It’s time to take a lesson from James Cameron. That man can tell a story. As a famous writer and director, Cameron knows that a captivating tale can generate buzz and bring in mega bucks.
Great storytelling shouldn’t be reserved for the big screen, though; it can be used to propel a brand as well. But let’s face it, it took Cameron 15 years to take Avatar from idea to silver screen, and you don’t have that kind of time. Fortunately there are a ton of great, cheap or free tools out there to help you boost your brand’s storytelling ability.
We asked three brand professionals to tell us their favorite content marketing tools that can sharpen your storytelling chops. Here’s what they suggest:
Paper.li
Paper.li can help brands find creative content to share with the public. It’s another curation tool, but it draws more content from popular social media posts than it does from blogs and newspapers. If your brand is popular on social media, it’s a good option, Griffin says.
“It essentially allows you to aggregate content and filter it into a newspaper,” Griffin says. “Plus, it has built-in promotion tools to help gain an audience.”
Here’s an example of how one of those online newspapers looks. You can learn how to set up your own newsroom and online paper on the Paper.li site.
Quora.com
Mike Brooks, the president of Nuclear Chowder Marketing, suggests Quora.com. He says this Q&A site allows brands to gain a position of authority. Once you create a Quora account you can follow categories that pertain to your business. Those industry questions will show up in your home feed and you’ll be able to weigh in, showing off your expertise in the field. You can take some of these quotes and turn them into an engaging story, Brooks says.
“These answers can be published into a Tumblr or WordPress blog as well as shared on social media,” he says.
If you’re interested, check out this step-by-step guide to set up a Quora account.
Recitethis.com
Storytelling isn’t all about word selection. The brain craves visuals too. While you’re putting together your next verbal masterpiece, you’ll want some eye candy to go with it.
Public relations specialist Jenifer Daniels says Recitethis.com can help in the visual department. With this site, you can turn text into professional looking graphics for free. It offers 30 different templates and a variety of fonts to choose from.
Jenifer Daniels
“For a brand, especially a fledgling brand, this tool gives content a graphic feel with no budget,” she says. “Plus, the public likes that you’re sharing good-looking, inspiring content.”
Daniels, who has used the site to promote her own brand, suggests pulling quotes from speeches or a white paper and creating a clickable graphic for your website or social media page.
Some of these tools are fairly new, others have been around for a few years; but all of them have the potential to help you tell a better story. It might not be up to Cameron’s snuff, but engaging people through a story is a surefire way to boost brand awareness. To a brand, that’s a blockbuster hit.
About the Author: Lisa Furgison is a media maven with ten years of journalism experience and a passion for creating top-notch content.
