What are the best ways to inspire action and advocacy through storytelling?

Na minha perspectiva, a maneira mais eficaz de empregar o storytelling é começar entendendo a fundo sua audiência. Entendendo sua audiência, fica mais fácil criar uma narrativa que realmente empolgue! Por exemplo, se a sua audiência for uma equipe de vendas em treinamento, uma história impactante seria compartilhar uma situação real que um vendedor que passou pelo treinamento que está sendo explicado alcançou resultados extraordinários. O storytelling se tornará emocionante e inspirador porque apresentará um personagem central, abordará seu desenvolvimento ao longo da narrativa e culminará em um desfecho notável. Nem sempre a história precisa ser real, se ela fizer seu público entender melhor a mensagem que você quer passar, está ótimo!

People connect with people. Craft your stories around individuals or communities, showcasing their challenges, aspirations, and transformation. For example, say you're writing for a non-profit targeting plastic pollution. Begin your story with Maria, a fisherwoman in a small coastal town affected by this issue. Instead of presenting stark pollution statistics, share Maria's daily struggle and her community's initiative to clean their beaches. You can easily intertwine this story with a call to action, urging donations or similar local initiatives. This human-centric narrative transforms the abstract problem into a relatable story, making the audience more likely to engage and take action.

As mentioned above, combining the Three Act Structure with the Hero's Journey can be very helpful in your storytelling throughout your content, regardless of duration or channel. Understand the similarities and differences between the two structures. The Hero's Journey and the Three Act Structure both have similar elements, such as the Call to Adventure and the Climax and Resolution. However, the Hero's Journey has more specific stages and focuses on the hero's inner transformation, while the Three Act Structure is more focused on external events and plot points.

Here is what no one told you about storytelling. Every single part of your outline should create a cliffhanger for the next one. For instance, your setup should leave some questions unanswered that are resolved at a later stage. This creates the intrigue to go forward. To give you an example, for a founder's story, I began with ... "Ms. X declined a funding offer of about 2 million dollars last month. But we'll come back to that in a while. Here's how it all started." Now you can't wait to read what's next, can you? Hence, it's always prudent to see how your next piece can benefit from its preceding one.

Try to look from the audience perspective – what CTAs would they click on? Sometimes, a simple 'CLICK HERE' doesn't work, but reminding of WHY is it worth clicking could be more effective: - Click here and read -> ENJOY the article by clicking - Connect with me -> Let's connect - Buy here -> Get yours today!

Don't overthink a call to action. Because the CTA doesn't convince an audience to act, it reminds them to act. What comes before the CTA does the convincing.

social proof is not merely about throwing any proof at your audience. Consider the unique preferences, values, and needs of your audience when selecting and presenting social proof. Think of showing testimonials that gives you more credibility. Your goal is to inspire confidence in your product or service while showing that it resonates with the specific interests and aspirations of your audience.

Social proof is the psychological phenomenon where people are more likely to do something if they see others doing it. It's a powerful tool that can be used to drive action and inspire advocacy. To inspire advocacy, you could share how your product or service has helped people. This is a great way to show real-world examples of the benefits of your product or service. Here are a few tips for using social proof effectively: ▪️Make sure your social proof is credible. ▪️Be specific. ▪️ Use a variety of social proofs, such as testimonials, case studies, and influencer endorsements, to reach a wider audience. By following these tips, you can use social proof to drive action, inspire advocacy, and achieve your goals.

Don't try to make a learning story from every single post you are planning to make. If all your posts have a giant back story to whatever your trying to communicate, people might get bored quickly. Mix up the content by adding some longer back stories, some with just a short copy about a specific thing.

Not a word wasted. Read what you have written, question every word, can you say what you've said in a more concise way? How? Then do it. Not a word wasted.

When creating any content - and specifically marketing content - to start in the position that no one cares. Whoa, that sounded harsh. What I meant to say is that if you are paying to have your content in feeds and want people to do something - it better be damned entertaining and worth the read or watch. Tell the story first, show the value you're giving and then - and only then - should you worry about the CTA and social proof and all the other stuff.

Here are some tips for keeping these things in mind when storytelling: Put yourself in your audience's shoes. Ask yourself what they would want to know and what they would find interesting. Vary the pace of your story. Don't info-dump everything at the beginning, and don't let the action drag in the middle. Think about the emotional impact you want to have on your audience. What emotions do you want them to feel? Craft your story accordingly. By keeping these things in mind, you can tell more effective and engaging stories.