This blog post is in response to a challenge by Chris Brogan to consider the importance of story in our lives. His challenge is tied in with Don Miller’s latest book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.
Stories. We all have one. In fact, we all live one.
For me, starting this business is the latest chapter in my story. I love Social Media and love sharing the possibilities of how it can be used by businesses and organizations to get the word out. I especially love how the evolution of Social Media is helping to change and shape our stories and the way we do business.
For nearly a century, marketing was top down…driven by businesses. Social Media is turning the paradigm on its head and makes us all more accountable. As I’ve been discussing in my Others First series, it allows us businesses and marketers to become more compassionate in that we are almost forced to put others…including our customers, first.
In our lives, as we engage and build relationships with others, it is our story that allows us to connect. You and I may have different stories, but we can always find places where our stories cross paths. We have commonalities. It might be as simple as living in the same area, or sharing a love for some band, author, or TV show. It might be a shared faith or belief system, or just a common interest or hobby. But it is those things that bring us together, and more often than not, those shared parts of our story are enough to overcome any differences.
It is our story, and the sharing of that story, that inspires others to listen to us and trust us.
In Social Media we have a lot of buzz words: Trust agent. Engage. Community. Conversation. Transparency. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these terms can all also be associated with the concept of “Story.”
As businesses and marketers we need to be transparent. We need to engage. We need to participate in community. In short, we need to be open and share our institutional story with the world. Once we understand that it’s not all about selling products and making a buck, we can become who we are meant to be, and the members of our communities – our existing and potential customers and clients – will see us in a different light.
And don’t forget, we don’t live our story in isolation. Those around us are important characters in our story. That includes our customers. Without them, we’d be living a very different story.
What’s your story? Are you using your Social Media channels to share that story? And more importantly, are you including your community in your story? Don’t think about “me” and “them”….write your story with “we” in mind.
Thinking about our stories makes us better people, which makes us better at business. Try it, and I think you’ll notice the difference.
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