Branding Byte #012

On Monday, a very good friend reached out to me to get some tips and help to craft his first LinkedIn post to tell his story.

That post resulted in:

• 1.6 million views

• 21500 likes

• 128 reposts

• 10 000 followers

Crazy results for a first post, some would put this completely on luck, but we worked on it a total of 12h to make sure IF we’re getting lucky, all the needed elements to have a viral post were present.

Virality provides reach, reach provides attention from a broader audience, and a broader audience means noise (Untargeted attention). Some people think it’s useless to look for virality but our stand was different.

Whatever your product/service, you need to tell a story, one that’s easy to comprehend and share. You need eyeballs on your content, you need that attention to build a strong brand, but It’s hard to make that happen.

Hard but not impossible, unfortunately, most people think they don’t have a story to tell, and for those that have one and try, they don’t follow the 6 pillars of storytelling.

Which is exactly what we’ll get into today.

Your story is worth sharing.

We all have experiences that shaped our current selves. Our decisions are the by-product of what we aim for and the knowledge we currently have. This knowledge comes directly from the environment in which we evolve and all the stories we’ve been part of.

But many people think they need the following to share their story:

• Being already successful

• Enough following to amplify social proof

• Achieved a crazy outcome at a young age

False. What you really need is an actionable plan and some good friends.

Here’s how you can make it happen:

Step 1: Build your Story-line narrative with 6 questions

Storytelling is the art of conveying emotions through words.

The process of creating a good story is not about writing but about answering the right questions:

• Who is the story about?

• What does the person concerned want?

• Why can’t they get it?

• What do they do about that?

• Why doesn’t it work?

• How does it end? (Or not)

Let’s break down the answer to those questions with Omar’s post:

• It’s about his past and present self, a young entrepreneur.

• His aspiration is to builds SaaS.

• The ardor of youth stubbornness made him ‘fail’ twice.

• He tries again, and again → resilience.

• Because it’s hard, and he made a big mistake.

• A new challenge, one that will also help people learn.

Answering those questions is the first step we’ve been through and the post-analysis convey exactly what we aimed for.

Now that you have your pillars you need to amplify this message and make sure everyone can feel empathy.

Step 2: Amplify the story with simple words

Virality means having a message that can be understood by all no matter the level of expertise they have in your field/industry.

Some writers don’t like this as you’re not niching down your content and you may get far from your IC.

‘Those followers are just noise’

I can tell you, with that post Omar got more opportunities coming his way than content creators with that mindset.

That’s the power of a clear, concise, and concrete message when it’s broadcasted to a big audience.

Our goal was to get that boost of virality to attract people from all backgrounds. Omar is building SaaS for different industries answering horizontal challenges, thus being super niched is not necessary.

How can you apply this logic to your story?

Here’s a checklist you need to get through:

1/ Avoid Jargon:

• Minimize the use of industry-specific words

• Send the post to 10 people from different backgrounds

• Ask them to sum-up in one sentence what they understood

2/ Focus on clarity

• At the end of your post, the reader should be able to remember your post with one clear sentence.

• Each of your sentences needs to be straightforward.

• Have clear chunks of concepts in your post.

3/ Use concrete examples:

• Your story needs to give visuals.

• Find a common enemy and put it forward.

• Don’t hesitate to be vulnerable in your examples.

4/ Tell a relatable story:

• Add elements that resonate with universal experiences and emotions.

• Tapp into common human themes.

• Your goal is to write an inclusive story but keep room for interpretation and debate.

5/ Be concise:

• Avoid unnecessary fluff.

• People don’t need all the details, just the crispy ones.

• Use numbers and single-outcome events.

Omar’s post checked all those steps perfectly.

Make sure you go through this list next time you write a story post.

Step 3: Create an open debate and an unfinished outcome loop

We’re still missing a vital element to increase our chances of going viral:

Engagement on the post.

To make that happens you need to give a reason for people to comment/like:

• You asked for some advice.

• You genuinely ask for engagement.

• You said something radical and they disagree.

• They know more than you and want to correct.

• You make them feel empathy and they want to support

When your post is authentic, the last one works like a charm, people want to help, and they want to feel empowered with a mission.

Roots of human psychology my friends, understand that, and any social platform algorithm will have no secrets.

One of the reasons this post worked so well is the open unfinished outcome loop:

Omar stated that he will create one SaaS per month until he finds a product market fit… Honestly, have you ever read a post like that?

The amount of tension and curiosity was through the roof, we made sure the post’s structure would resonate with all types of people:

• ‘Will he succeed?’

• ‘Can I learn from him?’

• ‘What are the Saas he’ll launch?’

• ‘He’s calling for support, I am sure I can help’

• ‘He’s still not the LinkedIn guru making 30K/week, I can be like him’

All those sentences might have crossed the reader’s mind.

Curiosity + Aspiration + Empathy = Engagement.

Down for a debate?

The second sentence of the post was the perfect hook to trigger all the corporate/university pro-people. Admitting it was the worst decision he ever made was like giving a piece of meat to a pack of wolves.

They jumped on the comment to say that he better stay at school, and not follow his dreams.

So next time you think about a storytelling post, don’t forget to create a controversy, that might be the single element you need.

That’s a wrap guys, I hope this analysis and actionable tips can help you figure out how to structure your story into a potential viral post.

I’d like to recall one last time that luck was also a factor in this success, we were sure that the post would get a few hundred likes, BUT we never thought it would blow off and lead to 1.6m views and 21500 likes.

That being said, you can still drop me a line on Linkedin if you need an accompaniment with your LinkedIn strategy.

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I hope this can help you in your creator journey.

If you found that useful, follow me on Linkedin, I help 3700+ people daily leverage growth through content creation.

Till next week for a new Branding Byte!