Sharing stories has been an integral part of society for centuries. We share information about ourselves to help us relate to others and forge connections. The same applies to businesses. If a company shares insights into their history, the challenges they’ve overcome and their thoughts and ideas through a well-told brand story, customers feel connected to them and are therefore more willing to place trust in their products and services. What’s more, stories are much more memorable than facts alone. In fact, research has found they can be up to 22 times more memorable. This explains why tales are passed down through generations and why we still know and love to share the ancient stories of Greek Mythology, for example. So, crafting your experiences into an engaging story can also help to keep your brand at the forefront of customers’ minds. But, how do you know what to include in your brand story? How do you know what your customers are going to care about? We’ve put together some guidance on crafting a story that is interesting, accessible and of course, authentic.

For a story to create those all-important connections, it should be relatable to its audience. Therefore, the first step in writing a compelling brand story is to know who your audience is. If you have a good understanding of your customers, you’ll find it much easier to create a story that truly resonates with them. Learn how old they are, where they live, what they like to do in their free time and what kind of jobs they have. This will all inform how you present your story to ensure maximum engagement.

To give your story the relatability factor, it should be very much personality-driven. The focus should be on the people behind your brand and their experiences, rather than on the products or services that you sell. Think back over the history of your business – the ups and the downs, the times when everything seemed like it was going wrong and the times when you’ve had massive breakthrough moments. When considering all the pivotal turning points that helped get your business to where it is today, think about how your target audience might relate to them. Stories that trigger an emotional response, a sense of familiarity or significant learning experience will be more appealing and memorable for your audience.

For many companies, the heart of their story will lie at the conception of their idea. This may have been an event, a conversation or some other experience that prompted the founder to identify an issue requiring a solution. Think about what it was that prompted you to start your business. Was it something you experienced? Or maybe a story you heard sparked an idea in your mind? Think about the needs you aimed to fulfil, why this was important to you back then and why it still is now. Your story should provide an answer to the question: “Why does this business exist?” The answer to this can usually be found at the early stages when your business was being held up by an idea alone, long before it became a fully-functioning, profit-making operation.

You probably started your business with some idea of what values were important to you; however, these may have evolved over time and become better developed as your business has grown. Company values can drive the success of your business, especially if your employees and customers relate to them. Therefore, these can also form a great starting point for your brand story. Think about where your company values have arisen from. Did you have an interesting, unusual or eye-opening experience while setting up your business which has led you to take a firm stance on environmental and/ or social issues? Many businesses win customers through their strong values, so narrating these in your brand story can be a great way to engage with your audience. 

A brand story should give your business a purpose. Once you have formulated a story, you need to integrate it into the way you market your business. Show how the values that drove you at the very beginning are still upheld in your operations today. Demonstrate how the key milestones in your journey have been influential in improving the way you do business. Discuss how the major lessons you learnt while growing the business still resonate with your employees now. Use social media to highlight your story and relate it to the present-day operations of your business. The most memorable brand stories will be intertwined with every action that the company makes and every message that they share.  

One company with a well-known brand story is Patagonia. Its founder, Yvon Chouinard, was an avid climber who noticed the equipment that he (and many other climbers) used was causing damage to the rock faces. In an effort to protect the landscape that he loved, he began producing his own environmentally-friendly equipment, later expanding into clothing too. This love for and desire to protect the environment still informs the ethos of the business today, making it a firm favourite for environmental activists. While their story begins with a simple idea, it is the values behind this story that make them so successful. These are values that Patagonia uphold in every action they take, even pledging 1% of all sales to the preservation and restoration of the environment to offset any negative impacts caused by the operations of their business.

A brand story is a very powerful marketing tool but only if you can successfully engage your audience using emotion and personality. When crafting your brand story, you need to ensure that your target audience will relate to it. Discussing your company’s origins and values are great ways to achieve this while relating it to the present-day operations of your business is also important. Remember that your brand’s story hasn’t ended yet. It is constantly being written and it is possible that major changes on the road ahead may impact your business philosophy further. Your brand story should be honest and authentic. It takes time to craft a story with both interest and meaning but if it resonates with your customers, you will create trust, loyalty and a much more memorable brand.

