Presented by

It’s National 🍪 Cookie Exchange Day, Reader! What’s your go-to? Snickerdoodle? Gingerbread people? Shortbread?

In today’s edition:

• Today's 👉 Tip of the Day is for content strategy

• ✨ Find your video storytelling style

• X/Twitter media 🏞 🌇 🏙 display update

• New❗️YouTube Shorts creative features

Need to build a content marketing strategy? Wondering how to develop content that grows your business? Begin by identifying what expertise you can offer, pinpointing what your audience is struggling with, and making connections between the two.

On one side of a page, list your skills and expertise. On the other side of the page, write down the pain points of your audience. The intersection of these two lists will give you a good starting spot for stories you can tell that will mesh with your audience's needs.

Create a Content Mission Statement

Next, create a mission statement for your content. Start by identifying who your target audience is—the more niche, the better. If you believe your audience is composed of plant managers, that's probably not niche enough. It should be plant managers in the Pacific Northwest in companies of 10,000 or more that outsource to China or India. That's how specific you want to be.

Then, decide what kind of content you're going to deliver to your audience. Simple tips in writing? Podcast stories? YouTube videos?

Finally, establish the outcome for your audience.

If you offer photography courses, your content mission statement might be to offer simple videos to help amateur photographers get the most out of their cameras.

Today's tip is inspired by Joe Pulizzi, a featured speaker at Social Media Marketing World.

Only 58 Days Until the Conference!

Social Media Marketing World is a great place to learn the latest marketing strategies. 

"We left with so many ideas… We are all fired up and ready to go!" attendees Rusty and Teresa Andrews said.

Committing to a better 2024 is easy:

1️⃣ Find at least 3 sessions that will help you achieve your goals.

2️⃣ Get your ticket. (Save over $500 now on All-Access tickets.)

3️⃣ Get ready for 2024 to be your best year yet. 

Sign me up for new strategies!

There are three traits that all successful video creators share. These are the characteristics that help them create relevant and valuable videos that connect with customers.

We all have the three traits to some degree but most of us favor one in particular. Take a second to think about which one appeals to you: 

Authority: Authoritative storytellers create educational content that shows evidence of how they achieved their goals. Their videos talk about the problems their target audience has and exactly how to solve them. Over time, their viewers learn to connect the storyteller with success.

Entertainment: Social video should be fun. Otherwise, who's going to watch it? If you're not fun, you're forgettable. Being fun isn't the same thing as being funny. You don't have to come up with a tight 10 minutes of stand-up every time you film an Instagram Reel. But you do need to show your personality.

Connection: In addition to creating authoritative and entertaining content, you should tell heartfelt stories that allow you to show caring and compassion. Show that you're a real person who feels, understands, and cares. Position your viewers as the hero of the story and yourself or brand as the wise guide with an intriguing backstory. 

Who you are as a storyteller is based on your personality.

Find Your Storytelling Style

If you don't feel like you can sum your style up in a few words, here are some steps that could help you find your identity as a storyteller:

• Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses.

• Make a list of hobbies and activities you enjoy. Do they point toward research and expert learning, being active and social, or taking time to reflect and intuit?

• Notice what content you like to consume. For example, if you love Joanna Gaines' content, that might point you toward being an entertaining storyteller.

• Take a personality test, such as the enneagram, which assigns you to one of nine personality types. Are you a Reformer, Helper, Achiever, Individualist, Investigator, Loyalist, Enthusiast, Challenger, or Peacemaker? The results might surprise you!

You don't have to forget the other two aspects of storytelling. Authoritative storytellers can still be entertaining and compassionate, for example. But the majority of your content should play to your natural strengths and personality.

Think of your storytelling as a triangle, with your dominant storyteller trait at the top. Let's say you're a “connection” type storyteller. You can fit a little bit of content into the two bottom corners; authority and entertainment, for example. But the majority of your content that fills up the rest of the triangle, will be about connection. 

What Stories Should You Share?

Once you've found your style, you need to tell the right stories, over and over, to connect with your viewers. Start by thinking about what content they need.

• Who is your ideal viewer?

• What are they afraid of?

• What challenges are they dealing with right now?

Think through your own past and look for stories that match your viewers' fears and challenges. Then tell those stories from a perspective of learning. Talk about how you fixed the problem or faced that fear, and how you'll avoid a repeat of the situation in the future.

There's an important reason for this story structure.

When you relate to a viewer's troubles, that's the compassionate part of storytelling. When you explain how to fix or avoid a problem, that's authoritative. The entertainment comes in when you tell a real story about a real person, and put your unique spin on it.

Those are the kinds of stories that get viewers, followers, and sales. Those are the stories that connect. 

Today's advice is provided with insights from Virginia Kerr.

TOGETHER WITH YOUR BRAND HERE

Imagine Your Brand Message Here…

Are you struggling to reach your target audience? Looking for new customers? What if your message could blossom in front of hundreds of thousands of marketers… What would that make possible? 

Consider partnering with Social Media Examiner. Imagine what could happen for your business when you get the right message in front of the right people. What are you waiting for? 

Contact Emily to learn more about our media sponsorship options.

🗞 X/Twitter Media Grid Display: X has rolled out a new grid display format for the "Media" tab when viewing a profile over the last few weeks. Instead of displaying media posts in a list view, they are now shown in a grid of preview images and videos. The new feature is gradually rolling out and is not yet available on every profile, but X says all users can expect to see the updated display soon. Soon, new tools will enable filtering by specific media types like images or videos. An engagement filter option will also allow viewers to easily locate the most popular media items based on interaction metrics. Source: Andrea Conway via X/Twitter

🗞 Creating YouTube Shorts Layouts: YouTube has introduced new features to simplify converting long-form videos into Shorts. When using the YouTube mobile app to turn one of your own videos into a Short, you can now select from various split-screen video layouts. These options allow you to focus on certain sections of the screen using pan and zoom capabilities. Source: The Verge

Did You Know?

Magpies can distinguish between and remember individual human faces from up to four years earlier.