, The Istanbul Puzzle, came out Jan 19 in the UK. In 2 months it has sold into 8 large publishers across Europe. Within the next year it will be published in 20 countries. The Istanbul Puzzle is the 1st in a new series of contemporary mystery novels. My publisher is Harper Collins. It is available (click here) with free delivery to the US of A, UK and most other countries in the world.

I am writing about social media because:

1. Social media helped me out of the slush pile.

2. I've been interested in technology for as long as I can remember.

3. I've worked for software (SaaS), hardware and IT services companies over twenty years.

I won a 3 book contract on the strength of my writing, but also because I had built a successful blog, had 5,000 Twitter followers and had created short book trailers you can still see on YouTube.

I now have 30,000+ followers including a sizable presence on Google+, Goodreads, Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.

I am creating this social media blog for 2 reasons:

1. I believe social media is going to change the world in the way the PC did 20 years ago. It is forcing us to be more open as individuals and organisations. Openness is the oxygen social media needs to survive. It will also allow people and organisations opportunities that in the past have not been available.    

2. Because the craft of writing provides real techniques that can be used by people who want to succeed in social media. Building engagement, followers and creating interest in what you write are things that popular writers have always had to do if they want to succeed. I spent 12 years learning this craft.

Please follow this blog if you want to stay in touch with the progress of what will eventually become a comprehensive guide.

And all the best with your own social media. I want to see what you are doing and hear what you think of my efforts. On the day this blog was launched publicly it got 400+ viewers. It's a good start. All the best. Laurence

So many things to Tweet about!

Here is a link to a list of 42 things to Tweet about: http://socialmediatoday.com/pammoore/471693/42-things-do-twitter-besides-tweet-spam-coupons

If you prefer shorter lists, something you can get fast, here's my list of 5 things to Tweet about:

1. Something interesting you or your organisation is doing, or an event in your lives.

2. A blog post, Facebook page or other post you have created.

3. A reply to an interesting post, mention or retweet that someone else created.

4. Something funny, a quote, a joke, a comment.

5. Something serious, a quote, a saying, a comment.