Having done a lot of reflecting on our beliefs and our ethos at Social Gamma, we are embarking on a new chapter in our company story: Social Good.

Social Good is a mission, a way for us to apply our individual and collective beliefs to our work every single day. The most fulfilling projects and clients we have taken on are the ones trying to make a positive change in the world, and we want to build them up to something greater than ever before. We’ve made the decision to make a change and a difference.

We’re focusing in on just a few key industries:

• Health, Wellness and Nutrition
• Non-Profit
• Sustainability
• Education

Having worked with many clients in these industries so far, we’ve come to love not just what they do, but what we can do for them. For our health, wellness and nutrition clients we have carried out a variety of web and app development services, as well as investor and lead generation digital ads. We have helped our clients gain key investors, find leads and even maintain and develop their online presence to ensure their continued success. Our non-profit and sustainability clients have benefitted form our social media expertise. We’re proud of the achievements we have made on their channels, both in engagement and follower retention. We have also helped them to achieve fundraising goals and launch successful events and projects. Our education clients found new leads and an increased following through paid lead generation and social media ads.

And this is not just a side project. The team has always had a passion for giving back, from their university days to now. One of our Account Managers, Ana, has volunteered at a special school, helping children from the ages of 8-14 with learning difficulties and autism. She also worked with toddlers in foster care. Our Lead Creative, Rebecca, was a Team Leader for breast cancer awareness charity “CoppaFeel!”, promoting the cause, educating young people on campus and raising funds. The team won a fundraising award and ranked 3^rd on the UK CoppaFeel! University Fundraising Leader board the year she graduated. Our Managing Director and Founder, Ria, led a group called Remedy Through Music, who visited children’s hospitals every week to sing to the patients. We are inspired to this day by the people we worked with and the plans we helped carry out.

So now, our mission is clear. We will use our skills and know-how to spread the positive waves out into the world! If you are in the health, wellness and nutrition, sustainability, non-profit or education industries and you’re looking for a Digital Marketing Team who share an affinity with your values and passions, then give Social Gamma a call. We look forward to doing Social Good with you!

Facebook and Instagram are major players in the modern social media marketing game. Any business worth their salt invest time and even money into excellently curated feeds, so that they can have that unique connection with customers that just didn’t exist before the age of social media. But what are the benefits of these sites, and is one better than the other?

Let’s look at Facebook first.

Benefits:

Facebook has a massive impact on how the public interact with each other and has been around far longer than Instagram. It’s a great place for businesses to update their consumers on upcoming events and happenings, as well as sharing articles they are interested in. Facebook’s algorithm supports video content beyond all else, so video ads or updates are a great way to get a bigger reach.

Negatives:

Most Facebook users primarily use it for social purposes. That is, they connect with friends and family while businesses are less of a priority. Even the name itself doesn’t promote “faceless corporations”. It also has an overall older audience than Instagram, which can be bad depending on your target market.

What about Instagram?

Benefits:

Instagram is a highly visual form of media, allowing businesses to showcase some design and aesthetic skill, and reinforce their visual identity. The more a company’s brand identity is seen, the more associations a customer builds with the brand, making it more memorable and more likely to be used. Instagram also has a more current feel to it, not just because it is a younger site, but because of the “instant” share element of stories. Companies can show themselves as more relatable by sharing day-to-day happenings through stories. While Facebook has this option too, it is used much less.

Negatives:

Instagram has a lot of content restrictions, for example you cannot share hyperlinks in posts. This means that businesses cannot make use of article and blog sharing as easily, something that is beneficial to the tech and finance industries. Another issue is that many companies use bots to increase their following, and Instagram is catching on. The anti-bot algorithms make it difficult to keep up with what is acceptable and what isn’t. Optimising hashtags is a constant job, discovering what is relevant but also unique enough that you won’t get buried. Having a social media team to keep on top of all the changes is the best way to get the best of both worlds.

There are plenty of positives and negatives to both sites, and which site you should focus on also depends on your intentions. If you have a younger audience, Instagram is the way, whereas if you’re more business focused, the lack of link sharing on Instagram might be detrimental. The best approach to social media is to make use of all the available platforms, and a combination of both Facebook and Instagram used in the correct way can be a powerful strategy.

Get in touch through the Contact page to find out how our Social Media Services can help your business bloom.