Building Community: Part 2

This week on my Amazon Flash Briefing & Blog, I am sharing ways Your Story Builds Community.

I talk a lot about how your story can help you create community in general — but what does that really mean? How does it really work?

Yesterday, we talked about how important it is to humanize your brand, so others can get a sense of the heartbeat behind your business. 

Today, I want to talk about how using your story can help bridge the gap between you the expert, and your audience.

When you share your story effectively, it allows others to see themselves in you; know they are not alone.

So how do you do this? Start by looking for commonalities and life lessons that nearly all of us face, and then ask yourself how can you share a story from this perspective and connect it back to your business.

Here’s an example for you — and one that most anyone can use.

I was listening to The Moth Podcast yesterday, and someone one shared their story by sharing an example on how they’d tried to take a shortcut and it backfired. It was a brilliant story, filled with relatable humor — and it had an underlying message attached.

This person share how he belonged to a prestigious book club filled with academics, and when he tried to join the discussion after having only read the cliff notes, the group kicked him out of the book club. The storyteller is a lawyer, so it was a relatable lesson on why it’s always a good idea to be thorough and do your due diligence -- and not take shortcuts!

What made this story so relatable is we all try to take shortcuts, don’t we? He took something that is so common, shared a personal story, and related it back to his work as a teaching moment for his audience.

What this does is allow your audience to see themselves in you. They hear your story, and then think to themselves, “Oh thank goodness, I’m not the only one…” or “wow, I needed to hear that today”…. or “Man, I’ve been there before, I know what that feels like” 

How can you find storytelling moments that are relatable in this way. Find the common threads that pulse through life in general — like trying to use shortcuts — and use them as storytelling opportunities. Then, connect the lessons back to your message for your brand or business.

This is just another way your story builds community because you are creating connection points with your audience. Once they begin to see themselves in your storytelling, they began to feel connected to you and your message.

They can’t do this if you aren’t willing to step up to the plate and share your story with them. 

In case you haven’t noticed, the old way of marketing is dead. In today’s social media age, people are craving connection and meaning— and building community is how you build brand loyalty and clients.

Tune back in tomorrow as I continue to talk about ways your story builds community. You’ll see as we go through the week how each step builds upon the last. This is our theme this week, and I hope you find it helpful

You can find all the posts from this Building Community series here on the blog: 

Building Community: Part 1